England: Jul-Aug-Sep 2026

In mid-July, we flew from Dublin to London to begin our 8-week tour of the United Kingdom (UK). This post covers the 5 weeks we spent in England. There is a separate blog post for the time we spent in London and another post for the time we spent in Scotland. The exact dates of where we stayed are on “Our Schedule” page of this website.

We had a rental car for the entire time in the UK, except for the first three days while in London, so we did driving day trips to places like Bath, Cheltenham, Oxford, Liverpool, Manchester, Canterbury, and Dover. We also took care of getting some travel vaccines to prepare for our upcoming trip to Southeast Asia – at about 60% less cost then we would have to pay if we had received them in the United States (saved $1,200). The weather was very nice almost the whole time – although we were concerned about the fire danger from the lack of rain. We took turns driving to build our left-side-of-the-road driving skills and confidence. The people were friendly and helpful everywhere we went and it was nice to speak English again for awhile.

We arrived and departed the UK via London. For the England portion, we stayed in London, the Cotswolds, Cambridge, Altrincham (near Manchester) the Lake District and Sutton Valence (in southeast England). The population of England is about 60 million, which is about 85% of the population of the entire United Kingdom (England, Scotland, Wales, and North Ireland).
Our rental car for the first half of our visit was this beautiful MG ZS Hybrid.
During our first month in the UK, we did three housesits using the app called Trusted Housesitters, each “one”sit” lasted for about a week. The first housesit was in Bourton-on-the Water. Our charge was this beautiful little Maltese dog named Scooby. He loved to hang out in your lap.
The quaint village of Bourton-on-the-Water, is located in the Cotswolds, a government designated Region of National Beauty (RONB) about a 2-hour drive west of London.
Stone cottages were abundant in all of the Villages we passed through in the Cotswolds.
We took a day trip over to Oxford, where we walked around the college campuses that Oxford is famous for. In this photo we are in front of the the Sheldonian Theater, which is the ceremonial hall of the University of Oxford.
The historic city of Bath is a 2-hour drive from Bourton-on-the-Water. The city provides free walking tours to non-commercial groups. The guides are paid by the city and are not allowed to accept tips. Bath is a very old city and is one of only two UNESCO World Heritage Cities in Europe. Bath is in fact named Bath due to its natural hot springs. This photo features the front of the Bath Abbey, which is where the walking tours begin.
In the city of Bath, the iconic red telephone booths have been creatively converted to flower displays.
We saw this sign near several villages throughout England. In Europe in general you will see a lot of pedestrians, including, yes, elderly people.
Cheltenham is a medium size town located about 30 minutes from Bourton-on-the Water and about 2.5 hours west of London. We enjoyed strolling its highly walkable downtown area.
Wooden ducks wearing Wellies (waterproof boots) are a thing in the UK, we saw them all over the place.
Susan underwent arthroscopic knee surgery in Cheltenham England in late July to remove a “cyclops lesion” from her Posterior Cruciate Ligament (PCL). A few weeks prior to the surgery, that lesion had started causing her knee to catch / lock and she had to “pop” it free whenever she straightened her leg. It got painful quickly and we felt lucky to find an excellent knee surgeon in England who could take care of it on short notice. We used the UK private health care system and the total cost of the surgery was only $6,200. Susan’s military retirement healthcare insurance (Tricare) reimbursed us 80% of that cost. They had an excellent latte machine – as you can see by the smile on Susan’s face – this picture taken shortly after she woke up from surgery.
You might have to do a double take of this photo to see her asleep next to Adam. “Jess” is a Goldendoodle that we took care of for a week in northern London while her family went on holiday. This was our second housesit in the UK – and Jess was delightful to be around. The home is located in Muswell Hill in the north part of London. Susan was still recovering from surgery but Adam was able to range out on the metro for another day visiting the sights in London. There is a separate blog post for the days one or both of us spent in downtown London.
Our third and last housesit for this UK visit was in the historic and charming village of Altrincham, close to Manchester. Lily and Eric were our charges and they were both adorable. In this photo I was laying on the couch elevating my knee as part of my surgery rehab procedures, and both dogs joined me immediately, no invitation was necessary. One of the things Susan misses the most on full time travel is some quality time with animals. Our three housesits during the UK visit went a long way toward alleviating that gap.
Besides enjoying some pets full time, house sits on Trusted house sitters are often in very nice homes. We greatly enjoyed our indoor – outdoor living space with the two pups Lily and Eric.
During our housesit in Altrincham, on August 12th, there was a 90% solar eclipse of the sun. Adam was able to snap these pictures of it with his iPhone. It had been a really hot day so the eclipse provided some instant cooling relief for awhile.
In the City of Manchester, about a 30 minute train ride from our housesit, is the John Rylands Library. It is a late-Victorian neo-Gothic building and is part of the University of Manchester. The library, which opened to the public in 1900, was founded by Enriqueta Augustina Rylands in memory of her husband, John Rylands. It became part of the university in 1972, and now houses the majority of the Special Collections of The University of Manchester Library, the third largest academic library in the United Kingdom.
Liverpool was a pleasant surprise for us. It was a beautiful mix of modern and old world architectural elements. The central walking district was clean and attractive, with a large crowd of people out enjoying the beautiful weather on a Saturday. In this photo is the iconic set of statues of the four Beatles, near the harbor in Liverpool.
The “Beatles alleyway” in Liverpool is Mathew Street, a world-famous, winding street located in the heart of the city’s Cavern Quarter. In addition to the Cavern Club, where the Beatles first started their career, Sergeant Peppers is also locate here. When we walked through this section, the music coming out of the clubs was so loud that we couldn’t hear each other – and we weren’t even inside any of the clubs!
Clock towers on architecturally beautiful buildings is something we saw a lot – across various cities in the UK. This one was in Liverpool.
Our second rental car in the UK was a Dacia Duster, also a hybrid. We enjoyed this one as well, especially since it carried four people and luggage around Scotland for 10 days.
After finishing the housesit in Altrincham, we drove north to the Lake District, which is a designated National Park. This photo was taken in the charming Lake District village of Ambleside, where you can see a very small old stone house that straddles a creek.
The Lake District is known for its excellent hiking and beautiful landscape views. Orrest Head is a popular 2-mile round-trip hill walk that starts near the Windermere railway station and rewarded us with 360-degree panoramic views of Lake Windermere and the surrounding hills. We were staying in Windemere so it was an obvious choice. Susan was still recovering from her knee surgery (3 weeks post op) so we had to go quite slow but she made it. Besides the beautiful views at the top, which pictures do not do justice, there was also some creative artwork on the path up.
Windermere is a ribbon lake in Cumbria, England. It is within the Lake District National Park and is the largest lake in England by length, area, and volume, although considerably smaller than the largest Scottish lochs and Northern Irish loughs. This photo was taken in the lakeside town of Bowness, which was about a mile from Windermere where we were staying.
After our whirlwind tour of Scotland with our friends Tess and Jack (see separate blog post titled “Scotland: Aug 2026“), we drove from Glasgow all the way south to Sutton-Valence, which was a 10-hour intense traffic drive. After unloading our stuff into our AirBnB we took a stroll into the village in search of dinner and a beer, stopping to snap this pic along the way.
Our AirBnB in Sutton Valance had a dreamy view to the south toward the English Channel. It was incredibly relaxing after the hectic few weeks we had just spent hopping around the country.
Our AirBnB in Sutton Valence also came with a resident fox, who would come around in the evenings to ask for dinner. Our AirBnB host family affectionately named him Feargal (which means “brave one” in Irish)
About an hour drive east from where we were staying in Sutton Valence is the city of Canterbury and its magnificent cathedral – seen here in the background. Schoolchildren will remember the Canterbury Tales (by Geoffrey Chaucer) from English class. The Canterbury Tales are revered as one of the paramount works of English literature.
Canterbury Cathedral is the cathedral of the archbishop of Canterbury, the spiritual leader of the Church of England and symbolic leader of the worldwide Anglican Communion. Located in Canterbury, Kent, it is on the site of one of the oldest Christian structures in England and forms part of a World Heritage Site. It is also massively huge – just when you think you have finally found the end of it… it just keeps going.
For the first time in its 1400 year history, the Archbishop of Canterbury is a woman. Dame Sarah Elisabeth Mullally is a British Anglican bishop and England’s former chief nursing officer who has served as the 106th archbishop of Canterbury since 28 January 2026. As archbishop, she is the senior bishop of the Church of England and the ceremonial head of the Anglican Communion. By virtue of her position, she is also a lord spiritual, one of the 26 Church of England bishops who sit in the House of Lords.
We drove about an hour southeast of where we were staying in Sutton Valance to visit the iconic white cliffs of Dover. The White Cliffs of Dover are the region of English coastline facing the Strait of Dover and France. The cliff face, which reaches a height of 350 feet, owes its striking appearance to its composition of chalk accented by streaks of black flint.
The cliffs mark the point where Great Britain is closest to continental Europe; on a clear day the cliffs are visible from France, approximately 20 miles (32 km) away. On the day we visited, we could see France from the cliffs.
The cliffs gained symbolic importance during World War II, as a symbol of Britain’s resolute defense. Operation Fortitude, one of the most successful military deception operations in history, was based close by.
On our last day in the UK, while on our way to London Heathrow airport to fly out, we stopped and visited Windsor Castle. Windsor Castle is a working royal palace and the oldest and largest occupied castle in the world.
King Charles III uses the castle as a private home and an official royal residence. While parts of the castle are open to tourists, it remains a busy, functioning part of the British monarchy rather than a quiet museum. We toured St George’s Chapel (Where Queen Elizabeth II is buried) and the State Apartments (where ceremonies and state dinners are held)

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3 Comments

  2. Good to hear. We’re currently on our way to Athens from Malta with mark and Lisa Wentland on our 19 day cruise.

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