edinburgh

Teen Travel: UK Tour (26/06-9/07)

Our first trip of the summer has begun and we have a wonderful group. 10 teens from 7 different countries met in London and have started their journey around the UK.

This is an authentic travel experience…the teens are in control of nearly every element of their trip. They will learn to budget, communicate, delegate, compromise and much more.

The teens will take it turns to document their trip. As you can manage this is full immersive experience so their priority isn’t to be writing blogs but they will endeavour to update us every 2-3 days…

Day 1 – 3: London to Cardiff to Glasgow

Berkeley, USA…

The Castle and the Cooking

“On our first morning in Cardiff, we explored the city, visiting important sites like Millennium Stadium, Cardiff Castle, and Bute Park. When we got back, we made homeade garlic bread, and spaghetti with a vegetarian sauce.

The next day, having mostly recovered from jet lag, I was chosen to be in charge of serving dinner. I elected to serve a Welsh classic, leek and potato soup, and rarebit. Ironically, in the land of leeks, we found every ingredient except for the leeks. This sent us on a wild goose chase through Cardiff, where we met Tom Jones, and ended our pursuit at the Cardiff Market.

Preparing the soup was a different beast. After a long time chopping leeks, potatoes, and onions, my crew and I set to work washing our mess and stirring the vegetables in butter. We followed the recipe perfectly, until we found out our blender was broken. Nevertheless, with a masher and some determination, we managed to create a wonderful, Welsh dining experience.“

Julia F, USA…

“While in Wales, we decided to make cookies. Though our airbnb did not have any of the necessary tools to make cookies (ex. bowls, whisks, spatulas, mixers, vanilla, etc.). I learned to problem solve, which ended up being me using a pot as a bowl and slowly stirring my concoction with a table spoon.

After booking our “pods” in scotland, we discovered they did not have any bedding. Although some of us might have gotten lost in a build a bear, others in the group were determined that we have comfortable sleeping accommodations. They went hunting from camping store to camping store and scored us all our necessary sleeping bags and pillows. They haggled for 15% off, and we scored some sleeping bags and comfy pillows (even though ava lost her sleeping bag like 4 times).”

Charlotte, France…

“Our train to Glasgow was cancelled so we decided to sit down and kill some time at a lounge in the train station by playing card games.
We all learned some new card games by watching and listening eachother.
We finally got two trains, one from Liverpool to Wigan and the other one from Wigan to Glasgow, both of them where pretty full but we managed to all finally have a seat.”

Day 4 – 6: Glasgow to Edinburgh

Charlotte, France…

“After a chill morning, we went to Go Ape in Aberfoyle. We started with the explanations and safety instructions. To start we did a first long zip line to join the different courses. we did 6 different courses including a long zip line 426 meters long and 45 meters high to finish. We were all separated into several groups of three. The different courses had lots of different activities as tarzan jump, small zip lines or crossing on wooden logs. It was great fun ! After this, we went to a pub. Most of us tried Irn-Bru for the first time a very sweet scottish drink. We all took different food as pizza, scampi… During lunch we made some plans for the night and secured our accommodation in Edinburgh.”

Ronny, Italy…

On June 30th we were in Trassachs Holiday Park staying in pods. In the evening there was the brilliant idea of ​​having a bbq. We had a lot of fun that evening…we laughed and sang! In short we had a lot of fun then we made a fire where we also cooked marshmallows.

Jessica, Thailand & Marta, Spain…

We woke up around 8-10am and started to pack up and get ready for the day. After we had breakfast, we broke up into groups of three and started planning how to get to Edinburgh.

We ended up with having to get a taxi from the pods to a small town called Aberfoyle, and then a bus from Aberfoyle to Sterling. Then, we had to walk to the train station to catch the train to Edinburgh.

When we got to Edinburgh, we walked around 15 minutes to get some lunch at Nandos. We all had delicious meals and spent some time talking and laughing. Luckily, our accommodation was around 5 minutes away from Nandos, so we quickly walked to it and just spent some time chilling out in the apartments.

To end the day, we all went to an arcade, which was also just around 5 minutes away form the apartments. We had lots of fun playing games, and spent some time bowling in groups. Marta and Charlotte were the bowling winners!

After some fun in the arcade, we all went to the nearest supermarket to get some breakfast for the next morning.

Day 7 – 10: Edinburgh to Hogwarts to Brighton

Julia M, USA…

On the third of July we traveled an hour by train to see the castle that Harry Potter was filmed at for someone in the groups golden ticket. The castle was beautiful and there was so much to see. Some of us even dressed up in medieval outfits and wandered the grounds. While part of the group explored the “Hogwarts” halls others found fluffy hills to roll down again and again. We all joined together again to roll down a hill as a nice bonding activity. Later that day we found a cute pizza restaurant and enjoyed a delicious dinner. That night we walked through the streets of Scotland following a ghost tour and even got access into the underground streets where many years ago families had lived during very hard times.

Derek, Canada…

We left the accommodation at 12:00 and directly went to Arthur’s seat to roll down it. After a lot of walking and waiting we finally got up to the top which is when we realized we couldn’t roll down Arthur’s seat and went back down by walking.
After that we went back to town and visited camera obscura which was lots of fun even though it made us a bit dizzy.

Charlotte, France…

After a really chill morning, we took the bus for Arthur’s Seat in Edinburgh. We walked to the top of it, it was really windy up there ! We took lots of pictures, the view was so worth it !! Down the hill we had ice cream, then headed to a chinese restaurant where we had lunch, it was really great.
After, we went to Victoria street, Jessica’s golden ticket ! Some of us went to a Harry Potter shop and others just admired this beautiful street. We explored a bit the rest of the city but everything was getting closed. However, we found Camera Obscura an illusion museum , where 21st Century tech meets classic illusions and historic science. It was great fun. When we left to get the bus we came across a man and his owl, Hazel the owl. Julia and Berkley took it on their hand for a few minutes.
We finally took the bus to go back to our accomodation. Arrived there some of us stayed to chill at the accomodation and the others went to the cinema to watch the new minion movie.

Jessica, Thailand…

We all decided to go to Alnwick castle, Ronny’s golden ticket. We travelled from Edinburgh to Alnmouth on the train, and took a taxi from the train station to the castle.

When we got to the castle, we all split up and had a wonder around. We learned about how the castle came to be, and who used to live in it. Did you know that some scenes in Harry Potter was filmed there? It was really cool to see where Harry and his friends learned how to fly their broomsticks.

When we finished visiting Alnwick castle, we headed back to Edinburgh and had dinner at a pizza restaurant. After dinner, we went on a ghost tour around Edinburgh, and a few of us got jump scared 👻. It was a fantastic way to learn about some of Edinburgh’s history.

At the end of the day, we were all really tired so we headed back to our accommodation and went straight to bed.

Marta, Spain…

We woke up early to catch the train. We traveled from Edinburgh to Brighton by train, making a stop in London.

When we arrived to Brighton, we had to find the accommodation were we would stay for two nights. When we were there we chose rooms.

We were starving so we went to eat fish and chips for dinner. We found a restaurant that was number one on TripAdvisor. Then we went to the beach and we went back to the accommodation.

Day 11 – 14: Brighton – London

Berkeley, USA…

On Wednesday, we were moving fairly slowly. We had things to take care of by the end of the day, but we started our day with small groups of teens going for walks in Brighton. We were situated by the beach, so it was a nice area to walk around. After an unstructured start to our day, we went to a taperia for lunch.

Following a nice lunch, we went to the North Lanes in Brighton. It was an area full of shops, mainly clothing stores. However, you could also find the occasional café, record shop, or haberdashery.

After shopping, we convened to find a place to stay. It was our last day in the AirBnB, so we needed a new place to stay. We tried AirBnBs, hostels, and even looked at hotels, but we didn’t find a good option. The best option we found was to book another AirBnB in Brighton, which was a successful venture.

Having found an accommodation for the rest of our stay, we went back to the AirBnB, where a meal of rice and vegetables was made.

Congratulations to Julie & Hayley

Julie and Hayley are very special members of the L&E team and have been involved with us since 2014. They got married on 20th April in an incredibly emotional ceremony with many members of the L&E staff in attendance. It was a magical day and we are all so delighted for them both. Wishing them many years of happiness together.

L&E Team Wedding Guests

In honour of their special day L&E produced a music video to celebrate the small (though not insignificant!) part that L&E plays in their lives…

Hayley & Julie’s Summer Story

Teen Travel UK Tour Blog

Saturday -Tuesday

We are eleven  people from all around Europe:

Lukas – 15, from Sweden.

Emily – 16, from Holland.

Paul – 16, from Germany.

Serafina – 15, from Germany.

Beatrice – 16, from Germany.

Maria – 16, from Spain.

Marianne – 15, from France.

Gaia – 16, from Italy.

Sam – 15, from England.

Connie – Travel Mentor, England

Julie – Travel Mentor, Scotland

Apart from Sam we all arrived in Manchester airport at various times on Saturday. From there we drove to L&E North camp to plan our trip and get to know each other better. We decided to depart the next day but before we left we all watched the final match for the World Cup and ate at he barbecue with the rest of the camp. After the barbecue big Sam drove us to our first stop in Grassmere where we stayed for one night in a hostel and we all went to the park in the town and we unanimously agreed that we all slept better there than at the camp.

The next day we had breakfast in the self serve kitchen of the hostel and Sam and Lukas made dough balls in the oven. We then took a bus to Brokehole where we went on a treetop trek which ended in a triple zip wire that was 200 meters long! “It was exciting!” – Gaia. Connie had to have her shoe taped onto her foot because it kept almost falling off.

We then took the same bus with a different bus driver who wasn’t as nice to Windermere where we had lunch which was pleasurable. After that we booked the accommodation for Glasgow the night after, furthermore we found a train connection from Kendal to Glasgow that was also affordable for the next day. We then took the bus to Kendal where it then started to rain on our walk to the hostel we were next staying in. After a break we went to Booths to buy food for tonight and the next morning. Sam and Gaia cooked a delicious meal for dinner – pasta with cheese sauce.  Lukas told some ghost stories (not that scary) and we all sat and chatted until bed time. 

Tuesday – Thursday

After a lovely breakfast in Kendal we took the train to Glasgow. It was a long journey and we had to stop and change the train – at the intermediate station Julie had to pretend to be a dog because of a dare!

Since this morning a fun game had started ,where everyone has to “kill” someone else in a specific place and way, two people were already killed.

We arrived at the hostel around 5 o’clock and we ate at Wetherspoon. The evening was full of talks and bonding and we also started to see Shrek

Deaths of the day:

1. Connie – singing the national anthem on a train, in the morning.
2. Marianne – smelling something in a shop, in the morning.

Wednesday 18th

The next day started slowly. We woke up at around 10 am and after a good breakfast we took the bus to Glasgow centre. After a short trip to the Kelvingrove Art Gallery and the park everybody was allowed to go of in groups of at least and discover Glasgow on their own. Most of us went to a burger and than make a short shopping trip.

Back (in at) the hostel Marianne started making crêpes – Sam as chef in training. We than went to bed “in time” because the next day would start very early.

Deaths of the day:

1)  Paul – reading a book on a playground, at midday

2)  Beatrice – singing the national anthem (german) in the bathroom, at lunchtime

Thursday 19th

To day we had to get up at 6.30 am to get the bus to Loch Ness at 7 am. Because of the early time we didn’t eat breakfast, so we had packed (a lot of) (many) snacks for the bus. The bus trip to loch ness took us about four hours but we had a few stops at beautiful places to make pictures and get a pass from the sitting.

When we arrived at Loch Ness we had two options. We could either go and see the castle and than make a cruise on the Loch or only do the cruise. 

• Spent the day in Glasgow (shopping, eating, a pigeon poop on Lukas…)
• Tastes good
• Take bus (discover scottland)
• loch ness
• Take the bus back (strange songs)

Friday…

In the morning we arrived in Edinburgh. Making our way through the streets in the rain, we found a bus to take us to the hostel, not far from the city centre. Sam was in charge of directions and we followed him (cautiously) down several side streets off the main road. Despite a slightly scary looking front door,

we walked through into a travellers paradise; a ping-pong table, PlayStation, comfy sofas and relaxed, friendly staff awaited. The hostel was made up of converted shipping containers, neatly arranged with every amenity. We felt at home right away. 

No time to relax though; we dropped our bags and went straight into town to explore. We picked up some lunch on-the-go, and made a beeline for the Royal Mile. It was hard to miss the incredible architecture as we wound through the streets; the National Gallery of Scotland and the Castle were particularly impressive. Reaching ‘Camera Obscura’ – a museum of oddities, illusions and mind games – we were were happy to get out of the drizzle. It full of bizarre, interactive activities and we emerged later on, giggling on to the streets. Straight on to a restaurant for food, we then just had time for a quick walk up to Calton Hill for the sunset. It did not take much persuading to get everyone to sleep back at the hostel after such a jam-packed day.

We awoke to a sunny day ~ yes, the sun does shine in Scotland! We all headed to the motorbike and music festival we had booked a few days ago, it was on the same side of the city as us which was good. It was very cool – lots of different styles of motorbikes, we even got to sit on some of them!!  We also had a shot on a theme park ride – Sam has been on so many his facial expression didn’t change at all but all of the girls hair was going round and round and round!  

After we got back to the hostel we collected our bags and headed back into town to try and get some onesies for the bus journey. Unfortunately we couldn’t find any we liked so we bought some blankets and some neck pillows which turned out to be invaluable. We went to a restaurant to get some food and to also make a plan for the next part of our trip. Our big map came in handy – it’s good to have a visual of the UK to see how far away each place is from the other. We all worked very hard to plan the next part of our trip – we were getting very tired which was good as we knew we were about to spend the next 9hours on the overnight bus to London. 

The bus station wasn’t far from the restaurant which was great as we were all quite tired and ready to try and sleep. Although the bus was a little cold we did manage to get some sleep. Next stop – LONDON!!!!!!!

L&E Teen Travel: UK Tour 6th – 20th August

Days 1 – 3

Hello everyone, first of all we want to introduce ourselves. We are a group of 4, 3 girls and 1 boy (poor boy). Hello, my name is Emile and I live in South of France. I’m 15 and my hobbies are athletics and music. Hi, I am Emy and I am fifteen. I am from Toulon, this is in the south of France, my hobby is ballet. Hi, I’m Silvia and I’m fifteen, I’m from Milan, in Italy. My favourite hobby is volleyball. Hi there, my name is Jipke I’m sixteen years old and I’m from Munich, but I’m Dutch, my hobby is singing. 

The first day we met, we were all so excited and nervous to find out who we would be spending the next two weeks with. We met at Heathrow Airport and when we had all arrived Julie drove to our first place – L&E South Camp which is at Forres Sandle Manor school in Fordingbridge. The mood in the car was awkward, because everybody was shy to speak and we all we’re very tired. Julie helped the mood by singing loudly! We arrived at the school an hour and a half later and we met the others from summer camp. After a BBQ we planned our fist trip which was to Poole the next day.

The next day (Monday) we planned to take the bus to Poole to go kayaking, but it wasn’t that easy as we thought! We missed our first bus, and while we were waiting for the next bus we thought we could grab some coffees. One thing guys, never grab coffee while you are waiting for the bus, trust us its not funny if you miss two busses in a row! (Hahahaha). The kayaking was funny but so exhausting. When we arrived back from kayaking we made vegetable curry in one of the kitchens in the school, hmm so yummy.

We spent one more night at school so we could make some plans for the next few days. Right now we’re on the train to Cardiff and later on we are going to the trampoline park in Cardiff!

Days 4-6

n our last blog we said that we were going to go to the trampoline park and that we did! We booked 1 and a half hours but after 10 minutes we were all so exhausted!! We were taught how to ‘wall walk’ by one of the instructors which was very cool.

The next day we went to Cardiff castle and took a photo with the Welsh flag. As Jipi jumped onto Silvia’s back for the photo her phone fell out of her pocket and the screen cracked…..she learned a valuable lesson that day! We then went to walk back to the hostel to collect our bags as we had a train booked…unfortunately Julie suddenly remembered that the train was earlier than she thought so we had to run!!! Luckily we got there in the end and thought it was now time for us to properly take over all the planning!

UK Tour Diary: 9th – 23rd July

DAY 1 & 2

We are the first group of Teen Travel 2017. We are a group of five including the travel mentor, Julie. We all have different nationalities, Luzia is Portuguese, Annalisa is Italian, Rose is French, Josephine is German and Julie (travel mentor) is Scottish.

We have the goal of going to London, Cardiff and Edinburgh but we also want to go to Belfast and Brighton. To achieve this goal we have a budget and we have to book and find everything by ourselves.

Planning our trip!

After arriving at Aysgarth School on Sunday we met the other Teen Travellers and spent one night at the school. The next day Julie gave us some information and then left us alone to decide what we would do. We all agreed that we would go to London that afternoon. We asked the Camp manager Sarah to give us a lift to Northallerton train station around 1pm so we could catch our train. We jumped on the train and after some naps we arrived in London at Kingscross Station. We had to get to our London accommodation so we bought oyster cards so we could go on the underground. We reached our accommodation we looked for somewhere to eat and found an Italian restaurant nearby. We were all very tired and after trying to watch a movie we all fell asleep.

On Tuesday we all woke up at half past eight and we got a very good breakfast made by Josephine and Annalisa. After that we all worked a little bit to find places to go and a bike tour for Wednesday afternoon. At 12pm we arrived at The London Dungeon which we all enjoyed a lot, after this amazing experience we had lunch and we went to the London Eye.

The London Eye

In the evening we went shopping and we finished our day with a really nice dinner in Chinatown with one of the tutors from two years ago. Izzy.

We spent some more time back at the accommodation researching things to do for the rest of our trip then we all went to bed as we were tired from the day!

Luzia (15 years old, Portugal)

For more photos click here

Days 3 & 4

On Wednesday morning after another lovely breakfast, we went to 221b Baker Street (Sherlock Holmes’s house) then we went to go to Madame Tussauds where we waited 2h30 to get in! We only stayed 20 minutes because we needed to get to Queensway’s tube station by 3.15pm to do a bike tour. The bike tour lasted 4 hours and we visited the Royal gardens of London. In the evening, we wanted a traditional meal so we went into a pub to get fish & chips where Mike (who also works for L&E) joined us.

Meeting the Royal family

4 Sherlocks!

Buckingham Palace

Today was our last day in London, the hostel was booked until 10am but the train for Brighton was at 12:20 so during that time, we went to Poundland and visited the neighbourhood before leaving for the train station. Once we got there, we caught our train for Brighton which lasted an hour. Our accommodation is situated nearby the train station so it took us only five minutes to get there.

Teen Travellers

Once we were settled, we left to get lunch in a noodle place that was really good. All those journeys were really tiring so we rested for an hour before heading to the beach where rented a paddle board, we all swam and had a shot on the board. We all then went to Brighton Pier where Luzia and I went on roller coasters! Tonight, we might go to the beach for dinner and seeing the sunset.

Rose (15 years old, France).

For more photos click here

Paddle Boarding

Brighton Pier

Days 5 & 6

Friday morning we had a real English breakfast with scrambled eggs and toast. After this good start we got the train to our next stop: Cardiff. After a good journey we arrived at Cardiff and went to our accommodation where we would sleep one night. After a short phase of planning we explored Cardiff. In the evening we went to a music and drink festival at Cardiff bay. There were many countries represented which offered their food. In addition to the food was there a live band and almost everyone danced. Before we went back to our accommodation we enjoyed the good weather and evening to took some pictures and had a great view at the bay. We went all quickly in our bed because we were all very tired.

Cardiff Station

Cardiff!

This morning we had our free breakfast and after Julie got the car which we booked to come from Cardiff to Edinburgh we started our long journey (± 7h). During this Julie noticed that we had made a mistake: Edinburgh is not Edinburg. The mistake we made was booking a hostel in Edinburg which is in Texas and not in Scotland were we actually wanted to go. So we called booking.com and talked to a customer service adviser – the woman cancelled our booking and we didn’t need to pay anything! We then had to find somewhere to stay for tonight and we found it in Glasgow. After we arrived in Glasgow we decided to cook this evening. Annalisa cooked for us very good spaghetti carbonara, which we all enjoyed.

Josephine (16 years old, Germany)

For more photos click here

Jumping Teen Travellers

Glasgow!

Day 7 & 8

We left our accommodation in Glasgow by 12:00, then we visited George square to listen to a Scottish live band. Then we took the car and drove to Tesco to buy sleeping bags and roll mats for our Scottish camping adventure. We then drove to Edinburgh. Once we got to our hostel, we left our bags and we went to Arthur’s seat and walked along the Royal Mile before having dinner. Then we went back to the hostel and we did laundry (finally!).

Royal Mile – Edinburgh

In the morning we had free time, so we went shopping on Princes Street, then we had a picnic in Princes Street Garden’s where we chilled for about 3 hours in the Scottish sun. Once we were all really relaxed after that, we went to Edinburgh castle and had a little more of free time before going to Calton Hill and getting back to Prince’s garden to end our last night in this wonderful city.

Annalisa (aged 16, Italy)

For more photos click here

Scottish Dancing?

Edinburgh

Days 9 & 10

Every member of the team takes a turn to write the blog….including the Travel Mentor! After another good night sleep in Edinburgh we woke up very excited about the next part of our adventure. This adventure started with a train ride to a small town called Alloa where my father picked us up and took us all back to my house in Dollar. We then ate some lunch and started to plan our journey. After Annalisa saw a picture of the Isle of Skye last week she, and all the other travellers, have been very keen to make the journey up north to travel around the island. I dug out my old tent and left the Teen Travellers to it! It’s always good to practice putting up a tent before you reach a campsite, it is very embarrassing if you realise you don’t have everything you need with an audience of campers watching you. The Teen Travellers struck a great deal with my parents to rent the family car and kindly asked me if I would drive them, I agreed, but only on the understanding they would buy me coffee whenever I wanted! We packed the (large) car and hit the road with the sun still shining. We headed straight for the Isle of Skye and the 5-hour drive was simply stunning. We stopped occasionally to take some pictures of the beautiful lochs and to stretch our legs. It was getting near dinner-time so we got some supplies in Fort William and found a lovely spot to eat next to some grazing horses with the amazing Ben Nevis as our backdrop, it was very picturesque. We hit the road again after calling a campsite to book in for that night, it wasn’t quite on the Isle of Skye but it was soon to get dark and although the Teen’s had practiced putting up the tent, it is somewhat more tricky in the dark. We arrived just before sunset and the tent was up in a matter of minutes’ – this left us with just enough time to climb a small hill to watch the sun go down.

 

After a dry, yet windy night the Teens were excited to get to The Isle of Skye. We had breakfast and took down the tent before it blew away and hit the road again. The girls wanted to visit the famous Fairy Pools, which are in the west of Skye so we headed straight there. The Fairy Pools did not disappoint – they comprise of a natural waterfall where the water flows down creating pools in which the water is crystal clear. The girls ate lunch perched on a rock and then explored the pools. The pools are a popular place to go swimming and although it was a warm day, ‘Scottish’ warm isn’t the same as normal warm! We hit the road again, this time to Dunvegan where we would camp for the last time. The girls were very tired after all the driving so they set up camp and rested for a while before dinner. We then headed to the local supermarket where we bought a very random, yet lovely selection of food for a picnic. Our campsite is right on the Dunvegan Loch so we sat outside and filled our bellies next to the water. The girls played Uno in their tent not worrying about the rain that was moving in…it’s going to be a very wet night!

Julie (Travel Mentor, Scotland)