March 2026 Travel Adventures: London's West End, Oxford and More!

March 2026 took us to a variety of places, ranging from picturesque villages to educational museums, and even the bright lights of London's West End. Here are our highlights! 

The Science Museum and the West End, London

We both took a day off one Wednesday in March to enjoy some time in London without the weekend crowds.

This was a day in which we both got to explore some of our biggest passions in life.

We started off at the Science Museum in Kensington, one of London's many free museums. As a city, London is generally super expensive, so it's great to make the most of free attractions like this. Claudio really loved this museum, especially the parts about cars (obviously!) and engineering. Though he studied and works in business/finance (which is considered more prestigious than engineering in Chile), he's always loved taking things apart to see how they work and putting them back together again, as well as tinkering around with cars, so he really enjoyed the exhibits about how different machines work.

Afterwards, we took the bus over to the West End. Taking the bus in London often feels like a tourist attraction in and of itself; we always enjoy looking out of the window at the different streets and landmarks.

We stopped for a coffee and cinnamon roll at Ole & Steen on Haymarket Street - the first place Claudio ever went for coffee in London, back in 2020!

It was then time for an activity involving one of my biggest passions in life - musical theatre! My parents had given me a theatre token for my birthday in October, and we finally used it to go and see the Phantom of the Opera in the West End. Going to see shows is one of my favourite things in life, and I really enjoyed seeing this classic. It's a spectacular musical, and we loved the bit with the falling chandelier!

Afterwards, we got some food at LEON, which is one of our favourite chains in London, as it's reasonably affordable and healthy. We sat in the window, enjoying views of two West End theatres in front of us.

We finished off our day in London by walking over the Thames and across to Westminster Bridge to take a look at the Big Ben and Palace of Westminster, before getting a bus back to near Paddington. The bus was another nice tour through the city, this time by night.

Overall, it felt like a real treat to get to visit the city on a weekday - it definitely gave us more of an experience of being a local, rather than a tourist. We'll absolutely do something like this again in the future.

Oxford

We always enjoy visiting Oxford, and realised recently that neither of us had been there in a while. As it's only a short train journey away, we decided to go there one weekend for a walk around some of its lesser-known sights, such as St John's College (where my sister used to work) and the University Parks. There are always a lot of hidden gems to discover in this elegant city.

We then spent a nice hour or two at the Ashmolean Museum, which is free to enter (always a plus point!). I'd visited it briefly several years ago, so it was nice to go around it again. There are far too many exhibits to look at everything in detail, but I especially liked the rooms with the ancient Greek and Egyptian statues and artefacts. We also went up on the roof of the building, which had great views.

Ure Museum of Greek Archaeology

Speaking of museums, I also recently visited the Ure Museum of Greek Archaeology at the University of Reading. It's quite a small room of Greek and Egyptian artefacts, but definitely worth popping in and seeing if you happen to be walking around the university.

Henley-on-Thames

A couple of weeks ago, we returned to Henley-on-Thames to see some of the town's sights that we'd missed on our first visit. We had a nice walk in the sunshine and enjoyed crossing the wooden bridge over the river and watching the water in the lock being raised and lowered.

Goring

Our final outing of March was to the village of Goring, on the train line between Reading and Didcot. This picturesque village is known for being where the singer George Michael lived. We visited his house, where fans had left tributes, and also enjoyed walking by the river and along the village's scenic streets.

I expected that April would bring some very exciting travel adventures to write about on this blog, but unfortunately, at the end of March, we had to cancel a big international trip we had planned. Of course, it's disappointing to not be abroad right now, but we've been taking some fun day trips to make up for it. I'll be writing all about those very soon!

A Day Trip to the United States: Visiting Runnymede

My most recent day trip from Reading was to the United States! That may sound close to impossible - you would expect it to involve at least a seven-hour flight there and another seven-hour flight back. However, I wasn't doing an extreme day trip (though this is a trend that is becoming more popular). In fact, it only took me a 40-minute train journey, a 15-minute bus ride and a short walk to get there.

So how was that possible? The truth is that there is a small corner of U.S. soil here in England, at the National Trust site at Runnymede in Surrey. I had read about this place a few years ago and had been intrigued to visit it someday. And at the end of February, we were lucky to have a sunny day with temperatures reaching 18 degrees, so I had the perfect opportunity to go to visit this outdoor area filled with sculptures and memorials.

First, I took the train from Reading to Egham. My next step was to take a bus, but as I missed the one five minutes after my train's arrival, I had about half an hour to spend in Egham. So I went to get a coffee and had a look around the town centre, which was very clean and modern.

On the bus later, I went past this incredible grand old building that looked like a fairytale castle! I was absolutely amazed by it. Looking it up later, I found out that it was the Founder's Building at Royal Holloway University. I actually came back to Egham with Claudio that weekend in order to visit it properly. (I'll be writing about that soon!)

A bit later on in the bus journey, I was surprised and happy to find I had views across to London, including Wembley Stadium!

I got off the bus at a stop with the interesting name of Bells of Ouzeley. It is actually the name of a Harvester pub next to the bus stop. It's a very charming old building opposite the river, and looked like a great, scenic place to enjoy some food and drink on this sunny afternoon.

I then walked along the river to the National Trust site. The path was a bit muddy, but the route was very picturesque.

Unlike a lot of National Trust sites, Runnymede is free to enter. It doesn't have a manor house like many National Trust properties do - it is an outdoor area with various artworks and memorials - but it does have  a small building with a tearoom and bathrooms.

The site is also really near Heathrow, so there were plenty of planes passing low overhead, which added to the international vibe of my day out.

The first spot I visited was the John F. Kennedy memorial, which is the part I had read about previously. You step through a wooden gate to enter the area where the memorial is and you are officially on U.S. soil!

There is a long pathway and fifty uneven steps that take you up to the memorial itself. It's definitely quite a unique experience to be able to say you've gone to another country (sort of) just by walking through a gate.

Runnymede is most famous for being where the Magna Carta was signed in 1215, and there is also a monument dedicated to that event.

There's also this really interesting artwork called Writ in Water, which is located inside a small building. Inside the building, you go around this sort of labyrinth, which leads you to a small, reflective pool, in which is written an extract of the Magna Carta. It's very clever and unique.

After having a good walk around the site, I walked back to the bus stop and then sat by the river in the sun while waiting for the bus.

This day out was a big reminder to me of how important it can be to get outdoors in the sunshine and enjoy some peaceful, beautiful surroundings from time to time. To be honest, I'm not always that much of a fan of life in the UK - a lot of places can look very run down and grim, especially at this time of year, and the cost of living crisis never seems to get any better - but there are some beautiful places to be found in this country, and spending time in them can make a real difference to your mood.

That's all for today, but I'll be writing again soon about more of my February travels!