Caragol UK Trip 🇬🇧
While Leah and I were in the UK, Leah’s family came over to visit us and do a whole bunch of traveling all over the UK!
Dublin, Ireland 🇮🇪
We started the trip off by exploring Ireland for several days. Our first stop was to meet Michelle, Ian, and Steve in Dublin. The greater Caragol family flew from Denver ➡️ Dublin, and Leah and I flew from London ➡️ Dublin.
We started off our travels in Dublin by walking for many miles up and down the canal. We got some very tasty food, checked out a museum, and then walked through a district with a bunch of vibrant pubs 🍺.
The famous Temple Bar in Dublin - Complete with live Irish music
Temple Bar at night from the outside
The next day, we checked out an old church and walked over to the Guinness factory. It was like a mini Disney land for stout lovers. We learned all about the history of Guinness and more about beer than we expected. We got to finish the tour with a pint of Guinness, which was delicious.
Malahide, Ireland 🇮🇪
After checking out Dublin, we hopped on a train and headed to the coastal town of Malahide. We stayed in a really nice hotel right on the water. The hotel was practically a maze of hallways and staircases. If there was a fire, we would have been 100% doomed.
Malahide had a super unique model train museum and we had a great time exploring it. I was personally very entertained with all the little yellow chicks that were hidden throughout the museum (it was close to Easter and I’m easily amused 🐥).
Our next day in Malahide, we visited the Malahide Castle on a tour, and the castle grounds. The castle was built in the 12th century and was a home to the Talbot family for over 800 years. The castle was very well preserved and had a lot of interesting history. There was also a butterfly garden on the grounds which was a nice surprise 🦋.
The Malahide Castle
Another view of the castle
After checking out the castle, we picked up our bags from the hotel, and headed to the airport to catch a train to Belfast. It was fairly chaotic to catch our bus… First, it was difficult to find the correct bus stop. Once we found the right bus, we discovered it was full but there was another bus on the complete opposite side of the station that was leaving in about 5 minutes. We ran to the other bus to discover it only took cash and was leaving in about “30 seconds”. Ian sprinted for an ATM, got cash, and we managed to snag a seat on the bus. Budapest vibes? I think so.
Belfast, Northern Ireland 🇬🇧
After getting off the bus in Belfast, we walked to meetup with Lizzie and her son Dominic. Steve met Lizzie in his 20s when backpacking around Australia and they’ve been great friends ever since. Lizzie and Dominic drove us to their home in the countryside, about 20 minutes outside of Belfast. We stayed in their (quite large) home which was seated on-top of a beautiful hill surrounded by green pastures. We stayed at the house with Lizzie, Alex (her husband), Dominic (Lizzie’s son), and Rebecca (Lizzie’s daughter who was in town).
Lizzie’s family had a bunch of activities planned for us to keep us busy (and boy were we busy). Here’s a quick rundown of what we did:
- Hiked through Hare’s Gap near Newcastle
- Had an excellent tour of the Titanic Museum with Lizzie as our unofficial tour guide. She had a lot of family that was either directly or indirectly involved with the Titanic.
- Another excellent tour by car with Lizzie of Belfast and the history behind the Troubles. We got to see the Peace Wall which felt like a modern day Berlin Wall in a way.
- Got a boat tour (with dolphin sightings!) by Alex. We stopped for lunch along the way and got some really tasty food.
Photos from Hare’s Gap:
Starting the hike of Hare’s Gap
Ascending the mountain towards the rain and winds
Grant doing a dance in the wind and getting blasted by rain
Grant by one of the stone walls on the hike
The Caragol / Lizzie crew surviving the winds and rain on the hike
Photos from the Boat Cruise by Alex:
Rebecca with an “uncountable” number of jackets on
Michelle after getting soaked by the rain
The wall of rain we went through on our boat cruise
Isle of Man 🇮🇲
On our last day in Belfast, Alex drove us to the ferry terminal so we could catch our boat to the Isle of Man.
It was a three hour ride, and a rough one too. I had to sit next to the window and focus on the horizon the entire ride to stave off my sea-sickness. The last 45 minutes of the boat ride were the roughest. The wave were so big, we were like a cork bobbing up and down in the ocean. Even though the ferry was quite large, a few of the waves sent equipment flying around the kitchen area near our seats. It kind of got fun at the end but I’m glad it didn’t last much longer or the Caragol crew would have been dragging me out of the bathroom when we got to port.
The Isle of Man was wonderful and really took us by surprise. We managed to checkout quite a bit during our quick stay:
- Explored the Castle Rushen
- Took photos at the Peel Castle and found a beach of pure sea shells
- Stumbled upon a stock car race that was a wild community event with plenty of car wrecks
- Went Gorge Walking on the Northern coast of the island
- Road on a steam train through the countryside
The views of the sea from the Peel Castle
Ian at the base of the Castle Rushen
Another view of the Castle Rushen’s exterior
The view of a bay next to the Peel Castle
A beach of pure sea shells next to the Peel Castle
Leah on-top of the cliffs by the Peel Castle
Ian on-top of the cliffs by the Peel Castle
Ian on-top of the cliffs by the Peel Castle (again)
The steam train we rode through the countryside
Grant next to the steam train
Liverpool, England 🇬🇧
After our last day in the Isle of Man, we went off to bed as we had a very early alarm set to leave the Isle of Man. We got up around 5am to head to the ferry terminal to catch our boat to Liverpool. The ferry was exceptionally busy and lively as there was a popular horse race in Liverpool that afternoon, so many people on the island were heading to Liverpool to join in on the festivities. The bar opened on the boat at 7:30am and it seemed like nearly everyone on board was in line to get a pint of beer. I felt very out of place asking for “two coffees” when the lads behind me were ordering “two pints of Corona”.
Liverpool by day felt like a modern “working city”. It had monumental buildings, and a lot of people walking around (the sun was out). We explored the city for a bit by visiting a few museums, an art gallery, and learning about a “famous toilet”.
However, Liverpool by night was a completely different story. The city was buzzing with people out on their “hen” and “stag” parties. We went to a comedy show that night and had a lot of good laughs. After exiting the comedy show onto the streets of Liverpool, we were immediately surrounded by people who were… rather intoxicated. We played a nice game of “count the vomit” as we strolled around the town.
We found the “famous toilet”, met a “pissed” lad while observing it who had excellent US geography knowledge, and become Steve’s new best friend. We enjoyed a pint at the famous toilet pub as well while we were there:
Having a pint at the famous toilet pub (Philharmonic Dining Room)
Our next day in Liverpool, Ian had found a really cool tunnel tour that we all went on. It was called the Williamson Tunnels and it was excavated by a team of volunteers a few years back and uncovered a mysterious tunnel system underneath Liverpool. Our guide was one of the original volunteers for the project and she was incredible insightful and happy to show us around. The tunnels were massive and we learned that an immense amount of work went into excavating them and there is still a lot more passage ways to be discovered.
Wales 🏴
After our tunnel tour, we hopped in the rental car that we just picked up, and made our way to Llangollen, Wales. When we got to Llangollen, we stopped for some food and then hopped on an old steam train that left right from the center of the town and went up into the countryside. It was an incredibly scenic ride with tunnels, fields of sheep, green pastures, and river crossings. The train was a very wholesome experience and we all enjoyed it.
The steam train we rode through the countryside
Michelle and Ian by the steam train locomotive
Another view of the steam train
After the steam train ride, we enjoyed a pint of beer at the old Mill pub next to the river
Leah had to hang back at the hostel during our afternoon adventures as she was grinding through a 4,000 page paper for her Masters degree. She is currently sitting next to me still going on the paper as I write this. She is a machine. 👩🎓
The next day we rode bikes all around Llangollen and explored the aqueducts and canals.
I found a nice place for a “whippy” as well while the rest of the gang was shopping
Whippy is soft-serve ice cream 🍦
The next day was a really exciting one. We moved further down the country side in Wales towards a region known as “Snowdon”. The Caragols said we would be doing zip lining and something about a “cave”. I guess I didn’t pay too much attention to what this activity would entail but it was extremely cool!
The cave and zipline were actually a combo activity. We would be on a zipline and Via Ferrata course that was built into an old slate mine. It was a blast!
After our cave adventure we checked out the old slate mine museum which is now a UNESCO world heritage site.
To wrap up our day we had some delicious pizza in a small town which was actually some of the best food we had in the UK so far (most food was sadly rather “English”).
G + L outside near the pizza place
Another highlight on our trip in Wales was going to visit an island called Skomer which had all sorts of different birds and wildlife. We took a boat out to the island and spent the day exploring. We saw puffins, seals, and a lot of other birds. It was a really cool experience.
London 🇬🇧
After our journey through Wales, we hopped on the train to go back to London. On our way back, we made a part day detour in Bath.
Leah and Ian checked out the Roman bath house (I had already seen it in 2015) so Michelle, Steve, and I went to checkout the Bath Abby right next door.
Inside of the Bath Abby
After the Abby, we all went to a really unique book store that Leah, Ian, and Michelle enjoyed.
On our way out of Bath we made a final stop at the Crescent which is an old georgian style building that is now a hotel.
After we got back to London, the Caragol’s got a hotel in central London and Leah/Grant headed back to Leah’s apartment in Clapham. Steve and Ian did a lot of museum touring the next few days while Leah and Michelle went wedding dress shopping 😱.
One night in London, I had put together a plan for a “night out” with Leah’s family and their friend Dominic from earlier in our trip (Ireland). It consisted of going to a comedy show, then mini golf at a place called “Junkyard”.
That was where our planned evening ended but Ian and Dominic were ready for a night out now so we went out to listen to some classic “UK Drum and Bass” at a nightclub called XOYO.
A DJ at XOYO
On our last day of the family trip, Leah gave her family a tour of her campus (King College London) and then we met up with Monica’s friends from Saudi Arabia for dinner. We had about 10x more food than we could eat but it was delicious.
Leah and her family at King’s College London
The “last supper” with the Caragol’s
The whole trip from start to finish was an absolute blast! Leah and I were so happy to have her family come visit us and we were both sad to see them go. It was a nice escape from the city of London (that we had spent a lot of time in) and a good break for Leah from her quite rigorous Masters program.