I’m taking a look back at another trip! This time, we’re hopping across the pond to England, and although we did this trip in combination with Ireland, I’m going to separate the countries into two different posts. We actually ended up bouncing back and forth between the two countries, which will make more sense later.
This trip came about because one of my sisters was doing a summer in Dublin, and as we started planning dates we could go, we realized that The Open, one of the 4 major golf championships each year, was happening the days before we planned to go to Dublin! I grew up watching and playing a lot of golf with my dad, and Brooke’s brother was a college golfer, so the idea of it definitely appealed to both of us. Read more about going to The Open here!
And honestly? Planning for The Open and our time in England was so fun. If you’ve ever tried to attend a major golf tournament in the States, you know you’re likely to shell out hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars just to attend one day. But not for The Open. Tickets cost just 25 pounds/day, so for us to witness the final two days of a historic tournament was just 100 pounds! And even better, for patrons under 25, The Open offers free tent camping with your ticket purchase. That’s right. They provide your tent, restrooms with showers, and sleeping pads for free to patrons under 25!
With the campground providing the tent and sleeping pad, packing didn’t change much, except for having to bring a sleeping bag. For our sleeping bags, we found these compressible packing bags on Amazon, so we put our sleeping bag inside, and then just tightened the outer bag until it had collapsed into a little ball. It didn’t take up much space, and was easy to bring along with us the whole trip.
The 146th Open Championship was held at Royal Birkdale Golf Club in Southport, Merseyside, England. Southport is a smaller city (around 90,000 people) on the coast of the Irish Sea in northwest England. We flew overnight from Boston to Manchester, where we caught about an hour long train to get to Southport.
There was some strategy to Boston. I spent a good bit of time researching flights to Manchester, and found that, for whatever reason, flying from Boston was cheaper than any other east coast airport, including adding in what we call a “positioning flight.” Basically, a question to ask yourself is, “Can I find a cheaper flight from a different airport, including the fare of getting to that airport?” In this case, the answer was a resounding yes.
Anyways, catching the train in the UK is just so easy. We purchased our tickets beforehand, but our flight got in a little late, and we missed the train time we had planned for by a couple minutes. No matter, because the next train was coming in around 30 minutes. Since it had been a long flight, we just sat in the cafe on the platform and ate breakfast.
A quick train ride later, and we were in Southport! It’s such a cute town, and it had been decked out in infrastructure for The Open. There were busses running from downtown to the course, and then from the course all over town, including right in front of our camping ground. We didn’t figure this out until after a nice long walk, where we may have been lost (whoops), but we got a great taste of the city! (Lol, we weren’t really talking to each other by the end of the walk).
So, our moods made stepping into the campground so insanely magical. Imagine the Quidditch World Cup scene from Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. We stood in front of what looked like endless rows of uniform tan tents, young witches and wizards mingling and playing games everywhere. I mean, I think we were all muggles, but one can dream, right?
At the front of the campground was a hospitality tent, filled with tables and chairs, TVs airing the afternoon of golf, and a bar with a few local taps and daily food specials. We were worn out from flying, training, and our impromptu backpacking trip, so we just dropped our bags at our tent, and hung out in the hospitality tent for the afternoon before taking an evening walk to the nearby pier.
But onward! Our next stop was Dublin. And you can learn more about those adventures here! Instead of flying, we decided to take in the UK countryside. We took the train from Southport to Liverpool, where we switched to a train that would take us to Holyhead, Wales. What a beautiful journey! If you’re a fan of trains, that trip along the British and Welsh coasts was one we’d highly recommend. From Holyhead, we took the ferry over to Dublin. It was a quick, easy ride, sitting in comfy recliners staring out at the water. There were food and drink options on board, as well as a small movie theater and plenty of casino slot machines.
Quick note before we jump back to England: all international flights going into Dublin have to go through customs, regardless of if you’re coming from the EU - it’s just how their terminals are situated. Taking the ferry, there’s no customs at the incoming port. Just a nice, easy little time saver!
Anyways, why did we go to England, then to Dublin, and then back to London for a day, then back to Dublin? Well, our original plan didn’t include London - we were focused on Dublin, and then The Open. However, in our planning, a certain West End production had come to life. I had casually been monitoring tickets to Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, but c’mon, like everything was sold out. Once we had our trip dates in place, I decided to go back and look again. And guess what? The Wednesday back to back showtime had two tickets left in the Lower Orchestra section. Tickets were expensive...but we’re huge Potter fans, and we couldn’t say no to splurging here.
We already had our return flight from Dublin booked for that weekend, but we figured out how to make the most of the time we had. We got an early morning flight from Dublin to London, had the day to spend in London before the show, got an Airbnb near King’s Cross, and then got the earliest flight the following morning from London back to Dublin. It was a whirlwind, but ugh, so worth it.
After landing in London early morning, we took the train to Buckingham Palace, where we met up with my cousin who lives in a London suburb. We got there right at the changing of the guard, and then hopped on a train to the London Eye! While the Eye isn’t necessarily something I’d recommend, it’s the perfect way to see so much of the city on such a limited time budget! It’s kind of like riding Peter Pan’s Flight at Disney World, but silent, and you have to make up the narration as you go. Having been to London before, I got to spit off all the history I remembered from the sites I visited as a kid.
The walk from the Eye to the Palace Theatre in London’s West End definitely wasn’t short, but we had a couple hours until curtain for Part 1, so we figured, why not?
Okay, so here’s where our minds were blown. When buying tickets for Cursed Child, we didn’t have the option of choosing our seats. We only chose the section we would sit in, and then seats were randomly assigned. We got our tickets, and saw seats B15 and B16, and thought, “Oh, B...that’s like the second row. THIS IS INSANE!”
The Palace Theatre is beautiful, both inside and out. We waited in the lower chambers for the doors to open and were escorted inside. It turns out B wasn’t the second row, but the 4th, AKA eye level with the stage, on the center aisle. Like literally, we had the best seats in the house. The seats that Andy Bernard would’ve reserved for Erin for Sweeney Todd in The Office. Probably where Daniel Radcliffe and Emma Watson and Rupert Grint would’ve sat if they ever came to see the show.
I won’t say much about the show, as even 4 years after its premier, it still comes with the tagline “Keep the Secrets.” If you ever have the chance to see it though, it’s mind-blowing.
If you’re not familiar, the show operates in two parts (no, not just like an intermission). Between Part 1 and Part 2 is a few hours, and we walked around the corner to a small Vietnamese restaurant for an incredible dinner. We capped off dinner with some cakes from a bakery down the street, and before heading back to the theater, stopped in the famous House of Spells shop to look around at all their Potter merchandise.
Part 2 ended around 10, so we made our way back to our Airbnb, and a quick flight the next morning ended our little excursion to London! It was a kind of random journey through the UK, but I feel like it fit us well. Sometimes it may seem like a lot of effort to have these special experiences, but all I remember now is the incredible journey it was, and how worth it the extra effort made it feel.
