So this is and the kids were had finally gone back to school this week. So I finally have a house of silence and can record a podcast. So the previous podcast, the first one was sort of my first impressions of travel in the UK right now. And you can go and listen to that in our podcast feed. The second podcast was all about the Oxford course I took and my time in Oxford up until I think the second to last day.

And so in this podcast, I'll talk about the final dinner there leaving Oxford and what I did next, which were very exciting and a lot of fun. I visited the National Trust property. I did a wonderful steam train day excursion before I came home. So let's dive right in. First, if you listen to the previous podcast a few months ago about my initial plan for this trip, I was originally supposed to have a whole another week.

in Britain. And I was going to explore Yorkshire. And I was, I had everything booked. I had the hotel booked. I had all my excursions and all the fun things I was going to do in Yorkshire set. But about two weeks before I was to depart for Britain, the child care for half of my trip fell through. And so I had to cancel that part of the trip, unfortunately. But just fine. Everything was refunded. And because of all the troubles at Heathrow in the last few, I was able to change my flight with no penalty at all, get a new flight.

All the attractions I booked were happy to refund me. There were a couple things that weren't refunded, but it's fine. And then, so instead of going to Yorkshire, I came home, which it turns out in retrospect, it was off of the best because that week that I came home, I ended up with COVID and that was not fun. So chances are if I had stayed in Britain, I would have been sick with it there, and that would have not been an enjoyable way to finish a lovely trip to Britain.

So that's, so after, after I left Oxford, I had two more full days in Britain, and I had things already pre-booked and pre-planned, and so I was able to stick to those things. So, but I'll backtrack to the final Oxford dinner we had. I talked a little bit about the dinners previously in the last podcast, the final leaving dinner, or as the English would say, the leaving do. It was a very, very formal dinner. First, we had drinks in the cathedral garden, and then were led over to the Great Hall where we had, everything was set for a four-course dinner, which had been prepared for the dining hall.

Sorry about the clanking. I made a cup of tea for this. And I was just stirring it. And so every course had their own section of the grand tables in the great hall. And so the classes could stick together. And it was your sort of final chance to say goodbye to your classmates and speak with your tutor and everything. And so that was an enjoyable experience. The four course dinner was fantastic. Offhand, I can't remember what was served.

I think, oh, it was lamb. The appetizer was scallops. The main was lamb. The dessert was some kind of tart thing. But it was overall, it was very good. It was a nice leaving to do dinner. When it was over, I walked around Christ Church a little bit just to sort of get my final goodbye to the lovely experience and soak it all in one last time, because as we learned, in the pandemic. You never know when you're going to get to do these things again or if you're going to do these things again.

So it's best to the savor the moments. So I went to bed in my final night in Oxford, a very, very happy Anglophile. So I cannot recommend doing a Oxford experience course through the Office of Continuing Education more. If you listen to the last podcast and it peaked your interest, I will also put another link in the show notes so you can book it yourself. In an ideal world, I would love to do this every summer.

Like I said, in the last podcast, some people sign up for these every year. Some people do several, and they make it a part of their yearly trips to Britain. I would love to do it every summer. I don't know if that's going to be possible. I mean, I work full-time. I got Anglotopia as a supplement to that. And then I got a family, I've got a wife, and we've got a very busy life. So it's very hard to take away for a week.

So it was nice to, after the pandemic and all the upheaval of moving, it was nice to have a week of meditative thought on something academic. It was great. I had a great experience. So the next day, I needed to get a rental car. So I booked a rental car in advance. I was actually a challenge to find a rental car. And this might be worth the whole podcast on its own. But basically, when the pandemic hit, all the rental car companies sold their cars because no one was traveling, so they had massive fleets they didn't need.

So they sold off their cars and flooded the used car market with it. But then the corollary to that is a few months after that, then the microchip shortage hit. And so there was a manufacturing backlog. And so then the rental car companies couldn't acquire new cars to continue to rent out because the way the rental car industry works is they they buy the cars, they run them for a few thousand miles, and then they sell them on the secondary market before they lose their value.

And they turn that as an arbitrage. And that's part of their entire business model. Although the business model broke during the pandemic when they couldn't replace the cars that they sold off. So this has led to issues where travelers have wanted to rent cars all over the world and there are no cars. I remember at one point, as the, as we were at the height of the pandemic, but travel had I opened up somewhat, we wanted to rent a car with Hertz and they had no cars.

So like literally there were no cars available for weeks. And so, so renting a car in Britain is a, is a similar challenge. They had the same problems that they had here in the USA with the rental car company selling their cars. And then they couldn't acquire. new ones. And also the British market is much smaller, so it's what's harder for them to get cars. And a lot, most of the rental cars in Britain are usually manual cars.

And as most Americans can't drive a manual car, they're taught on automatics and 90% of people drive automatics. So when we travel, we need automatics because a lot of us simply don't know how to drive a manual transmission. Something I need to learn one of these days, but it's never needed to learn it. And so, or renting an automatic car when you travel in Britain or Ireland is a different thing because automatic cars are usually more expensive and they're also harder to find, especially right now.

And it actually took me a couple months to figure out the rental car situation because I wanted to get the rental car in Oxford and then drop it off at Heathrow, which is the thing that the rental car companies don't like for you to do. They like you to rent and drop off the same location. Otherwise, they charge you fees and then it hurts their inventory availability. And so I tried to rent with Hertz and they had no cars.

They didn't even have manuals, at least available from Oxford, because they have an office in Oxford and I've rented from there before. And it's normally they have great inventory. So the only thing they had available to rent was white work vans. And they were all manual transmission. So that wasn't going to work. And I checked several times and there just was never any availability. So I pondered, you know, going back to Heathrow to getting a rental car because there are plenty of rental cars at Heathrow.

But, you know, Heathrow is an hour from Oxford and I don't want to lose time having to go to Heathrow than navigating Heathrow. And it's, if you don't need to be at Heathrow for a flight, it's no fun going there to get a rental car. Trust me, I've done it before. So I finally found a rental car with Europe car. Another company I've run it with before, they were able to provide an automatic, and I was able to pick it up at their Oxford location and then return it at Heathrow.

Now, again, I was supposed to have the car for a whole week. And when my plans changed, that I was basically lapping off like six days off an eight-day rental. And you would think that that would lead to a lower rate. But I'll get to that. So another issue with because of the supply constraint in rental cars, the rental car rates in Britain and especially in Ireland are crazy high right now. Like you can expect to pay a couple thousand dollars for a week for a rental car for the cheapest automatic when previously you'd pay, you know, four or five hundred pounds for the week.

And that's just a consequence of the construing supply. I've heard for car rentals in Ireland, car rentals are so expensive there that some of my Irish friends, they recommend if you're going to be there for a few weeks, that you just buy a secondhand car and sell it before you leave because that would actually be cheaper than renting a car at the current rates, which is one of those things that COVID has meant nuts. It's just you wouldn't think the rental car industry would be such a problem, but it is.

So at the college, they had a sign-up sheet to arrange a taxi to have you so that you could go on to your onward destination. I only needed a local taxi. So I signed up to have a taxi take me at 9 a.m. to the local car rental office, which isn't far, but it was too far to walk with all the luggage. So I showed up at my appointed time. the taxi never showed. And this was a problem for actually several other people in the course as well.

The taxis were either very delayed or the taxi never showed. And I don't necessarily blame the taxi company. That day, there was a massive rail strike. So everybody who would be traveling by rail that Saturday, all of a sudden had to drive to travel by coach or travel by taxi or find a rental car because there were no trains running or there were so few trains running and there were no spots on it. So my taxi never showed up or I waited a good 45 minutes and, you know, Oxford's nice.

I don't mind sitting sitting in front of a, you know, 800-year-old college trying to waiting for a taxi. But I, you know, I had plans for that day and I was losing daylight. And so I did what any tech savvy young person does is I pulled out my phone and I hired an Uber to take me to the rental car place. And the irony is that the company that ran the taxi that was Ubering me was the company that had originally been hired to pick me up.

So there's some funny business there that, you know, they were perfectly happy to take the Uber booking, but they couldn't show up for my fixed price booking. So take that from that what you will. So I got over to Europe car and then I had a little bit of weight. Again, you know, there's, there was a lot of sticker shock. People were come to pick up their cars and the rates were crazy. I saw one person get into one of those white vans I talked about.

That's what they ended up renting and slightly worried I would end up with something like that. But thankfully, they gave me a Toyota hybrid. But the reservation I made was originally for like eight days and I was cutting it down to three. days essentially because I was leaving to go home Monday and it was Saturday. And I thought that would substantially reduce the price of my car rental. But no, it didn't. I had originally booked for about $800 for the whole week.

And even because of the current rates and I was essentially changing my booking and I was captive because I needed a car and didn't have a choice, it was still about $600 to rent my car for 48 hours. I was not happy. I was not happy. I'm still not happy about it. But it was worth it to have the car and to have the freedom I need to get around. So got in my car and then I set up my phone for navigation.

And I was driving in England for the first time in four years. And for those who may be new to the podcast, I actually love driving in England. Many Americans have a lot of anxiety about driving England because it's on the wrong side of the road and things are different. and I've driven there a dozen times now, so it's familiar to me. And really, once you get on the road, everything is designed to drive the way they do, so you get used to it very quickly.

And so I love nothing more than driving through English country lanes with my favorite British radio station, classic FM playing. I was definitely in my happy place. So my goal for that day was to visit Dyrham Park National Trust property, which is in the Cotswolds, about an hour away from from Oxford. Now, for those not familiar, Dyrham Park is a very famous house, if you like period movies, because it was the house used for the exteriors in the Merchant Ivory film, The Remains of the Day.

The Remains of the Day is probably my favorite British film. It's either a toss-up between that and Master and Commander. But I love The Remains of the Day. I love the setting of the house and the landscape. And I'd actually been there before almost 10 years ago. And we kind of stumbled across it by chance, and we were looking for something to do after Christmas with our kids. And we were there, we were in Britain for almost a month.

And we drove over there, and it was like a Sunday. And it was a Sunday or as a Sunday or as a week dad, I remember. But everything, it was closed because it was winter and it was off season. So it was closed, but you could still walk around because of the public footpaths and everything. But there, there, nothing was open. And so we walked on this drive. It was picturesque. And then I saw the house coming to view.

And the house was very familiar to me. I'm like, wait a second. Is that the house from my favorite British movie? I think it is. And so we, we walked around and looked at the house. I took lots of pictures. I got some great pictures of the house. But you. You couldn't go in because it was closed. You couldn't go in the gardens because they were closed as well. Britain had gotten a lot of rain that year.

And so a lot of the parts of the garden were flooded out, which is the primary reason why it was closed. So ever since we made that visit many years ago, I wanted to go back so I could go inside the house. Now, the interiors of the house were not used in remains of the day. They only filmed the exteriors. But I, you know, what's the point going to see a stately home if you can't go inside?

So now, for those not familiar with the Royal Oak Foundation, I'm a member of the Royal Oak Foundation here in the USA. And if you join the Royal Oak Foundation, you get free admission to all National Trust properties in England and Wales. I think it works in National Trust for Scotland. I'm not completely sure. And so for like one small fee, you basically have a National Trust membership and can get in everywhere and you get free parking.

And so, but every year, the Royal Oak Foundation, as a fundraiser to help preserve a specific bit of National Trust heritage that needs fundraising. And last year, they raised funds to go towards the conservation and restoration work at Dyrham Park. And so ever since then, I've wanted to go to Dyrham Park and see the work that's been done and see the work in progress. Now, for anyone wanting to visit Dyrham Park, the entire. the entire house is not open right now.

Only select rooms are open, and it changes based on where the conservation work is happening. They also have viewing areas inside where you can see, where you can watch them doing the actual work. And so when I was there, I think four or five of the rooms were open to have a look around. But they were not, I think the phrase we would use here is show ready. So it was a very much. a work in progress.

And then the guides there were very helpful in explaining what was being done to give context and everything. And it was really a treat to see the conservation in action. And so that was what I wanted to see when I visited there today. I wanted to have a nice walk and to see the conservation work and have a nice National Trust lunch and basically have a nice National Trust day out. And so I arrived there just about at about lunchtime by the time I had driven there from Oxford, parked the car, and it was pouring, it was pouring down rain.

But thankfully, I was prepared at an umbrella. And so I was like, well, I'm not going to let a little rain ruin my day here. This is, you know, my chance to see Dyrham Park again. I mean, I'll do it in the rain. And so I was not the only one happy to explore Dyrham Park in the rain. There were plenty of families and people there were looking to enjoy the day out, even if it was raining because what's the phrase?

There's no bad weather only. bad attire. And so I was attired properly for rain. I've been, even though it was July, I've been to Britain in July before and know that I can get cold and rainy very quickly. So I was prepared. So I shouldered my cameras, held my umbrella, and did the nice long walk from the car park down the drive that takes you down to Dyrham Park. And it was lovely. It was pouring down rain.

It was a little cool. But it was great. When we were there 10 years ago, it was in the winter. So the trees were not leafed. They were not, the gardens weren't in blooms. It was very dead. It's still beautiful, but beautiful in a different way. And so it was nice to walk down this drive. It was lush and green. And it was at its best. So, and you round a corner on the drive and then you see the house and, like I felt like I was in the movie The Rains of the Day.

It was great. I could hear the music from the score in my head. So I went down to the house. And so if you're visiting the house to get pictures of the exterior of the house, you will be a little disappointed right now because there are construction hoardings and fences out front, kind of blocking the view of the house. So that's, that's unfortunate. Now I've got, I've got pictures of the house, so it's fine. But if you want to see the house in its most perfect pristine state, now's not the time to do it.

I would wait a couple years until they're done with the conservation work they need to do. But if you visit it right now, it's still a treat to see the house and what they're doing. So I went around the back of the house into where the entrance was to what you were allowed to go inside and see. And so I went in. Like I said, the house isn't show ready, but there's plenty to see. They finished some rooms.

They're still working on others. And I'll write more about this in detail. And I've got pictures as well. And there'll be an article on the website eventually. I don't know when. And you can see the sort of the work in progress. Very much worth seeing if you're in the area. I explored the gardens in the church. The gardens are lovely. Church is beautiful. It was a very low-key, nice day. I had lunch in the cafe. I had my, I had a Cornish pasty, which was delicious, and I had tea and cake, which was even lovelier.

And the kitchens were open, so you're allowed to explore the kitchens, which I had. hadn't had seen either. There's a secondhand bookshop. Always going to the secondhand book shops. They're fun. I bought the guidebook for the house. And then, yeah, after a few hours there, I was done at Dyrham Park for the day. And so, as I was leaving Dyrham Park, Dyrham Park is very close to Bristol and Bath. And so as you round the corner of the exit, you get a stunning view of the bath skyline very far in the distance.

So I actually stopped and went through some farmers field to take a picture, which I think ended up in the calendar. And then I drove on to my next destination. So I went to the former owners of Updown Cottage, the place we used to stay in Shaftesbury, their daughter and husband bought a cafe with rooms in a place called Sherston, which is near Malmesbury in Gloucestershire. And ever since they've opened, which they opened the middle of the pandemic, I've wanted to go and stay in their new rooms.

It's not a hotel. It's not, it's not self-catering, but it's, they call it a cafe with rooms. And so there's a cafe downstairs, a busy cafe during the day, but it closes at four, four or five, depending on the season. And then, and then there's a selection of private rooms upstairs. and then those are, I don't think they're on Airbnb, but it's Airbnb style where you're given a code. You get, you have your own code to the front door and a code to the door for your room.

And the rooms are perfectly lovely. Beds are comfortable. Bathrooms are clean. Everything's been renovated. And it's an affordable place to stay in the Cotswolds to explore further. And you have the convenience of the cafe downstairs so you can get breakfast, but breakfast is not included in your room. You have to pay extra for breakfast. I did have tea and breakfast there and highly recommend it. The food's great. The chef is a, he's a great chef. So you won't be disappointed by the food.

So I've been wanting to stay there. So it wasn't necessarily near where I wanted to, where my plans were for the trip, but it was an excuse to see friends and stay in a new place I've never been before. So I arrived at Sherston in the late afternoon, but I got into my room. It was very comfortable. I think I might have I've had a nap because when I travel, I get exhausted, and then I usually need a nap.

And then I went out later to the local popular pub, the rattlebone pub. I had a delicious dinner, good British beef. It was very busy and loud, though, so I didn't really linger. I'm not much of a pub guy. I like the atmosphere of pubs, but as I don't drink, I mean, usually, and if I'm by myself, there's like no reason for me to be there. So, and it was very loud. So I didn't stay, say for very long.

But Sherston is very much, it's not on the tourist trail, it's very much a place people live. And so you get a real flavor of what it's like for people actually living in the Cotswold versus the cookie cutter chocolate box, Cotswold villages where all the tourists go. So I liked it. I like Sherston a lot. Very low-key, very quiet. I definitely go back. So, so the next day, this was something I had planned months in advance.

So there's a company called the Railway Touring Company, and they specialize in doing steam train excursions throughout Britain. They run several a month throughout the year. And one of them was coinciding with my trip, and because I was going to be there at the same time, I was like, this is an opportunity to go on a steam train ride. So I did the Royal Duchy steam train ride. And it's a all-day excursion on a steam train.

So it's one of those things where actually being on the train is the destination. You do end up somewhere, but you're only there for a couple hours and then you come back, but you spend 80% of the day on the train. And so it was going to leave from Bristol Temple Meads, which is a beautiful temple of railway architecture that I actually haven't been to yet. And so I was just excited about seeing the train stage.

just as much as the train ride was. And the journey was going to take us from Bristol Temple Meads all the way to Charlestown in Cornwall. So quite a ways, if you look at a map. It's quite a journey. And so it's a great chance to see a lot of the country I'd never seen before from the comfort of a train. And so. So I booked first-class tickets because it was a treat and it was a once-in-a-lifetime thing.

And so there's three classes. The first class is the one where you are in the first-class car and very comfortable, almost like a swing-back chair style where you have your own dining table. And throughout the day, you'll be fed all your meals and you get a great view out the window and you get a great view out the window. And so I asked my friend and boss at Black Knight, Ireland, where I work in my day job, McKayley Neeland, to come with me because I knew, I thought he would fancy a steam train journey for the day.

And he said, yeah. So he met me in Bristol and we went for the, for the day on the steam train. So it departed very early at about, I think it left at like 845 in the morning. and then I'm going to write in more detail about the whole day in the coming weeks. So I'm just going to kind of give an overview now because this podcast is already going much longer than I intended. And so we left Bristol Temple Meads.

And as we steamed our way through the Somerset countryside and towards Devon, we were served a full English breakfast. Tea, orange juice. You could have any other breakfast you wanted. It was delicious. The food was great. No complaints there. We called at Exeter. And then along the way, the train, when it calls at these major stations, you can get out and stretch your legs and see the steam train. And so, sorry, I'm looking at the book they gave us.

So the first major stop was Exeter. And now there were two stops before that as well. And some people would actually get on the train at these other stops rather than in Bristol Temple Meads, rather than deal with. the traffic in central Bristol are having to park like I did. But the first major terminus stop was Exeter. And so you could actually end your journey there if you wanted and explore Exeter for the day and then get the train going back to Bristol Temple Meads if you wanted.

It's very flexible like that. But we got out stretch our legs at Exeter, got to look at the steam train, took pictures. And then you go down to the Devon Coast, and then you get to go across the Dawlish coastal defenses, which were originally built by Isambard Kingdom Brunel when the Great Western Railway built the line. And it's truly amazing to go along on a train along this area of the coast. I mean, it's stunningly beautiful.

Even if you can take a regular train journey and see this, I highly recommend it. So all along the way, you see beautiful English countryside. It was summer, so everything was very green, although they were in the middle of a drought, so things weren't as green as they could be, but it was still lovely. You go along, Dawlish, Teignmouth, Newton Abbot. Sorry, I'm looking at the book here because there was so many place names. It's hard to remember them all.

And I know I'm probably mispronouncing them. I've given up trying to correctly pronounce British place names because there's always multiple pronunciations. You never know if you're saying it right. So I just try my best. So the next major stop was Plymouth, and a lot of people got off in Plymouth is obviously famous to Americans. That's where the Mayflower set off before it on its way to North America. And there's a whole thing there for Americans to see, you can see Plymouth and where they departed and all that wonderful stuff.

But I've not been to Plymouth. I was tempted to get off there, but I really wanted to take the whole train journey. So I didn't, we didn't get out. We got out to stretch our legs and take a picture of the train because at Plymouth, they, because of the drought, they needed to change the train engine. They've switched from steam to diesel. It was safer and also easier for the gradients that we're going to go through.

And so we got to watch them shunt the engines back and forth. So that was pretty cool. I mean, that attracted quite a crowd, even in the rain. And then, so after Plymouth, we go down through the rest of Devon. And then another treat, as we were going to get to cross the Royal Albert Bridge built by Brunel. which is the over the river Tamar, which is the border between Devon and Cornwall. So one side's Devon, the other side's Cornwall.

Once you cross the bridge, you're in Cornwall. And I've seen the bridge before. I think I've seen the bridge before. When we did our drive from Land's End to John o' Groats, we drove that way down to Cornwall. But it was a treat to go over the bridge on a train, which is amazingly beautiful and stunning bridge. A marvel of Victoria. engineering and you're up so high. The view from a train is incredible. Again, when I share pictures of this, when I write the article, you'll see what I'm talking about.

And so the next option was to go, where the train stopped was par and then in Cornwall. And then they gave you two options. You could either, you could go to, the name escapes me, sorry, sorry, the name escapes me. You could, you had two choices were excursions. You go to par or another village. I'm sorry, you could go from par, you could get on a coach and go to another town nearby, or you could go to Charlestown, which is also nearby.

And Charlestown is where, is famous because they've used it in Poldark, and it's a sheltered cove. There's always tall ships in the harbor there. And so it's a seaside village. It's very picturesque. So, So after discussion, my friend and I, we decided to go to take the bus to Charlestown. So we rode the bus to Charlestown, which was about a 10 to 15 minute coach ride from the train station. We had, we walked around, explored, had a nice lunch, walked around a little more, and then by that time, it was time to take the coach back to the train.

And then by then it was late afternoon. And then we got back on the train and it was already set for dinner. They'd set the table for dinner. With the drinks, we had pre-order. and then once we began our train journey back, which I should add that everything that day was well organized, everything was on time, everything went perfectly. And so the staff on the train were very friendly. They were very responsive to our needs, and the food itself was fantastic.

So one of the things I really wanted while I was there, was a nice Sunday roast, and I tried to have it at Oxford, but when I went to the place that I had pre-booked for Sunday roast, they didn't have Sunday roast anymore, despite it, when I did the search, it said, this is the best place to get Sunday roast in Oxford, the best pub. They didn't have Sunday roast anymore, so I ended up not having Sunday roast that day.

So I was very, very pleased to see that on the train, we were being served a full Sunday roast with all the fixings, including Yorkshire Puds, roast beef, potatoes, like, it was great. I was a very happy, happy anglophile to get my Sunday roast. And so keep in mind, I'm summarizing this very quickly, but by this point in today, we've been on the train all day between, after keeping aside the break in Charlestown. And so I was very worried when I booked it that we would be very sick of being on the train by that point in the day.

And I'm happy to say that really, because the train goes so fast, there's so much to see out the window, you're so well taken care of by the staff, it does not feel like you're on the train all day. You don't get bored. You don't, you don't feel like you want to get off this train. Like it goes very nicely. And so I can highly recommend doing one of these train journeys through the railway touring company.

Again, I'll have a lot more to talk about this train journey when I write the actual article about the trip, but it will, if you ever consider doing one of these, I highly recommend it. And so after our dinner, we steamed our way way through the English countryside, back through Devon, back through Somerset, and it was late in the day. The landscape was bathed in that beautiful golden, late afternoon, early evening, summer sunshine that England gets.

It was, it filled my soul up for however long it's going to take to get back to England again. And we arrived back at Bristol Temple Meads, and I dropped my friend off at his hotel, and I drove back to Sherston, just only about a half-hour drive, and went down for bed. And the next day, my flight was at 3 p.m. in the afternoon, and I was about two hours away from Heathrow, depending on traffic. And so I got up, had breakfast, got in the car, drove to Heathrow.

By the time I returned the car, took the shuttle over to the terminal, and then my flight was delayed several hours, which was really to be expected with all the problems that Heathrow is having. I had a nice lunch at one of the restaurants in the terminal. thing or my biggest observation of Terminal 5 is that the day I was there, which was a Monday, it was very busy. It was heaving with people, which was surprising to me when you consider all the flights that have been canceled lately.

And I was like, where are all these people going? But it was very busy, very loud. It was a little much after my, after a long trip. But my, after my, after a I just chilled at the airport and then went to the terminal or the satellite concourse when they announced the gate. And despite the flight being delayed, it was delayed because they had to an equipment change. They had to change planes, which a lot of people were very pleased about because everyone's assigned seat change.

So that was slightly irritating. But got on the plane. And to be honest, I slept most of the way home. And that was it. Said goodbye to England. It was a whirlwind trip. It was fantastic. It was everything I had hoped for after my long absence. I was just happy to be there. And I managed to fill it with some great experiences, all of which I'll write about more detail in the coming months. And I, you know, I don't know when I'm going to get to go back or when we will get to go back with Mrs.

Ingletopia. I'm hoping to go back in February. next year for my birthday. Because before the pandemic, we had sort of started doing that every February we go for about a week in February. Do some research, celebrate my birthday, see friends. And so we'll see if that happens. There's a lot going on in our lives right now. And so we're not completely sure when we'll be able to go back. But hopefully that's it. If not, I would love to do the Oxford course again next summer.

A different topic, obviously. I wouldn't do the Nelson course again. We only need to do it once. But like I said, we'll kind of just have to wait and see how things go. So I hope you've enjoyed this short podcast series about my trip. There's three podcasts in total after this one. And if you have any questions about the trip, feel free to leave a comment. I'm going to put in the show notes all the things I did, all the places I went that I talked about in this podcast, and then just look out on Anglotopia.net for all the articles and pictures that we'll be sharing in the coming months.

There's a lot of exciting things to come and I can't wait to share with everybody. So thanks for listening and I'll talk to you next time.