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!

Summer Travel Adventures in England (Outside London)

Having just written about our summer travel adventures in London, it's now time to cover all the places we visited outside of the capital...

Mercedes Benz World

It was Claudio's birthday in June, and given that his big passion in life is cars, I decided to surprise him with a trip to Mercedes Benz World. As we don't currently have a car, the journey there took us over 90 minutes and involved three trains and a walk through a fairly deserted area. I was hoping that the destination would be worth the hassle, and thankfully, it was!

The museum is free to visit (though there are extra activities you can pay for) and it kept us entertained for a good few hours. Attractions included a cinema showing a film about the history of Mercedes Benz, cars from different eras to look at, modern cars that we could go inside, and a race track where we saw a driving demonstration. Definitely a very fun experience for any car lover!

Bournemouth

During one of the heatwaves over the summer, we decided to spend a day at Bournemouth Beach, which can be reached directly by train from Reading. 

With its long stretch of golden sand, this is definitely one of the UK's most beautiful beaches. I'd been twice in recent years (once in 2019 and once in 2021) and wanted to show it to Claudio.

Unfortunately, there was some kind of big cheerleading event going on, which meant that the town was a lot busier than it otherwise would have been. The weather also turned very cold around lunchtime, which put paid to our plans for a swim in the sea, as we knew that the train back would be heavily air-conditioned and we wouldn't be able to warm up until we got back home. 

So we chose to spend a large part of the afternoon walking through the Town Gardens, a park that I hadn't fully explored before. The Upper Gardens is supposedly inspired by three continents: Europe, Asia and North America. To be honest, I'm no expert on plants, so it was hard to tell which parts were inspired by which continent, except for the Japanese-style bridges. But it was a nice, tranquil place to explore away from the chaos of the town centre.

Maidenhead

Living on the Elizabeth Line, Maidenhead was an obvious place for us to go and visit. We'd passed it many times when going into London, and thought it looked really nice, so took a trip there one weekend.

The town centre was actually not as nice as we were expecting, though it gets better the further you go from the station.

The part next to the river, however, is super picturesque, and we really enjoyed our walk there. 

Oxford

I have been feeling very burnt out this year from a long job search and from a job that isn't aligned with my career aspirations. This was especially tough during the summer, and so I decided to take a few days off one week to give myself a bit of a reset. I used one of those days to take a trip to Oxford, one of my favourite cities in the UK, to spend a day walking around the sights, and enjoying its cafés and shops.

One place I really loved visiting was Blackwell's bookshop - it's a beautiful shop with so many books. I could spend hours there!

Eton and Windsor

Claudio really wanted to visit Windsor Castle, and we had no excuse not to go, as it's very close by. We didn't go inside, as it's so expensive (and the Windsor family get enough of our money as it is!), but we had a nice time walking around the picturesque town. We also crossed over the river to the town of Eton, where you can find the infamous school (another institution I don't approve of!). This was another pretty (and surprisingly peaceful) area to visit, and we were lucky enough to see Dave the Eton Dachshund in his window!

Reading

Over the summer months, we've also got to know our current town better. One place I liked checking out was the museum housed in the town hall, which is completely free to visit. Highlights included a copy of the Bayeux Tapestry, Roman mosaics, and a collection of vintage biscuit tins!

We also spent an interesting evening exploring the university campus (this actually inspired us to take our recent trip to Nottingham!). We really loved the old building next to the lake - it looked like something out of an Agatha Christie adaptation!

Life has been pretty full-on recently, which is why this post about summer travel has ended up being published over halfway through October! But in the coming weeks, I want to try to get back on track posting regularly here, as well as on my Instagram page. I have a lot of interesting things to write about, including a recent trip abroad! So stay tuned for the next installment in my next travel diaries. 😊