UK + Ireland

 We first visited Tyler’s sister Alyssa in Worcester where she had recently finished uni! It was lovely to see her, her school, and her town :)

The three of us then traveled to Lettermullan, Ireland where we stayed some friends of my family who have a cottage on the coast there to visit their family. They very graciously and generously hosted us and we had lots of wonderful quality time with them and Alyssa. It was lovely to hang out with some of the local families there and learn more about Irish culture, as Leitir Mealláin is in a Gaeltacht region. We were treated to a heavenly seaweed bath which was a neat experience and very relaxing :) The weather was mostly cold, rainy, and windy but we stayed cozy inside around the fire and walked the land next to the sea during moments of sun. We also did a cold plunge off the pier during (semi) high tide :)

We said goodbye to Alyssa at the Dublin airport and flew to Glasgow to get to the start of the West Highland Way hike. We started the trail the next day and had a surprising amount of sun which was great for good views of the pretty countryside.
The second day was a bit more grueling and the third day was mostly rain. Day four had great views and lots of sun and the fifth day was light in terms of miles, but still sent us off with pouring rain in true Scottish fashion. We then bussed back to Glasgow from the end of the trail in Fort William. I would recommend the 96 mi trail to hikers visiting Scotland. We completed it in five days for training purposes (which saved us $), but most hikers follow an eight day schedule. Many people camp along the trail but we didn’t have the capacity to bring gear to Europe so we were limited to hostels/hotels/pods which made the trail very expensive overall.

England

Ireland

Scotland