United Kingdom

The United Kingdom is a patchwork of ancient nations stitched together by rail lines and a shared resignation about the weather. It is not just London and ‘the countryside.’ It is the rugged, wind-battered peaks of the Scottish Highlands, the slate-grey mining towns of Wales, and the industrial cool of Manchester. The UK is a place of deep, cozy textures—the smell of a peat fire in a pub, the damp wool of a winter coat, and the taste of malt vinegar on hot chips. Travel here means embracing the drizzle, mastering the art of the queue, and realizing that a Sunday Roast is the closest thing the nation has to a religion.