This fall I was very fortunate to have the opportunity to travel to the UK, Ireland and France for a month. The main focus for this post will be sharing about our trip but I will also give a few tips about keeping up an asana practice while traveling. Both my husband (Ben) and I found practicing was not only beneficial but necessary!
I had originally planned to attend a 36 year reunion with some friends from my year traveling in Up With People at the end of October but through a fellow yoga teach (Mary Beth Harding) I found out about a yoga and hiking retreat in Scotland. I have always wanted to go to Scotland so I jumped on the opportunity.
The retreat was at Rachel’s Farm just outside of Stirling with Terry Coburn from Maine. This first week was full of yin classes and qigong. It was great to be a student of yin and Terry made it easy to get out of my head and into my body. The qigong practice was brand new to me but it was a great fit for our morning practice before we headed out hiking and exploring Stirling Castle and Edinburgh.
These photos are from my week in Scotland. We took a hike up and down Ben A’an, a 1490 ft hill in the Trossachs. We toured Stirling Castle and saw the National Wallace Monument and spent a day in Edinburgh. There are pictures of the Royal Way, a painting from the National Gallery and Edinburgh Castle. Finally there are pictures from the area near Rachel’s Farm, the host of the yoga retreat.
After the retreat I took a bus and ferry to Belfast where I met a friend from my Up With People days. I spent a lovely weekend with her and her family. The first day she took me sightseeing along the North Coast. Below are pictures from the Giant’s Causeway, Dunluce Castle, Torr Head and more. The second day I joined her at a local pet rescue where she volunteers. You can read about my day there and see some cute animal pictures on my Linkedin.
After a brilliant visit with Lynn and her family I took a train Monday morning to Dublin where I met up with Ben who had just arrived from Oklahoma. We visited the General Post Office and Museum, ate some great Irish soda bread and wandered around the Temple Bar area. We decided we both needed a little yoga that evening so we used Mindbody to find a local yoga spot called yogahub in the Phibsboro area. Always check the neighborhoods before heading off to a new yoga studio. We ended up witnessing a terrible fight on Dorset St. on the way home. It was an exciting but scary start to our stay in Dublin!
On our second day we took the train to Drogheda to visit Newgrange in the Boyne Valley. I read about this 5000 year old passage tomb in the book Ireland by Frank Delaney. This book tells the “story of how it was built” during the Neolithic Period, around 3100 BC, making it older than Stonehenge and the Egyptian pyramids. I wasn’t able to make it all the way inside but Ben did and witnessed the re-creation of the Winter Solstice sunrise illumination that lights the passage and chamber.
Our last night in Dublin was better than our first. We went on a literary pub crawl. We started at the Duke Pub where our escorts for the evening performed among other things a scence from Waiting for Godot. We then visit 3 other old pubs and Trinity College ending at the Davy Byrnes. An old haunt of James Joyce. During our stops the tour guides told stories, read poetry, and acted our scences from Oscar Wilde, James Joyce, George Bernard Shaw and more.
After Dublin we headed to the West Coast. We spent a rainy afternoon in Galway before heading to Doolin and the Cliffs of Moher. We did lots of hiking and enjoyed some magical views in this part of Ireland. After all that walking we both took some time to do some yoga with the help of Adrienne in our Airbnb before heading out to the local pubs at night to hear some great local musicians.
Our last day in Doolin was spent on Inisheer, the smallest of the Aran Islands. We took a ferry and walked around the roughly 3 km by 3 km island visiting O’Brien’s Castle, Teampall Caomhán, the sunken church, met a very friendly horse and had a lovely cup of tea with a scone.
From Shannon, Ireland we flew to Liverpool. We stayed at the Dockside Hotel which was a great location and within walking distance of the Royal Albert Dock and The Beatles Story Museum. There’s a view from our hotel room in the pictures below from the spacious living area where I was able to do my own yoga practice each morning. The first day we did the Beatles Tour and the next day we went back to walk in the footsteps of John Lennon. Find Ben on Facebook to see more pictures and learn about his best moment. We also visited the church where John and Paul first met, went into The Grapes, the actual pub where the Beatles hung out across from the old Cavern and enjoyed listening to some Beatles music in the new Cavern. We loved Liverpool as a city in general and would love to go back some day!
From Liverpool we took the train to Bath. I had finished my book about Ireland so I started reading a Jane Austen novel based in Bath called Northanger Abbey. We had a nice long stay at and Airbnb called The Pantry. Our accomodations were fantastic and directly across from Henrietta Park. We were in what would’ve been the kitchen of a beautiful 1860’s townhouse. It was more than spacious enough to do our own daily yoga practice however we found a beautiful studio called YogaKave which was a short walk across the Pultney Bridge.
The first day we arrived our host SallyAnn noticed Ben’s guitar and asked if we’d like to join her for a night of Skiffle Music at the local pub (also called The Grapes). Later that evening we found ourself in a roomful of Brits singing traditional American songs.
During our stay we visited the Roman Baths took in the Bath Abbey and had a walking tour of the city. We visited Sally Lunn’s known not only for it’s famous teacake, but also because it’s considered the oldest building in Bath. We took in the beautiful architecture of the Circus and Royal Crescent built by father then son both named John Wood. Our tour guide suggested a couple of her husband’s favorite pubs which we enjoyed. Our local pub a short walk across the park was called Pultney Arms where the host was a beautiful black lab.
On our last day I wanted to see more of the outskirts of the city and found myself walking along the canal beside narrowboats and witnessing the manually operated locks in action.
As we moved into our final week of travels we headed to London. Our hotel was north of the city in Highbury. Ben and I took some time to relieve our hips and backs from our train ride and long walk to the hotel. Ben found enough space to do his favorite Yoga with Adrienne and I did a standing yoga sequence in the small space I had between the bed and the window. Eventually we made our way down to Westminster to take in the Abbey, Big Ben, The Parliament Builidings and the London Eye. We then headed over to Leicester Square.
Day two we visited the British Museum where we saw among other artifacts, the Rosetta Stone and that evening we laughed through the play Oh Mary!
As you can see from our pictures, the weather for much of our travels was beautiful. Not the rain and grey I was prepared for, however London made up for it! Our last day was very grey, rainy and cold so we headed for The Globe Theatre. Although it’s not the original (it burned down) it is as close to an exact replica as they could possibly build while keeping with modern day codes. After a wonderful tour we stayed for the matinee of As You Like It. We were not disappointed and were glad we chose to act like Royals in the covered seats and didn’t have to stand in the pouring rain!
Before leaving we took in the London Tower and Tower Bridge since the sun decided to come out for a few moments. We then found the best rated fish and chips in the area called…Applebee’s. This was a genuine fishmonger who donated a proceeds of their meals to help fisherman who have been injured.
After a delayed trip on the Eurostar, Ben and I spent Thursday afternoon and evening walking around Paris.
After a delicious meal at an outdoor cafe, we headed towards the Seine. First we walked by the Louvre then found our way to the Notre Dame Cathedral. We didn’t have a reservation or tickets but Ben asked and since there was just two of us they let us in. It was during evening mass so everyone was very quiet which added to the beauty and solemnity of this Gothic marvel.
Once back at the hotel we discovered there was a storm expected to come through Paris and that our train the following day would be delayed. Fortunately it wasn’t, so we set out early Friday morning and met up with a few of my fellow Uppies at the train station.
Our final weekend was spent in Reims, France. We started off with a toast since we were in the unofficial capital of the Champagne region. It was wonderful and a little overwhelming to reconnect with these friends who I hadn’t seen for 36 years.
In the planning stages someone asked about a yoga class. I offered to lead one so a studio was arranged and about 8 of us headed there. Unfortunately I used Apple Maps instead of the given address and Ben and I went to the wrong location. We had to run for about 15 minutes in the opposite direction to make it there on time!
The rest of the trip is somewhat of a blur but we had a great time reconnecting, eating incredible French cuisine, meeting spouses, touring the Champagne region and enjoying Reims.
Along with spending time with the people who were a part of one of the most important years of my life, we discoverd that Reims is where WWII in Europe officially ended. On our last day we visited Musée de la Reddition (Museum of the Surrender). The building is the original technical school where the unconditional surrender of all German forces was signed. The Map Room, previously a teacher’s lounge, remains exactly as it was on May 7, 1945—complete with the original wall maps tracking Allied troop movements and battle lines.
Thanks for reading and remember no matter where you are, there’s always time for yoga!
