England

It’s (Emily and I) Coming Home

October 1st, 2021 – October 10th, 2021

Table of Contents

According to the list of 197 countries, the United Kingdom is listed as 1 country, which is how we count them. However, for story purposes, we decided to list each country in the UK as it’s on separate entry.

This was part of our 2021 European Trip, which we started in France. Catch up here before you read on.

I’m Coming Home

I was born in Bradford, England and lived there for the first 12 years of my life. Growing up, almost every other year we’d come back and visit family.

This time was extra special though. Emily and I had recently gotten engaged and it would be her first time meeting my extended family.

The London Underground

Our flight from Brussels was a quick, one hour trip.

We landed at London Heathrow, collected our bags, and headed for the Heathrow Express.

A month earlier we had chatted with an older English couple at a brewery by our home in Charleston. We told them of our plan to get an Uber from Heathrow to our hotel. They looked mortified. “You can’t do that! Do you know how far away that is, it will cost you an arm and a leg.” This is where we learned of the Heathrow Express, a train inside Heathrow Airport that takes you straight to downtown London. Thanks George and Linda!

We got off at Paddington Station, hauled our bags over bridge, waited 5 minutes, and hopped on a train to our hotel. London Underground Efficiency.

Emily was now bound by my rules. She had to experience everything I loved about England, whether she liked it or not. Our first stop was Nandos.

And then, we went into tourist mode.

How Many Tourist Spots can we Hit in 10 hours?

Let’s count.

If you answered 10 at the beginning of this section, congratulations, you win.

Family Time

We hopped on our train at London King’s Cross and headed to Leeds Station. Here we’d meet up my Dad, Mum, and younger brother who we’d be with for the next week.

Luckily for us, our train was filled with a bunch of Leeds United fans who were traveling up to Leeds to watch them play against Norwich. It was packed with fans sitting and standing. I made sure not to reveal my Man Utd phone screen to prevent us from being stabbed.

That night Emily met my Grandmother, Uncles and Aunt. It was my Grandma’s 80th birthday and she had no idea we were coming. It was a special time.

Ilkley Moor

Although spending time with family was top of the list of importance, Emily still had to experience Yorkshire, and there was no first place better than Ilkley Moor.

It’s hard to describe the beauty of Yorkshire countryside without experiencing it, because there are no words that do it justice. Endless green rolling hills. Countless tiny villages filled with old, cobbled houses and farms. Small, one laned roads twisting and turning through fields, edged with cobbled walls. Cows, sheep, and horses everywhere you look. It is amazing.

I would come to Ilkey Moor all the time as a kid. Up in the moors, we would climb up to the famous Cow and Calf rocks. Two large bolders, one larger than the other that resemble a cow and it’s calf that look over the town of Ilkley. We’d walk the trails around them and get ice cream and the little store in the parking lot. Coming here with Emily was truly nostalgic.

That night we went to Shimla Spice House in Shipley for a proper curry. The area around Bradford has been voted best Indian food in England every year for like 10 years in a row now. I introduced Emily to Indian food at our college, and she has been a fan ever since.

A Naan twice the size of Emily’s head came out skewered on a hook. Bowls filled with a variety of curries: Butter Chicken, Lamb Rogan Josh, Chicken Korma. Chunks of meat bathing in thick sauces. We spooned the sauces onto beds of rice, ripped of chunks of the Naan, and used it as a vessel for the curry.

Family History

My Dad and I are heavily invested in researching our family lineage. So much that we have documentation going back to the 1500s on our direct line. This is why wee had to go to Ovenden. I’ll save you the bore, but essentially this city, specifically the village of Ogden, is where most of our direct line comes from. We even tracked down the specific church where a lot of them are buried: Mount Zion Methodist Heritage Chapel.

That’s when things went a little too far. We had records indicting where my 4x Great Grandfather lived, specifically a will that described in detail his cottages and where they were located. We came this far so we wanted to see this in person.

We drove down a dirt path surrounded on either side by destroyed cobble walls. “Okay great nobody lives here” my Dad said. As we kept going, abandoned buildings came into view and, to our horror, people. “Shit” we all said. My Dad tried backing up back down the road. The people saw us, got in their truck, and headed toward us. My Dad gave up and went out to talk to them. “Our family used to live here, can we go take a look” The man stared at him silently for a while before cautiously saying, “Okay, but don’t go knocking in the buildings, my mother is in there and ill”. We could finally breathe.

What lay beyond was an old, overgrown, destroyed farm. 200 years earlier our family had lived here. I wonder if John ever thought his Great Great Great Great Grandson would be standing here one day. Probably not, they just wanted to survive to the next day.

4 cottages my 4X Great Grandfather owned

The Hills of Haworth

I used to love going to Haworth as a kid. Everything about its screams Yorkshire. A single cobbled street goes up a large hill. On either side are old, brown, terraced houses. Little local shops and cafes are scattered around.

We had a great day here, just walking around, talking, going in to stores, and meeting people.

Journey to the Sea

After a couple of days with the family, we broke off on a little excursion with my Dad, Mum, and brother. Our ultimate goal was the end in Edinburgh, Scotland, but first we wanted a little bit of English seaside.

The trip was simple, we’d set off from Shipley, stop by Pateley Bridge and then end up at the seaside town of Whitby. From there we’d head up to Scotland.

Pateley Bridge is an old town in North Yorkshire, first documented in 1175. It’s a typical Yorkshire village. A single small road with old, brown terraced houses serves as it’s main street.

Here lies the Oldest Sweet Shop in the world, opened in 1827. It was like stepping in to a time machine. Low ceilings, creaking wooden floors, sweets in glass jars, everything here was hundreds of years old.

We went with a variety of sweets. The old man, dressed in all white, loaded them into paper bags and weighed them on an old, white scale.

Across the road was Kendall’s Farm Butchers, a local butcher serving up traditional English foods. I went in and ordered a Pork Pie. This is one of those dishes that you either love or hate. Tightly packed ground pork surrounded by a layer of jelly sits in a small pie. I sway more towards the dislike, they taste pretty weird. I was excited to see Emily’s reaction to it. After pulling some funny faces, she surprisingly liked it. “It’s weird, but good”.

Whitby

Whitby is a beautiful, typical Yorkshire seaside town. The strong ocean smell immediately filling your nostrils. Seagulls constantly screaming. Flashing lights and beeping from arcades filling every corner. Fish and chips wrapped in newspaper, people eating them with a small, wooden, 2 pronged fork. Brick buildings and cobbled streets. People eating soft serve ice cream with a flake (A 99) even though its freezing outside. Pasty Englishmen walking around shirtless with beer. What an experience.

We quickly checked in to our hotel and got out exploring.

Whitby is notably famous for being the location of Bram Stoker’s Dracula novel.

In the novel, after the shipwreck of the Dementer, Dracula, in the form of a large dog, escapes the wreck and runs up 199 steps towards the church at the top. These steps are one of Whitby’s most notable sights and have been here forever. Their first mention was actually all the way back in 1370.

We began our ascent, counting each and every step to make sure they weren’t lying. The views were amazing.

At the top was St. Mary’s Church, founded in the 12th century. This church is also a setting used in Dracula.

There is another church, the parish one, round which is a big graveyard, all full of tombstones. This is to my mind the nicest spot in Whitby, for it lies right over the town, and has a full view of the harbor and all up the bay.
Dracula – Chapter 6

A short walk on also, totally coincidentally, lay a brewery, Whitby Brewery. We ordered our brews and sat outside with views of the destroyed Whitby Abbey.

Right over the town is the ruin of Whitby Abbey, which was sacked by the Danes … It is a most noble ruin, of immense size, and full of beautiful and romantic bits; there is a legend that a white lady is seen in one of the windows.
Dracula – Chapter 6

We didn’t see a white lady in the window.

Whitby is consistently voted to be the best Fish and Chips town in the UK, so obviously we had to see what the hype was about. We stopped by Trenchers for some Haddock and Chips with a side of Curry Sauce. Delicious.

After Whitby, we continued our little expedition up to Scotland, you can continue on with our journey here.