Join Jason & Tasha on a guided trip where we handle the majority of the nit-picky details. All you have to do is book your flight and any extra tours you wish to do.

We will pick you up from the airport and handle the rest of the travel logistics, hotels, train tickets, breakfasts, a few group dinners, and at least one group tour or event in each location. Plus, you get us every step of the way to help plan your free time in the itinerary (some full days!) and answer any questions, both before we go and while we’re there. It’s what we like to think of as a guided choose your own adventure trip! Grab your friends and let’s go!

On these guided trips, we will explore Edinburgh & Oban in Scotland and London in England. We’ll be traveling between cities by train, so there’s no need to fret about driving, unless you want to in your free time! Choose your own adventure, remember! We will be within walking distance of the train stations, so only pack what you can carry – we always recommend rolling carry-on size luggage and a backpack so it’s easy to carry, roll over cobblestones, and handle on trains.

In the spirit of a true choose your own adventure, we’re trying something different this time. Ready to join us for the whole adventure? Excellent, you can join us for the entire trip from Edinburgh to London. Have you been to London and aren’t quite ready to go back? No problem; join us in Scotland and head home when we head South. Scotland not your jam? Blasphemy! Still, we’re cool with it, and you can meet us in London for a few days. It’s totally up to you! Whatever you choose, you’ll still have us to help with everything.

To help make your trip exactly what you want, we include lots of free time. Not sure how to fill your free time when you get there? Don’t want to spend hours pouring over the internet looking for things to do? Never fear, that’s why we’re here! We’ve spent HOURS (years) compiling lists of our favorite tours, things to do, restaurants, and little hidden gems, tips, and tricks. You get access to them all when you pay for your trip itinerary.

After your purchase, you will get an email from us including a disclosure form to sign and return, your itinerary, our handy dandy lists, and an FAQ section – 2 documents total. Remember to book your flight as soon as possible and we’ll see you there!

The post The Adventure of Your Lifetime: Enchanting Scotland, Charming London, or Both! – CLOSED first appeared on The DeBode Way.

After a small room debacle at the next, very small hotel – we were really early and switched up roommates, so it was totally our fault – everyone set off to find breakfast. The best breakfast vote went to Mihbaj Restaurant, a Levantinian-style restaurant that also served full English Breakfast just a few doors down. I hear it was phenomenal, but we had to skip out because the ONE plan I had for the entire trip called to say they were ready for us. *Runs across London*

The London portion of the trip was almost entirely open to whatever plans the students had in mind. It was interesting to see where they scattered to on this part of the trip since they had wildly different agendas! We immediately had a group take off to see the changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace. Some took a bus tour to see as much of London as possible and others scattered to various sights for a more in-depth experience, like the Tower of London.

All the Foods

I feel like a LOT of eating was done on this part of the trip. You could have rolled me out of London by the time we were done. I think a particular favorite on everyone’s agenda was high tea (high tea = a more substantial meal, low tea = social tea & snacks to hold you over until dinner). A large group of students went to Café Concerto Kensington (a TikTok find, I believe) for tea early the first afternoon. The professor group had tea a few hours later at The Grill Room at Hotel Café Royal, which was so fancy and delightful – stuffed full of gold and mirrors. Apparently, we were dining in the footsteps of many of the greats: Princess Diana, Oscar Wilde, David Bowie, Winston Churchill, and Elizabeth Taylor to name a few. Fun. We tried so many teas, sandwiches, and desserts and were stuffed by the time we were done.

Doing the Things

Remember that run across London? It put us at the Voces8 Building for a choir rehearsal. I’m sure you’re wondering what in the world for? Well…the choir I used to sing in when we lived in Auburn, Alabama was on tour in London and performing the following evening with a collection of choirs from Alabama, Missouri, and Canada. Our schedule didn’t allow me to make it to the performance, so my choir bestie managed to get me security clearance (no really, they had security – so fancy) to come to their rehearsal that morning instead. I was elated not only to see so many faces I hadn’t seen in years and hug their necks, but we got to sit and listen to them for an hour, in heaven, tears streaming down my face style. Singing at that caliber is something I miss so, so much. I wish we could have stayed all day, but Jason was in major need of coffee, so we strolled past St. Paul’s Cathedral (didn’t go in, because again, coffee) and found him a coffee shop.

Here’s a snippet of their rehearsal. Not the best angle, but we’re here for sound, not the view.

We snagged the tube once Jason had coffee in hand, and got off in Mayfair for a quick run through Selfridges. Neither of us were in the mood for much shopping, so we grabbed a light lunch there instead. Jason was tempted by the watches on the ground floor but decided to pass when the first one he saw was £35,000. Woah! Nevermind. We wandered back to the hotel via Baker Street station which was overflowing with futbol fans – we missed the memo on that one. Security was literally pushing them onto the trains, they were so packed! Wild. A quick change of clothes for us and then back on the tube to head to the Hotel Café Royal for tea.

Night tours, a Beyonce concert, dinners, and whatever 20-somethings do in London late into the night on a bank holiday made up the rest of day one. We went to bed. I was already on night two with no sleep and needed to have my ducks in a row to get us out of London the following day. I have never slept so hard in a tiny double bed. Haha. The Point A Hotel was lovely and accommodating to our large group, but the rooms were literally the size of the bed with enough room to swing the door open and with no room to open even a tiny carry-on suitcase anywhere. Fortunately, we’d had training for this on the sleeper train the night before. Quaint.

IFRS and Canary Wharf

Nearly everyone made it down for breakfast the next morning and were again moving as a group. The hotel agreed to hold our bags for us until each person collected them at the end of the day to move to the airport hotel. We took the newly completed Elizabeth Line Underground to Canary Wharf. The Underground itself is such a wonder. One of the oldest stations (Baker Street) has been in operation since 1863 and is such an old-world contrast to the new stations with its noisy train, huge gaps between the train and platform, and gazillion stairs in the station. The newest modern stations like Paddington’s Elizabeth Line with their sleek lines, safety measures (the train doors open behind glass doors, so the track and train are not exposed), and escalators give a much brighter/lighter feeling. I think it’s neat that there’s almost as much history under the city as above. You can read about it here.

The students had another business meeting this morning at the IFRS Foundation, which houses the International Accounting Standards Board & International Sustainability Standards Board. I’ll be honest, I had no idea what they were talking about unless they were talking about sustainability. That’s my jam. But, about 75% of our students were made up of accountants, so they were following right along. After putting on a good show of following along from the front row, I bowed out about 15 minutes early with another professor to walk over to Mala Indian Kitchen to make sure they were ready for our group lunch.

Fun fact about Canary Wharf – this is a newly redeveloped high-rise financial area of London that once was home to many of the warehouses of the West India Docks, one of the busiest shipping docks in the world. Many of its original buildings are now listed and the docks themselves were shut down in the 1980s after container shipping became prominent (no more warehouses needed). A string of developers have come in since to revitalize the area and it is now home to 5 of the 10 tallest buildings in the UK. We were not meeting in one of the high rises, but it was fun to walk through them with our police escort, so we didn’t get lost.

When You Wish Upon A (Michelin) Star

Lunch at Mala was our last meeting as a group. After a fantastic meal, Jason gave some final instructions for the remainder of the trip, and we set everyone free again to get the last few things in before meeting us at the airport hotel that night. This had turned into a long, late lunch and we had dinner reservations at Pied A Terre, a Michelin Star restaurant for our last hurrah about 2 hours later. You remember the comment we made about the non-stop eating in London, right? We weren’t kidding.

We had just enough time to collect our bags and move them to another hotel before heading to dinner – totally not hungry. In the end, dinner was 8 courses and took HOURS, so we managed to eat everything and not feel too miserable. Luckily, when you have 8 courses, all of them are bite-sized so you can make it to the end without…well, let’s just call it an unfortunate ending. PLUS, they basically made me my own menu to avoid all the dairy when I couldn’t eat off just the regular menu or vegan menu because of my soy allergy (seriously…it’s ridiculous sometimes).

Obviously, this place gets high marks from me…if that means anything more than a Michelin Star to anyone. As a side note, if you’ve not been to a Michelin-starred restaurant, we’d highly recommend them. Before going, we assumed they were super fancy, with arrogant staff and super-strict dress codes. I suppose some of them might be, but what we found was anything but. Yes, the dress was smart casual, but no one wore a tie or jacket. The staff were amazing and went above and beyond to explain things, answer questions, and generally make us feel comfortable throughout the whole ordeal. The food though…well that was fancy, and we didn’t hate it.

Celebrating done, we thought we’d made it, were in the clear, and would be the last group to check in at the new hotel. We were not. One quickly followed us and then…we were missing a student. *panic ensues* One. How!?? After hours of frantic searching and unwillingly launching the University protocol for such things, we finally found them when they replied to a message. Asleep…in a room that wasn’t assigned to us! That’s a big hotel industry no, no (if there was a fire, for example, they wouldn’t be on the list of occupants!). So unfortunately, we feel like they’ve been blacklisted for us, which is a bummer because they have a huge European presence. We’ll have to marinate on that one.

Homeward Bound

And so…we began our trip home the following morning, again, with little sleep. We got cabs to Heathrow’s Terminal 3 because we didn’t have the brain power to figure out public transit at that point. Jason and I got breakfast quickly in one of the lounges after we saw everyone through security (United Card Perks!) and met them at the gate for the trip back across the Atlantic. I have never been able to sleep on planes, but I got a solid couple of hours in on the flight to Denver from London (Jason…not so much). The exhaustion in all forms was real at this point. After an uneventful layover in Denver – and a visit to the Centurion Lounge for food and drinks (AMEX Card Perks!) – we boarded our final flight back to Springfield.

We returned to Springfield with only about half of our group, intentionally. One student continue on to Italy and then France for another study abroad program, another stayed in England with her family, and a big group continued on to Ireland for a few days. Turns out, there was a pretty cool reason they wanted to visit Ireland, but that’s their story, so we’ll leave it to them to share.

Oh, I have one more fun story that just warms my little traveler’s heart. A group of students got together and got a tattoo (+44, the UK’s country phone code…you know, the US has +1) while we were in London to remember their trip. I think it’s safe to say they had a great time, and it was worth all our stress. Totally worth it. And yes…we’ll be doing it again next year. Even more fun…they’ve talked Jason, and a few other folks from the trip, into the same tattoo when they’re all back from summer break. Oh, the shenanigans. I just love all these connections being built.

For us for now, we will be enjoying a couple of quiet weeks of summer in Missouri and Iowa before Jason takes off to teach in Spain for 3 weeks in July. I plan to join him in France when he’s finished for a real vacation. Just us. Stand by…obviously, we’ll have to tell you about it.

Part 1 – Group Journey to the UK – Suddenly We’re Education Abroad Coordinators!

Part 2 – Learning to Appreciate the Remarkable Calm of the Scottish Highlands

The post The Remarkable City of London, the End of the Journey first appeared on The DeBode Way.

Traveling to London – Days 1 and 2

We flew out of Springfield on Thursday and into London on Friday, leaving plenty of time for Jason to check in to his conference and then venture out on our own for the day. We took the new Heathrow Express train to Paddington station from the airport. This was a pricier option compared to the Underground (what the Britts call their subway), but we were testing the best way to get from the airport with students. We took the Underground on the way back to the airport and it was extremely crowded with bags. Plus, that was just two of us, we will have between 20-30 others with us next time with a backpack and carry-on bag each – it’s too much hassle to try to cram everyone on. We vote Express. We stayed at the Hilton Paddington, right on top of the train station for this trip for easy access to transportation and to check out all the train lines for our students. I wouldn’t call it the best Hilton we’ve ever stayed at, but it was convenient, so it did the job. We will probably be looking at hotels above King’s Cross Station for our trip back since that is where we will come into the city from Scotland.

Since many of the sites we were planning to visit in the city were closed for the weekend and the Queen’s funeral, we decided to take a train trip a bit outside of the city to Hampton Court. We had not prepared for this at all, so that meant a trip to the ticket desk at the train station to figure out the best way to get there. A very helpful man found us the best route from Paddington Station via Waterloo Station on the Underground and then to Hampton Court on the train. We thought it was the slowest train ever but that was probably because we hadn’t slept in 24 hours at this point. The key to a trip to Europe is to stay awake that first day to reset your body clock to local time, so we always try to keep busy. Sometimes it’s rather painful, like the time we did a hop-on hop-off bus tour in Dublin that didn’t give you many opportunities to hop off. It became a nap bus. Luckily, this train had Wi-Fi, so we were able to catch up on some emails and keep our brains busy while we rode.

Hampton Court – Still Day 2

To Hampton Court! Does anyone other than me know about Hampton Court? I had to fill Jason in quite a bit, but he eventually got into it and we spent ALL day there totally nerding out. Ok, I was nerding out, he was dragging along behind in desperate need of a nap but we did find him some coffee and a tour headset to keep his hands and mind busy.

Hampton Court is the “pleasure palace” of King Henry Tudor VIII – the one with all the wives. He confiscated this picture-perfect palace on the banks of the Thames from Cardinal Wolsey, his Lord Chancellor, in the 16^th century. Wolsey had started with what was a country house and spent a magnificent sum of money to transform it into a palace where he could host the King and monarchs from around the world. He did so well with this transformation that King Henry VIII took it for himself. It was/is enormous and filled with all the modern thrills of the time – a theatre, hunting grounds, expansive gardens, a great hall, tennis court, truly anything imaginable, and an absolutely gorgeous chapel (that you’re not allowed to photograph). There were state and private apartments for the King and his Queen (whoever that was at the time), expansive accommodations for courtiers, and under it all, a vast network of servants and supply chain making it all run flawlessly. Never mind the grandeur, I think the staff and servant areas are a work of genius. Everything ran like clockwork, there were two lavish meals with 40+ dinner options each day that fed hundreds of people. And this court was so rich that the main item on the menu was always some form of meat – unheard of outside of this palace in the 16^th century. The rest of the country was quite poor and ate whatever they could find.

Some fun facts:

• In 1603 William Shakespeare’s King’s Men performed Hamlet and Macbeth for James I in the Great Hall at Hampton Court.
• In 1604 the conference that resulted in the publication of the King James Bible in 1611 was held at Hampton Court.
• King Charles I housed much of his astonishing art collection at the palace and found himself staring at all this art when he was imprisoned in the palace in 1647 after his defeat in the Civil War. He escaped, was captured, and executed by Oliver Cromwell’s Parliamentarians in 1649. Cromwell then made the palace his home in the mid-1600s to save it from destruction. I think it’s funny how such a staunch Puritan was living in a palace – contradiction much?

Unfortunately (but maybe, fortunately) ¾ of this palace was torn down in the 18^th century and replaced with its baroque addition by King William and Queen Mary. You can see the evidence of this very clearly from the outside. The Tudor portion of Hampton Court is more ornate, closed off, and the brick is much darker. The baroque addition is simple with symmetrical facades, light-colored stone, offers lots of light through many windows, and looks very welcoming. In the addition, you could drive up to the door and enter the palace. In contrast, the Tudor portion must first be entered via a large gate to the courtyard, almost being swallowed up by the palace before being granted entrance to the buildings. William and Mary were also responsible for the creation of the great fountain garden and the privy garden. Both are still absolutely spectacular today.

The final addition to Hampton Court was made by King George I in 1714-1729 when he added rooms for his son King George II. He also added a new kitchen. This Hanoverian king would spend his summers in Hanover and leave the rule of England to his son, who was the last monarch to live at Hampton Court. By 1737 George II no longer wanted to live there, and so it was turned into lavish apartments for those who had been in service to the monarch. This continued until the 1960s when new apartments were no longer granted, but there are still a couple of elderly residents at Hampton Court today. In 1838 Queen Victoria opened Hampton Court to the public (much to the private residents’ disappointment) and it has since been a way for the commoner to peer into the lives of Kings and Queens. Trust me, we did our fair share. They were closing the gates behind us as we finally made our way out, back down the drive and back to the train. Bye Hampton Court, I’ll miss you. We wandered back to the hotel completely exhausted and totally head bobbing on the train. We found some food at the hotel restaurant and called it a day.

You’re welcome for the history lesson. Back to it.

The Tower of London – Day 3

The following day we managed to sneak in a visit to the Tower of London after Jason spent the morning in conference sessions. This was a highly recommended to-do when we asked for advice on must-sees in London. I would like to thank you all for your recommendation, and while it was a spectacle to behold, it wasn’t our favorite. I’m sure you know the stories of the “bloody tower:” its many executions, prisoners, the place where two boys disappeared, and the protector of the city. But, do you know it was once a zoo, a royal residence, was surrounded by water, currently holds England’s crown jewels, and its guards, the Yeoman Warders (aka Beefeaters), have been guarding the Tower since Tudor times and were the guards you saw surrounding the Queen’s casket in Parliamentary Hall at her funeral? We met one, he told us about the procedure to guard the casket – 20 minutes on, change of guard, 20 minutes off, for 6 hours. Many voluntarily pulled double and triple shifts to guard the Queen’s casket all through the night. My body hurts just thinking about it.

The familiar White Tower at the center of it all has been transformed into a museum. An informative one at that but I was disappointed that much of the original function had been covered up by the museum aspect and modern accommodations. It’s hard to imagine it as a well-stocked armory, great hall, and prison when you are faced with computer screens and boarded-up alcoves. Fantastic photo op from the ramparts outside though. We didn’t stay very long.

While everyone was occupied by the changing of the guard (which was rather sparse because they were busy guarding the Queen’s casket as thousands of mourners filed by down the road in Parliamentary Hall) we ran to the front of the line to see the crown jewels. These are located in the Jewel House behind the White Tower. The building itself is actually one large vault; you’ll walk through an imposing door as you enter the main collection area. Unfortunately, during our visit, some of these were missing as the Orb, Scepter, and the Imperial State Crown were on display atop the Queen’s casket, but we did get to see hundreds of years’ worth of jewels, crowns, jewelry, and serving dishes collected by various monarchs. The amount of treasure in that room is astounding, though controversial, as it’s compiled of things taken from all over the world, most from territories currently or formerly controlled by the British Crown. If ever you wanted to appreciate the excesses of royal possessions, this would be the place to visit.

My favorite part of the entire complex was the Chapel Royal of St. Peter ad Vincula. It is a simple but gorgeous chapel within the tower walls. Here are buried some rather famous prisoners executed at the Tower – Queen Anne Boleyn, Queen Catherine Howard, Lady Jane Grey, Lord Guilford Dudley, and Sir Thomas More. All victims of King Henry VIII’s wrath. Can you tell I know a few things about the Tudors? Haha.

We wandered every other building we were allowed, visited the shops, walked the ramparts, toured the once grand royal apartments, and found coins in the mint from the reign of King George III – coins in use during the American Revolution, which in relation to everything else there, is very recent. Once again, we wandered out the gate as they were closing for the day and walked along the River Thames for some photos of Tower Bridge. The traffic jam happening over that bridge – no thank you!

And then, we did the unthinkable. We got back on the Underground and as it made its stop at Westminster Hall we thought, why not, and got off. Oh my. We walked up the stairs with suspiciously few people and as we broke the surface, were met by a sea of people heading in the opposite direction from where we had intended to go. As we soon discovered, they had closed the station, so it was little wonder there were so few people. We managed to find a corner, get our bearings, and decided to follow them. We weren’t getting any closer the Westminster this time. It turns out, the cousins’ vigil was about to take place, so security around the area had tightened, forcing everyone away. The cousins had just been outside thanking everyone for coming – we just missed them! As Midwesterners do, we struck up a conversation with one of the officers asking about their hats while we were trying to figure out which direction to go. Jason had noticed there were different hats among the officers (male and female officers have different styles of hats) and asked why. She had no idea! Haha! The officer had heard talk of a redesign, so everyone will eventually have the same gender-neutral version, but the new design has yet to be revealed. And now, I will be watching for that to see if it happens. Looking at you Scotland Yard. We continued to follow the flow of traffic to the next Underground station where we were able to get back on and head back to the hotel. I will say, for the number of people we suddenly encountered, it was very orderly.

We went for a wander to find some dinner after that. We walked into Zizzi, an Italian restaurant, fully expecting that I would only be able to eat spaghetti and tomatoes or something non-dairy along those lines. I just have to say, when you’re met at the door of a restaurant and the first thing they ask you (after how you are and how many in your party) is if there are any food allergies, I’m impressed. That’s all it takes. I feel seen and safe. This happened at EVERY restaurant we stepped in on this trip and I never got sick. Thank you, thank you, thank you! I was soooo afraid to travel again after the food poisoning debacle in Spain. And yes, I did find something other than spaghetti. Win!

Exploring Hyde Park – Day 4

The next day was Sunday. Jason attended a few conference sessions in the morning, so I ate breakfast by myself, so awkward, then went back to the room to do some sink laundry while I waited for him to get done. Then in London Sunday fashion, we decided to take a walk in Hyde Park in the afternoon. The closer to the southern portion of the park we walked, the busier it got. We’re still not entirely sure why, but I think everyone was being redirected from laying flowers at Buckingham Palace to Hyde Park. Since we were so close to the grounds of the Palace, we decided to go against the crowd and see if we could get close enough to snap a shot of it. Negative. Sunday was the day all the foreign leaders were gathering for a reception at Buckingham Palace prior to the Queen’s funeral, so security was tight and you couldn’t get close to the grounds. No wonder there were helicopters. Next time.

We hopped on the Underground at Hyde Park Corner Station and took it out to the University of London to do some scouting for another program Jason has in the works. It’s a lovely, quiet area with a nice park, grocery, and restaurants and just so happens to be right next to the British Museum. Nerd alert. I will happily accompany him on this trip as well. We didn’t go to the museum but now that I know where it is, I’ll be back! Starving and tired from walking all afternoon, we hopped the Underground again, changed trains at Kings Cross, and popped up right in front of our hotel at Paddington. We dropped our bags off quickly, then wandered into the pub across the street for burgers. We tried to call it an early night because Jason’s presentation was the next day and I had intended to work all day. Well…

Working while abroad…and a Royal Funeral – Day 5

Jason did leave early for the conference and was there most of the day. His discussion went well, and I think he got lots of good ideas to expand upon. You’ll have to ask him about the particulars. All he really told me was that there was an awkward 2 minutes of silence throughout the country that they participated in and weren’t sure where to look. I grabbed breakfast alone again (still awkward – why do I feel like I’m being stared at?) and proceeded to park myself in front of the TV to watch the Queen’s funeral – ALL. DAY. At one point I moved to crack the window for some fresh air and realized I could hear the cannons being fired in Hyde Park. I really truly thought I would get some work done but I was just captivated by the music, the pageantry, and the history of it all. So well done. Say what you will about the British, this they know how to do. I almost convinced myself to walk back down to Hyde Park again to see the funeral procession but decided this was a moment for Brits, not Americans, so I stayed put. Jason eventually came back with a newspaper explaining the proceedings of the entire day – this is the only thing we brought home from this entire trip…and a bookmark from Hampton Court. It will be fun to pull out again in years to come.

Our options for dinner this evening were pretty slim. Many places were closed in honor of the Queen’s funeral, but we did find a great little hole-in-the-wall Indian restaurant. Amazing food! We had to roll ourselves back up the hill afterward. This is where I have to thank our friend at home for introducing us to the Indian culture and their amazing food. I’m hooked! Jason is becoming quite the Instapot Indian cook. I eat. Haha!

Back to the Airport – Day 6

This was our last night in the city. In the morning we took the very crowded Underground back to Heathrow to pick up our rental car for adventure time. It turns out, there were no trains out of Paddington for 2 days due to some mysterious damage to the electrical lines. We learned later this left a lot of people coming in for the Queen’s funeral on Monday stranded and all the extra trains they had planned to run from Paddington left, empty. Luckily there was still the Underground, which took about an hour to reach the airport. We could have also taken a taxi but that would have probably taken even longer and cost a fortune. Off the Underground, we found the shuttle for Hertz at the airport and were whisked away to our car – our first experience with a hybrid.

Until next time…

The post Unexpected Pageantry – Business in London During a Historic Time first appeared on The DeBode Way.