Host-cation

How I fell in love with the British countryside

Visit to Oxford. Photo by author.

I love hosting. And in the last couple of months, I had the luck of having my brother and two of my best friends come over to the UK. Their plan was to spend some time with me and ‘visit London’.

‘Great’, I thought — but we don’t live in London really. And in fact, since we moved from Germany to the UK five years ago, we have spent more time outside of London than in the city. Apart from going into the office twice per week, I have couple of salsa dancing bars I often go to, favourite restaurants and coffee places, a favourite museum (it’s by far Tate Modern) but that’s about it. All the other spots I love are outside of London — and mainly in the beautiful Hertfordshire.

One of my autumnal afternoon walks. Photo by author.

Which is why I decided to treat my brother and my friends to the mix of both. I joined them for some London tours and West End shows, but I also had a secret mission of showing them the hidden gems of the British countryside. And I think it worked. (Well, mostly. More on the outcomes later.)

The unexpected consequence was however, that it worked on me as well — after their visits, I started appreciating the luck of living surrounded…