Where Next? Travel with Kristen and Carol
Where Next? Travel with Kristen and Carol
United Kingdom - Travel with James
We are so excited for our interview from our fellow podcaster and friend, James, of @wingingittravelpodcast.
We explore his homeland of the UK and we discuss highlights of Norwich, Brighton, the Cotswolds and the Isles of Scilly. Interview completed May 2022.
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Hosts
Carol Springer: https://www.instagram.com/carol.work.life
Kristen: https://www.instagram.com/team_wake/
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Hi, welcome to our podcast when Next Travel with Kristen and Carol. I am Kristen and I am Carol, and we're two long-term friends with a passion for travel and adventure. Each episode, we interview people around the globe to help us decide where to go next. In today's episode, we are visiting with James, the host of Wingin' it travel podcast, who is a global citizen originally from the UK and shares some of his favorite sites and things to do in Norwich, brighton, cambridge and other great destinations in the UK. We really appreciate you joining us today and we would love if you could support us by simply following, rating or reviewing our podcast in your favorite podcast app. Enjoy, hey, it's James. How you doing, okay, so what we want to do today is talk about your experience in the UK and where you were exactly. I think you said it wasn't London proper, but maybe some of your time was in London. Tons of curious questions.
Speaker 1:So the reason we're doing our podcast is, as we approach our empty nester years, I want to start traveling again. Our kids kind of held us back a little bit from that, and I know some people do that and that's awesome. We just didn't do it so much. So I want to be a slow traveler. Personally, I want to go like spend a month in Portugal, you know, two months in Costa Rica and just hop around the world at the different times of year. That's best you know. Like Guatemala we visited and or we visited a person there, and it's like always spring. It's like California.
Speaker 2:Sounds like perfect weather.
Speaker 1:Right and the Madeira, portugal, I really want to learn about and you know I want to go to like maybe check out South Korea, but don't want to do that in the winter, right? So there's, you know, I want to go to like maybe check out south korea, but don't want to do that in the winter, right, so there's you know we just want to like learn about all this, and do I really? Want to go there, oh wow that's awesome in the summer, okay where are you based?
Speaker 1:california yeah yeah, near san francisco right, got it, yep yeah, and I'm in Colorado.
Speaker 2:I've had a few people from Colorado on my podcast.
Speaker 1:Oh nice, yes, Not too far from Denver, like 30 minutes from Denver, nice, in a college town called Boulder, right next to the mountains.
Speaker 2:Boulder yeah, yeah, yeah, I think I've had a few people, someone from Colorado, I don't get this wrong, is it Fort? Is there a town called Fort something, fort Collins, yeah someone from there.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's all just amazing.
Speaker 2:Another guy lives in the Rockies, I think middle of nowhere. Yeah, he's interesting. Yeah, I had a few people from Colorado.
Speaker 1:That's a cool place right, yeah, so you can help us on your podcast to talk about these places yeah, yeah, absolutely yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:I went to California this year, so oh nice, we're in California.
Speaker 1:I've done the classic LA okay, I'm from there, so I grew up in Rondo Beach, california area oh, yeah, I moved up to Northern California in 95 and that's where Carol and I met.
Speaker 1:So we were uh, we had lived in the same apartment complex. It was very like Melrose place. There was a whole bunch of us, there was five, five of us, and we used to rotate dinners every Wednesday and so we only had to cook once every five weeks. We got to hang out and we all got along really well. It was super fun. And then Carol and I also, unbeknownst worked I don't, I'm trying to remember, I don't think we knew. We worked at Robert Haffner, count Temps at the time or whatever, at the same company. Then we ended up she's in the creek office, I'm in the oakland office and, yeah, it was kind of fun but how this whole started.
Speaker 1:We basically we moved on, had kids in our lives. I sent her a christmas card about a year and a half ago and, um, so we started talking. I do another podcast called the future of women at work, and she was like I want to do a travel podcast.
Speaker 1:Yes, I want to travel, and so that was quite the easy yes for me, and so we launched this and it's been super fun and I have a ton of questions. I'm so curious how you started. I did not do my research and so I'm coming at fresh eyes.
Speaker 2:probably that's not a bad thing sometimes, you know yeah.
Speaker 1:But what prompted you? So I definitely hear the accent. So the UK, which is awesome, yeah. And then when did you move to? Did you move from there to Vancouver?
Speaker 2:no, I was living. We lived in New Zealand at that point that's another that's where I want to go yeah, yeah, we didn't really want to leave, but we had to because the visa was up.
Speaker 1:So how long did you stay for?
Speaker 2:A year. Lived there for a year.
Speaker 1:OK, awesome. And then after New Zealand, where'd you go?
Speaker 2:Well, because of our age, I don't know for Americans if it's different, but for UK, you get quite a lot of working visas, so you can get working visas in Australiaralia, new zealand, canada, japan, korea, I think even singapore. Anyway, because of our age, we had to go to canada. That's the only one left, and so we applied in new zealand, got it, and it's two years here, so we've been here two years from when we arrived in 2019 january here about a year. Then covid happened, right right. So we applied for PR during COVID, got it.
Speaker 1:Fantastic. So I went to Costa Rica for a month and when I was doing research and talking to folks, there was this gal I met in Berkeley. She was working at the North.
Speaker 2:Face outlet.
Speaker 1:She was working there part time and then also flying to New York as a hairdresser, but she was doing that to make money for, I think, at least a year, and she had an airline ticket that you could go around the world one way and then you just go.
Speaker 2:that sounds awesome, done that back in the day. Uh long time, eight years ago now, it was the round world ticket yeah, yeah, you can only like go one way.
Speaker 1:Right, it's something like you can't go backwards, or I don't know. She was telling me.
Speaker 2:There's like three or four major flights booked in. You can make them flexible if you want to change your plans. But yeah, it's kind of set in stone for like people do it for a year.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Have something booked in. Yeah, it's quite cool. Since the pandemic, I'm not even sure if it's possible anymore, like if you can do that that easily. So when did winging it, uh, travel podcast start? During lockdown, when I was a bit depressed about not traveling? Yeah, just like us, yeah, yeah, yeah, was it February 2020? Yeah, no, 21 last year? Okay, you're in.
Speaker 1:Yeah, pretty much exactly like us, so we are all celebrating exactly what's winging. It mean what? How'd you come up with the name?
Speaker 2:uh, my mum came up with my name yeah because she is obviously used to me just not being home now and just kind of going around different places, right. So she's like, yeah, you're just kind of winging it really. Whereas my, my sister is like very, is a doctor, basically, so very structured, like almost 10 years of like study for her right until she becomes a doctor, whereas in that sort of same period I was just like going around to Australia, living there, then living in New Zealand and then living in Canada and traveling like some of the world. So, yeah, she's like, oh, you're just kind of winging it.
Speaker 1:I was like, yeah, well, you actually do have focus, just as intense as maybe your sister's doing her doctor.
Speaker 2:You're intensely traveling, yeah exactly, yeah, yeah, very different, but yeah, absolutely, it's the same sort of thing in terms of like a focus, if you like. Yeah, yeah, you're right, we can't travel, so let's talk about it. And I met so many people when my travel was like like throughout the years, I thought, ah, let's get on. And, yeah, I had some people I've met in different countries. Just come on and talk about their, their journey and how we met and what I've been doing since that's great.
Speaker 1:It sounds very similar to what we did. So do you interview the people that of where, where you go, or yeah, it's a good question.
Speaker 2:It's changed. So early days, a lot of people that I knew because, like I said, said I ran the world so I got some people on that. I met in different countries that they came on and then, especially this year from December, people started reaching out to me. So I've interviewed much more diverse sort of people where I don't know them Right so I just maybe reached out to them or they reached out to me some travel journalists and travel authors and people on these crazy trips that's awesome.
Speaker 1:I uh, yeah, I love, I think the exact same way as you. It's so interesting to just talk to just the people you know that you meet, that have gone places, done things, and then they're through their eyes and their experiences and you get to. It's so much more rich with, um, you know, you get the standard of, like, you know going to certain places, you know icon, iconic places but uh, the underground and other things and really getting to know the people and what their days are like, what they like to do, what their culture is like. I just I really carol and I both really enjoy that aspect yeah, it's the best thing, right?
Speaker 2:because people ask me like, oh, why didn't you get like someone semi-famous on who's traveled? I'm like, well, I can, I can try. Yeah, I don't actually. I don't actually think it really changes the dynamic of who listens. I don't think they care who it is.
Speaker 1:Yeah, they can take up people magazine and read about them or something, yeah, yeah, exactly, yeah, yeah, yeah and there's no there's no real rules of mine.
Speaker 2:Like, as long as you've got a story to tell, you're kind of, basically on, I've never rejected anyone, never like, said no. The only problem with that is, though, if you're not as strict with that I don't know if you guys find this that right now I've just got a heap, just like recorded ready to go, but because I only want a week, I mean you can get so much right before you're getting out of date, because it's like two months ago I recorded. So if you're more strict with, maybe, your criteria, it's probably a bit easier. But because I'm so broad of it yeah, it's I need to be a bit more strict and maybe even say no nowadays, because I do get reached out to a bit, quite a bit so yeah, well, thank you, we're honored.
Speaker 1:Thank you, okay.
Speaker 2:Yeah, thanks for the time, for sure yeah, yeah, no worries, and I'm very reciprocal. So you guys obviously come to my podcast, so that's obviously a thing I do hold to like high esteem. I don't like just go on and then not offer the same thing back, right. So the fact you travel podcasters makes it interesting because we can talk about the same stuff, like maybe some of the struggles, some of the I don't know some of the things you've learned, or what you do better or what's different or whatever yeah, one struggle.
Speaker 1:Right there is my dog barking. He's got some chihuahua in him so I'm like, oh shoot, I gotta shut the door so I may mute, but he's, but yeah, well it's. It's, uh, definitely a pleasure to have you. I'm I feel like what you're talking about, what you do, is exactly like what we do. It's just it's an outlet for us to travel when we can't travel our kids yeah, I've got a freshman and a senior in high school right now, so she's only in school Almost that. Exactly.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And then off to Well. She's going to do junior college for the two years, so she's going to still be home for a couple of years.
Speaker 1:but uh but it's just a great time to be able to travel. Actually, for her senior trip I'm taking her to South Korea. She wanted to go to Korea, she loves BTS and I told her a couple of years ago for your senior trip I'll take you, and she's so excited. So putting that together, yeah, I'm curious also what you've done in growing your podcast. I know we've, I don't know we do them twice a month so it's not every week, and then we just between the two of us, we find folks, you know, between the two and it's funny because I had a pretty busy, stressful time and so Carol booked them all for me and then I've kind of taken over and booked. So you know we kind of tag team as well, Absolutely.
Speaker 1:And then Carol's kind of the technical person I am not. I can find people and schedule things, but the. It and the whole design. Everything's Carol, which is. I love it. I'm so grateful for that. So, um, I know it's a lot if you're doing it by yourself. Um, just you's talk about the uk.
Speaker 1:I've been to london a couple times yeah never really outside of london and I definitely recommend, like the bus trip to get yourself acclimated, because you're always underground in the tube, so it's called the tube, but you're not from london originally, right, is there? Whereabouts were you?
Speaker 2:I'm from Norwich.
Speaker 1:Norwich oh, way, up there. Okay, so that's, east east. Okay, I'm looking at it out there, so near the not too far from the ocean yeah, about about 20 minutes drive yeah, okay, got it maybe 25 yeah and was that a awesome place to grow up, an awesome place to visit. You know what's the. What do you like about Norwich?
Speaker 2:it's got a small town feel. So let's just say not many people leave. That's good and bad. So the good thing is the community spirit. I guess, and I guess you know quite a lot of people in one place. The bad, the bad side to that is it's not very diverse. It's not very what I would call progressive.
Speaker 2:I probably wouldn't live there out of choice, but I think you probably would want to. Probably bring kids up there, for example would be a nice place to start because it's quite safe, the crime rate is really low, the coast is down the road and you're not too far from London. It's about an hour and 45 minutes on a train and maybe like an hour from Cambridge, which is like Norwich, but it's a bit smaller. So, yeah, so it's this bit out of the way as well. It's not compared to Americans, because you live in a huge country, but back home it would be perceived as like in the middle of the sticks, like nowhere, but actually in reality it's only like an hour from Cambridge and then it's another 40 minutes to London. Right, it's not that far, but for UK standards it is. So there's not many like big cities around.
Speaker 1:It's like little towns and Norwich is like the main hub. Okay, what's the highlights in Cambridge? I've heard of it. Is that where Oxford University is, or what's the Cambridge University in Cambridge?
Speaker 2:they're linked to Oxford University. This is called oxbridge. That's the big university. Everyone knows. It's quite a famous and historic town. It's got like little canals for it and you can do punting and stuff like that what's punting uh? You know in venice, when you go on these gondolas oh, yeah, like that yeah a row yeah, you do it yourself. Yeah, you can throw, yeah interesting.
Speaker 1:I had no idea. And then birmingham looks pretty big too. What's what's what's important about birmingham? What, what's the draw?
Speaker 2:um second city in uk. Okay, does it see anything? I wouldn't say it's a place you should go and visit, that much okay um, I really wouldn't recommend it in terms of like, yeah, it's a big city, but I couldn't tell you anything that's okay, sorry people from Birmingham, but um yeah yeah, and then Brighton.
Speaker 2:I hear about Brighton all the time is that Brighton's brilliant. It's worth a visit. Yep, so very diverse, very. It's got its own like little unique culture down there and it's got it's by the beach, so it's got that sort of like beach lifestyle, if you like, and it's got its own like little unique culture down there and it's got it's by the beach, so it's got that sort of like beach lifestyle, if you like, and it's very popular with everyone. It's not like you'll just find an eclectic mix there in Brighton. There's a huge, um sort of like party scene there as well, and there's also good sport and good music. That is everything there.
Speaker 1:It's pretty good okay, gotcha, and then, um, I feel like the who or something that I don't know. One of their big albums was a oh my gosh. Uh, not the pinball wizard, but the other one. They did something and we're right by the ocean, and that was brighton or not. It was a huge video it was like a movie. I don't know, are you a big who fan?
Speaker 2:not huge. No, I no more hendrix, jimmy hendrix, if I'm honest oh okay, yeah, is he from the uk? Jimmy hendrix, now seattle, yeah okay, yeah, oh but he lived in london, though that's. I think he called london, but it's home actually. But yeah, he's from the us and, uh, in seattle all right, but yeah, if you want, like for uk, a few things, maybe that's worth visiting. That's quite unique and it's not london. I would go to the cotswolds and that's near oxford and I heard about.
Speaker 1:That was one of your podcasts about, or somebody's podcast.
Speaker 2:That is a big hike where you can hike different amounts each day, or something yeah, it's like, um, it's a real like small area of small towns, no big cities, and it's like got like rolling hills and it's a real small area of small towns, no big cities, and it's got rolling hills and it's the old English cottages and it's a pretty idyllic area to live, quite expensive. I guess a lot of people with a lot of money live there. But yeah, the Cotswolds, which is near Oxford.
Speaker 1:Near Oxford. Okay, okay, I see it, so they're not too far from London.
Speaker 2:Yeah, probably about an hour and a half, maybe on a train from Paddington.
Speaker 1:I see Amersfoort, but I don't see Cotswold.
Speaker 2:Cotswold.
Speaker 1:so C-O-T-S-W-O-L-D-O, yes, okay what, what about um like, what do you typically like to do? Is there, like uh, nature and outdoors, or is like what?
Speaker 2:what do people typically do in uh and sports and things like yeah, I think if you're in uk, I would imagine a lot of people head to the southwest, to cornwall, right, right at the bottom southwest, and it's kind of like known for its um nature and there's a bit of a surfing community down there as well and it's just that classic family holiday or even, just, you know, professional couples go down there and yeah, that's, if I was to go back and have like a week, it'd be down there somewhere and where was that?
Speaker 2:again like cornwall cornwall okay, yeah, southwest, that's the very tip at the bottom, southwest okay, like by plymouth.
Speaker 1:I've seen plymouth and, yeah, keep going, yeah yeah, that's in devon.
Speaker 2:If you keep going uh further south like west, um sort of like truro t-r-u-r-o, yeah, that's that county there.
Speaker 1:Okay, that's like a whole peninsula the myth. And then, oh, okay, very nice, st Ives yeah, yeah, dream, very nice area and Torquay Torquay yeah, that sounds familiar, like I've seen.
Speaker 2:Have you seen Fawlty Towers, the comedy oh yeah, I love it based there.
Speaker 1:Yeah, torquay okay got it, and do trains go all the way down there, or do you need to take a car? Okay, trains yeah trains are really awesome. Is that what I'm looking at? A map and there's just yellow lines throughout. It looks like veins throughout all of the uk train lines and things like that yeah, I must admit.
Speaker 2:so, if you're in the uk, right, you're probably moaning about the trains, right, but actually when you go to other countries, like canada and especially us, you kind of realize, wow, they're actually amazing, like different places they go to. And, yeah, you have no problems getting a train down there and you got, you got your main hub. So from london you probably want to get to Paddington, I'd imagine is your main station. That'll go west and southwest and then it probably goes to Bristol and you probably have to change in Bristol and go down again. But yeah, you can get trains to anywhere these like little towns down here, absolutely.
Speaker 1:Are they pretty inexpensive?
Speaker 2:No, they're one of the most expensive in Europe, so you have to pay a bit of money for it, unfortunately. Euro Pass does that include all the trains or it's totally I'm sure it's separate? Is that interrail interrailing?
Speaker 1:pass. Probably. That's europe, only it's not uk.
Speaker 2:I don't think okay, yeah, you can probably get to london from paris.
Speaker 1:Yeah, well, I remember so when I was in london we booked a fast train under the water to paris and we booked it way ahead of time, so it was only like 40 each way or something, and they said it's like an airline, so if you wait, didn't want to buy it it could be as much as 200 each way. Is that most the trains work like that? Yeah, I'd say getting earlier if you know you're going to the UK early plan.
Speaker 2:Yeah, okay, and kind of accept that they probably will be late and maybe sometimes cancelled. I think the Southwest, where we're talking now, is probably one of the worst areas in the country for trains in terms of being late, cancelled or busy. Yeah, it's a problem.
Speaker 1:So it's not Switzerland, right. No, it's not Switzerland we interviewed Switzerland, she said Switzerland, right? No, it's not Switzerland, no way. We interviewed Switzerland. She said you can tell she lived in a town right near the border of Switzerland, in France. She's like you know, when you're in France in the trains, because sometimes they'd be a minute late, not bad, but when you're in Switzerland, always, always, exactly on time. She said it was so amazing not like Switzerland or Japan.
Speaker 1:Don't accept that funny, okay, okay, yeah. So I always just that, uh countryside, I have that here in the us I don't need, but I I don't know. Now I'm kind of curious about going all these places. But what is the weather like? Because I was thinking, oh, it's gonna be cold and dreary and super windy. Is some of these places in the southwest like pretty pleasant certain times?
Speaker 2:yes, yeah, and I just forgot. Let me tell you one good tip I would recommend, and that is bear with me a second. There's a group of islands, a little group of islands, just off um cornwall. They're called the isles of silly. I'll put it in the chat for you so you can actually. So these are the warmest places in the UK and you can get a ferry from Penzance, I think, or you get a flight which is like a 40-minute flight, and these places are just like a hidden gem, almost like the Caribbean, in terms of like beaches and island life. So Isles of Scilly is brilliant. If you want to go for that, like country, village style english countryside, but also on an island with a great beach and not too busy, that's the place to go and just it.
Speaker 1:It's so funny. So I have a big map of the uk. I did not see any of these islands and then I just typed it in and on my map it just zipped down and it and it literally looks like the caribbean. There's all these wait, there's all these islands. That's I know. I've not been, it's on my, it's covered and it literally looks like the Caribbean. There's all these wait, there's all these islands. That's.
Speaker 2:I know I've not been it's on my, it's on my top, top place to go in UK well, that is the place to go.
Speaker 1:Yeah like wow, what a trip these little and there's a lot there.
Speaker 2:There's like yeah, you're gonna have like afternoon tea and probably go to the beach and have a nice beer. By the beach. There's like country cottages. There's probably I wouldn't say it's like a backpacking place, it's more like probably hotels and families and stuff.
Speaker 1:So there's a lot there because I'm I'm there's a lot of outdoor stuff.
Speaker 1:Yeah. So there's like um, ryher, st helen, st martin's, uh, st agnes, uh, western rocks, bishop, like really low, I don't, and it looks like maybe, oh, there's a historic lighthouse. I don't know if there's a place to stay there, but there's definitely one, two, four, five, six, seven plus little islands and then there's a ton. It looks like a Sweden with archipelago. There's like all these little spots I know I'm Swedish, so family, and we were literally going through all these little islands and there was like a little, I don't know like a 20 foot island or you know something like that, or 10 foot island, and we just went and stood on it. It's just this little. This is awesome. So so, kristen, I'm having a hard time finding it. Is it in that cove on the bottom southwest corner? Yeah, it's right where he was saying um, what is it? Penzance?
Speaker 2:it's penzance and just go out to sea a little bit.
Speaker 1:You'll see like a little group of islands island silly silly yeah, s-c-i-l-l-y, it looks like the caribbean oh yeah, that's awesome sorry, I'm like, oh, that's going on my list. Is it warm, do you know? Or?
Speaker 2:yes, it's the warmest place in the uk.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it looks like it you need to get there.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that would be. I would probably advise booking in advance because I think it gets um because it's quite small, there's not like loads of options, so you can definitely camp there. Actually I know you can camp, so that's an option as well if you want to go a bit cheaper.
Speaker 1:But yeah, I think I get that the uk, because it's all drizzly and gray and everything yeah, we're, we're not letting anyone know about this and it's not on the maps. Only need to know basis and you don't need to know what kind of thing. Okay, I found it now where it says maypole, st agnes, st martin's. Is there surfing down there I?
Speaker 2:don't actually if they will, but then there might be, because it's archipelago. There might be just a bit calm the water's down there, but yeah, I'm not sure, possibly I'll look it up, let's see.
Speaker 1:There are no reliable surf breaks on any of the islands must be due to a misfortune of the geomorphology of the seabed around the islands. Whatever the swell conditions, no rideable waves are reported to occur on the islands.
Speaker 2:Okay, okay, very Caribbean, like them, yeah yeah, you can go to Cornwall, do do yourself in there by in Newquay, and then you can hop to Penzance, get a flight over to to city islands and then chill out. So that's a dream scenario really totally wait.
Speaker 1:What were the surf islands? What did you call them?
Speaker 2:the surfing place and it's kind of generic. There's probably better places, but I don't know. I'm not from there. But new key is the place to go for surfing n-e-w-k-e-y n-e-w-q-u-a-y okay, I saw that down there. Okay, yeah, okay, just for those, because I know Carol, that's one of Carol's questions, but I reckon my top tip would be if you do go to Cornwall, newcube would probably be the first place you might go to for surf, but I reckon there's probably better places in around the coast no thanks for sharing.
Speaker 1:This. Is that is what we like to hear little gems like that and also curious hate to leave this place. I don't want to actually, but in looking at um the UK, also some of the I mean they're, you know, liverpool, manchester, sheffield, I I'm definitely familiar with that there's this isle of man. Is that in?
Speaker 2:yeah, technically no, but it is. It's actually its own uh island, own country, yeah, but it kind of it's a crown dependency so they do rely on us. But it's got its own language called manx m-a-n-x, and it's a very small island but it's got its own little culture. It's like a mix between ireland and uk and what's that called kristin, it's isle of man is what it's called and it's uh, it's uh still north of liverpool, manchester kind of off.
Speaker 1:It's in between ireland and the uk it's almost like right in the middle of it of northern ireland and kind of the top part of the uk. But it just seemed and it's pretty big, I mean what we're showing on the map way more than yeah, I look silly.
Speaker 2:It's known for its um, its race. It's called tt, double t, and it's a big kind of like car race, but like not off road but they go around the little country roads in isle of man. It's like a big thing that that happens every year. That's, that's what they're known for, I think what are the cars?
Speaker 1:what kind of cars do they race?
Speaker 2:yeah, like um colin mccray. I don't know if you know that guy. I think he's dead now, but um that that's not good no, no, no, no, he died in a helicopter crash, Don't worry. Yeah, that's good. The cars we had, like only two people in the front, one's like got a map, that sort of car, oh okay, not like Formula One or not like a NASCAR. Nothing like that.
Speaker 1:It's more kind of old school okay it's so fast, but they have to go around. Yeah, oh, that sounds cool. I have to look that up, that that sounds pretty fun, and so wales is wales just on the same island as england, and then or is it also hop over to part of ireland.
Speaker 2:But no, no, no, wales in the same mainland. Yep, so no, no border. Uh, you just drive into Wales, it's part of the mainland um boarding England. Yeah, yeah, you go back and forth.
Speaker 1:Yeah, there's no border oh okay, all right, so it's just more like in the air.
Speaker 2:It's like a state, almost probably in the US, here like crossover yeah, I wouldn't say that to the Welsh people, but yeah, kind of just have a little different accent, right it's very different accent.
Speaker 2:Yeah, my girlfriend's Welsh, so um okay her dad is a hundred percent Welsh, which is quite rare, so they speak Welsh, which is a different language. But yeah, they. Um, if you want a bit of history of Wales, back in the day, when the Romans came over, they were the original English people, if you like, but because they don't want to get, you know, beaten up by the Romans, they all they were the original English people, if you like, but because they don't want to get, you know, beaten up by the Romans, they all fled west and went to Wales. That's what modern-day Wales is, so that the traditional people of the UK, if you like, well, england, okay yeah, no, that's good to know.
Speaker 1:No, that's interesting history. So what I? Okay, I'll just ask the obvious question, which I don't know why I didn't pop to my head. It's funny. So the whole royal families and all that, it seems like it is like so important to the country? Is that true?
Speaker 2:that depends.
Speaker 1:Did you not say that out loud?
Speaker 2:no, no, no. There it is split.
Speaker 1:There's gonna be royalists and it's gonna be people who don't care I'm noticing a lot on people magazine of like here in the states lately, for some reason at the grocery store that they're all talking about them all the time and it's kind of funny because it's not, it's, it doesn't matter to me, but I I it's almost like like movie stars or something yeah, they're like a modern day.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I guess like even more than movie star. Like is royalty, like they they are obsessed with, like people following them around, but like the megan and prince harry thing would definitely spit opinion. But I'm like for him. I'm like, yeah, fair play if you want to escape that family, because it's not a great lifestyle, they to go, do all these events and you're never really free. Yeah, he's escaped the US, which I don't blame him for, but some people are like, no, he's part of the family, like he should keep the tradition going. So I'm not like a royalist but I'm not like anti them either. I'm really in the middle, but you'll find people both ends, and it's kind of political as well, I'd imagine.
Speaker 1:Yeah, oh, interesting, kind of like, just let them live their life.
Speaker 2:Hey, good job, whatever you want to do, when I'm from in Norwich, so the Queen stays in Norfolk, the county of Norfolk which Norwich is in. Queen stays there all the time so you can go and kind of go and see her at Sandringham, which is like a maybe 45 minute drive from Norwich going West, and she's there most of the year. If she's not in Buckingham Palace she'll be there. Norfolk's one of her favorite counties. So yeah, she's almost like a local, almost the queen.
Speaker 1:But does she have like you would see her like at an event, or does she go out and about with just a couple of security guards, or yeah, she pops to the church on a Sunday.
Speaker 2:You can go and just watch her with her. It could be her dogs, it could be some of her family. I don't know if you can join her in the church. I'm not sure if that's possible, but you can definitely just go and watch her go to church or whatever or wherever she goes in the week. But yeah, it's a popular thing, especially around christmas because, um, they get together in norfolk at christmas and spend their time there yeah, and did she pass that the royalty down?
Speaker 1:is it to kate and I don't know? Oh william no, not yet. No, no, she's still going so next will be charles.
Speaker 2:Charles will be next okay, okay.
Speaker 1:Yeah, there was a netflix show, I think, called the queen. I started watching it. We didn't get too far, but yeah, it was. I don't know if that's realistic or not.
Speaker 2:It looks very awesome maybe watch the crown on netflix the crown.
Speaker 2:That was it, yeah that I don't know how true it is, but the events are true. So they talk about events from the 40s and 50s up to modern day. You know, some drama say dramatization yeah, we get it, but uh, the events that they mention are true and how she reacted and what she said and what she did. So it is worth a watch if you want like a basic overview of your family. But I guess they are important because they're kind of bringing a lot of money from tourism, right, right.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I remember when the Olympics were there they said like she jumped out of an airplane. I think my kids thought that was true, but no, At her age she'd be jumping out of an airplane. Yeah.
Speaker 2:Imagine that.
Speaker 1:That would be amazing. She seems like so amazing. She's just like I don't care how old I am, I'll do whatever I want. I'll say whatever I want, I definitely like that. That's cool. Exactly, they have touched on this. What are your favorite things or your recommendations for someone who wants to go to the UK? Possibly two ways One kind of a sightseeing tour, travel-y, kind of shopping thing, and another is more the outdoor out venture kind of group, and I'm sure you do research, but I definitely like the Isles.
Speaker 2:It's silly, yeah, I think if you're doing sightseeing bit shopping, bit sightseeing, maybe some historic buildings then I would go to somewhere like Liverpool or maybe even somewhere in Yorkshire, so maybe somewhere like Leeds, which is quite a big city.
Speaker 1:Oh, okay, oh, L-E-E-D-S.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Because Liverpool's got the culture right Beatles, you can go to the Cavern Club. It's got good shopping there. It's got two huge, huge sports teams there. It's got good shopping there. It's got two huge, huge sports teams there. And also kind of people from Liverpool are quite yeah, they've got their own sense of humour, they're quite funny. So, yeah, it's worth going to and just kind of speaking to them and it's got a great nightlife as well.
Speaker 2:If you want to party in Liverpool, I was going to go to university there but I didn't get in unfortunately. So that's a great city to go to university there, but I didn't get in unfortunately. So that's a great city to go to. And if you want like real historic, like London's obviously the one, but I don't know like even Norwich, where I'm from, it's got like a thousand year old cathedral, right from William the Conqueror commissioned it with the castle, so it's like 900 to 1000 years old. I mean it's still like completely there and the second tallest in the UK in terms of cathedral. So so it's like 900 to 1,000 years old. I mean, it's still like completely there and the second tallest in the UK in terms of cathedral. So that's the historic part if you want to go to, like Norwich, because it used to be second city back in the day until Industrial Revolution.
Speaker 2:But then there's so many places I don't even know where to start, but I guess somewhere like Leeds, like Yorkshire as a county, where Leeds is, where to start, but I guess I'm like leeds, like yorkshire, as a county where leeds is got their own culture and it's got that idyllic sort of country village as well, where it's like rolling hills and all made of stone and very small little towns in the middle of like these valleys and stuff. So that's quite a cool place to go and visit that's cool.
Speaker 1:That's leeds.
Speaker 2:You said right yeah, leeds or yorkshire, like yorkshire is quite a big county but leeds is the main hub. But for nature you can go to wales and go climb mount snowdon. It's like pretty easy climb um. But my biggest recommendation for nature go to scotland yeah go and do the 500, go and do the 500 road which goes all the way around the top 500 road yes, it's like the route 66 of sc.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's called the 500 route or Route 500. Huh, and it starts. I think it starts in the east, around Inverness, maybe a bit before. Yeah, and it goes all the way around the top, all the way down to, like, the left-hand side where the Highlands is and there's so much nature and scenery and walks there It'd be incredible. And lakes.
Speaker 1:It'd be incredible, and lakes be insane. Wow, it's pretty dreary there too, is it?
Speaker 2:yeah, I'll go in the summer to get the best weather because I'm excited of it yeah, what's for sure.
Speaker 1:What, uh, what are the time frames of the best weather at the certain times?
Speaker 2:I would go to scotland july, august, uh-huh june. June and September you might get away with it, but you might probably expect a bit of rain yeah, okay any other time of year.
Speaker 1:You're risking it yeah, sounds like uh, oregon and Washington over here too yeah, a bit like I imagine, a bit like that. Yeah yeah, yeah, uh, no, this is awesome. Thank you that sounds fantastic. Are we ready for a rapid fire question?
Speaker 2:Let's do it.
Speaker 1:Okay, so a question with the popular religion I I can take a guess, but everything is getting so multicultural these days, is? Is there still one dominant religion in the UK?
Speaker 2:I guess it's Christianity, I suppose.
Speaker 1:Yeah, right, okay, got it. And then favorite foods. Of course, london and UK are known for bad food, but London has amazing like so many immigrants coming in that there's a lot of great food, I hear. But is it? Do you have your favorite foods?
Speaker 2:I do. They'll be more traditional, though, so they are gonna be UK based bangers and mash that is up there. But I'm not going to say that because I'm not a fan, huge fan of mash. But I'm gonna say the classic uh roast dinner okay a bit like a thanksgiving dinner, I suppose. Okay, but you need to have yorkshire pudding. It's key, yorkshire puddings a key what is yorkshire pudding? It's the same mix of the pancake okay, what?
Speaker 1:okay, bread pudding.
Speaker 2:So you've got your pancake mix right. So there's eggs, flour, milk.
Speaker 1:That's pretty much it Okay.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but for Yorkshire pudding you'd get like a baking tin. It's got like a little hole in it, like a cake tin. Almost. Chuck some oil in there, put it in the oven for two minutes, so it's like piping hot. Pour your mix in, then it will rise after about 20 minutes and that's your Yorkshire pudding, and it goes with gravy.
Speaker 1:So it's like a bread, or does it? Is it fold like a bread or a pudding?
Speaker 2:Doesn't fall. It's quite sturdy.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's a good question. What's that?
Speaker 1:Bread like potatoes's a no, no, it's.
Speaker 2:It's like a. It's thick, like you'll pick up your hands like that and put it on your plate, okay, okay, and you use a knife and fork to cut it.
Speaker 1:You know, it's not like flimsy, it's not like pudding, like jello pudding, right like no, it's like bread pudding it's like a cake, yeah yeah, it's like it's real hard to explain, isn't it?
Speaker 1:do you always put gravy on it or something? Yes, 100, okay, nothing else they look kind of almost like biscuits, ish kind of yeah, I guess for americans, yeah, biscuits is probably similar ish, okay, yeah in the uk. I'm putting it what instead of their? Chip hidden, yeah they all have like holes, and that's where you said you put like oil in there so you can have like small ones or big ones.
Speaker 2:So okay, I'll tell you dinner. You can put in google toad in the hole, as in toad, as in the frog toad in the hole. You put that in there oh so that's like a big yorkshire pudding with sausages in it.
Speaker 1:Right, that's a different type of that's a different type of um version oh my gosh, I want to make this for dinner. I love sausage and this looks really fun.
Speaker 2:Yeah, get your dish, get your big dish, get your oil in it so it obviously heats up, and then, once that's heated up, put your sausages, just lay them in the bottom of the dish, then pour over all your Yorkshire pudding mix and then it'll rise and kind of mix in with the sausages.
Speaker 1:It's quite cool and this is people also search for bubble and squeak oh, I love bubble and squeak.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's gonna be yes next as well what is that?
Speaker 1:I haven't seen that yet it's, it's a mix of.
Speaker 2:so you have your roast in there, right, you're toting the hole. Let's say you've got some leftover from Thanksgiving as well. Maybe you've got some like cabbage and potato carrot. Mush it all together. Yeah, mush it all. A bit of egg white would probably help, but it's fine if not. Put it in the fridge so it sets. Then you fry it in a fine pan of oil with salt and pepper and you normally have with breakfast with like that's like a quiche, it's a quiche yeah, there's no egg in it.
Speaker 2:Though there's no egg, it's left over vegetables only, so it's like potato cabbage maybe a carrot?
Speaker 1:yeah, you don't put anything in it. What keeps it together?
Speaker 2:well, that's what I mean. You can either like risk it and just mash it all together and hope it sticks, or maybe add a bit of egg white, maybe or something, just to stick it together and hope it sticks, or maybe add a bit of egg white, maybe, or something to stick it together. That's entirely up to you. But I would just do it with no egg white and just mash it together, put in tin foil in the fridge, keep it set there for a bit and then fry it in the pan that's really good, it's so good james
Speaker 1:I do, yeah, yeah oh yeah, very good, yeah, and then the shepherd's pie. We make that at my house actually.
Speaker 2:Yeah, classic, one of those rotation mushy peas, yeah, mushy peas before no mushy peas no mushy peas no just okay, they're mara fat peas mushed up. They're really good oh, okay cool you have them with like fish and chips. That's a classic, oh.
Speaker 1:Oh, very nice. Okay, gotcha, this sounds like good hearty food.
Speaker 2:Yeah, mushy peas, yeah, it's a staple.
Speaker 1:Oh, it looks like split pea soup.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's getting towards the soup. Yeah, very, very mushed up.
Speaker 1:All right, good, and then what do you eat for breakfast there, talking about all this food?
Speaker 2:English breakfast 100%.
Speaker 1:What's that?
Speaker 2:What would it be? That would be depends if you're a vegetarian or meat eater, but let's say you're a meat eater. You'd be two sausages, a bit of black pudding. Do you like black pudding? Black Black pudding yeah, it's grim but I love it. It's pig's blood Fried.
Speaker 1:This is so fun and so different Black pudding.
Speaker 2:Yeah, black pudding, yeah, yeah, it tastes so good.
Speaker 1:It's a blood sausage. Oh, my dad used to have that as a kid all the time. Oh yeah, yeah, that was it.
Speaker 2:We'd have that quite a bit at my house actually. Yeah, have that with sausages, baked beans, toast, eggs, mushrooms, fried bread if you want to go a bit more.
Speaker 1:Even more unhealthy and sweet nice, okay, and what's popular music? Well, uk. We don't talk about music. Every great rock and roll person came out of the uk, so are they still growing good musicians out there?
Speaker 2:that you know um no, I'm not really up to date with the modern music. I'm still stuck in the old days, unfortunately yeah, no, that's good.
Speaker 1:You just watched the big documentary.
Speaker 2:That was really fun yeah, I've watched a few of those recently.
Speaker 1:Yeah um, we talked about where we can surf down in those aisles which no one ever heard of, and you're not part of the european union anymore. So using the pound for money, that's the money still. Yeah, or has it always been?
Speaker 2:always been.
Speaker 1:Yeah, okay, yeah and you can't surf in those aisles. As we said, it's not the surfing, yeah oh, right, no, yeah we have the something, the new Quay, new Key.
Speaker 2:Yeah, New Key New.
Speaker 1:Key N-E-W-Q-U-A-E. Yeah, new Key. Okay, all right. That wraps up our UK visit with James. We will be back soon to learn about his stay in Vancouver, british Columbia, in Canada, and where his travels will take him next. If you enjoy our podcast, be sure to subscribe to our show, rate us in your podcast app and follow us on Instagram at where next podcast. If you are interested in being a guest on our show or would like to nominate someone, please contact us on our website at wwwwhere next podcastcom. Thanks for listening.
