Summary of Jurassic Coast, Islay, and London
What a journey! It’s always bittersweet for a great vacation to come to an end. However, we are excited to be home. The travel was easy. The flight from London got into Chicago an hour and ten minutes early, which allowed us to get an earlier flight to Indianapolis. This was good because I believe our normal flight to Indianapolis got delayed due to storms in Chicago.
Not sure where to start. I’m not going to recap everything, but try to do an overview justice. I was taken aback by the beauty and the intensity of the Jurassic Coast (JC). We had just hiked around the Grand Canyon in August, and I was not ready to compare the Grand Canyon to the JC. The visit to Bride Valley Vineyard was an extraordinary experience from both the Mo and Graham at Bride Valley and the drive along the coast back to Weymouth. Plymouth wasn’t on our trip plan, and we would love to spend more time there. Portland’s hike was a pleasant surprise. I thought that we were staying at some sleepy town on the coast and would be just using it as a base. I wasn’t expecting Weymouth to be a destination. The city was full of life and provided energy. We really couldn’t have picked a better place to start our trip.
We and I mean me, did a horrible job planning our time on Islay. When we debarked on this journey, we didn’t have transportation for Islay. I thought that we would get a taxi from the airport to Port Ellen and walk everywhere. I’m so glad that we got a rental because that opened the door to explore the island like we hadn’t planned. Yes, the Scotch tours were a hit, but even there, we missed out because I only had planned the “big” three – Laphroaig, Laguvline, and Ardbeg. We got lucking on Bunnahabhain and Ardnahoe. While we got to see the shop at Kilchoman, we missed Bowmore and Bruichladdich. And let us not forget Jura. But on the positive side, having the rental car allowed us to drive around the island and see the history and beauty. It’s a small island with a beautiful coast with many historical sites, including standing stones. The hike to the American monument was impressive. Taking the ferry to Jura and driving around Jura was nice. Though Jura is another place that my poor planning hurt us. It would have been nice to spend a day or even a night there. We spent less than 90 minutes, and it blew us away. But maybe the biggest surprises about Islay were how incredible, and fresh the food was and the number of vivid rainbows. By far, the best scallops that I’ve ever had weren’t just from one restaurant, but several.
London never disappoints. For the first time, we stayed on the river with no real plan. Walking around the river and parks was fun, taking in the people and even listening to the city. We met up with a friend for a few pints, got to enjoy another great meal at Dishoom, and got to experience the unique St. John’s restaurant. We got to go up to the new exhibit at Westminster Abby. Finally saw the latest James Bond moving at the Imax by Waterloo, which was a pleasant experience. But the one thing that we didn’t do for the first time was that we didn’t ride the tub. Partly because we were staying in the heart of the city and two even though we enjoyed seeing the city come back to life, we did our part of staying away from crowds.
My only comments about COVID are my observations and will avoid the political non-sense of either side. I was pleasantly surprised by how open the JC was towards COVID. I did not see many masks. I liked how they handled restaurants—smaller capacity, but not requiring people to wear masks and lots of sanitizing. People were in pubs, but not shoulder to shoulder. It was enjoyable, and we felt very comfortable. Islay took a different approach, and everyone inside had to wear masks to their tables, and you had to identify for contact tracing. Once again, they operated at a smaller capacity and provided a lot of sanitizers. Some places even took your temperature. But this was fine too, and it wasn’t a burden. London is like the Jurassic Coast, and not seeing a lot of masks and not even requiring them in taxis. The only time we put our masks on was for the flight home. I was surprised that the Imax didn’t need masks, but again we were ok with that. It was great to see busy sidewalks and hear the city alive. However, I enjoy the none existing line to get into Westminister Abby and not fighting the crowds to see the exhibits. With that said, we also intentionally avoided the tub. If you go, don’t take cash because many places weren’t taking cash; tap-and-go!
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