Ok, on Friday July 4 Charlie and I had to wake up really early (4:30) to get ready, eat breakfast and walk to the pick up point for the tour by 7:25. :( But it was totally worth it!!! We were dropped off at Victoria Station to wait for the coach and our particular tour guide and by 8 am we were off. On the way out of the city our guide, Clarissa, gave us a good historical background of Windsor Castle. We were there about 30-40 minutes after leaving London. Right before we got there, we got to see where the Magna Carta was signed (and thanks to my high school government class - i knew what that was :) ) Here are some of the pictures from our 2 hours at the castle.
(Pretty cool - I got to see the changing of the guard!!!)
Once we left the castle we headed towards Stonehenge, which is quite a drive from the castle - maybe 2 hours(ish). I napped for a bit and once again the tour guide was giving us the historical background for the ancient ruins. She was even nice enough to tell us some of the theories of its creation - its all really interesting, but in case any of you are bored by that type of stuff I won't write it all out - go look it up though if you like that kind of information. Its really fascinating!
Sadly we only had around 40 minutes there and it was really crowded from our tour and about 6 other tours, plus a school field trip with a bunch of 7-8 year-olds.
We raced out of there (leaving me no time to look at the gift shop :( ) and headed 15 minutes up the little two-lane road to a pub in a "town." The only entree they had for vegetarians was this cheesy cauliflower & broccoli "bake" that was actually really really good. We had some odd veggies on the side - mushy - but they were still healthy!! :)
Around the pub there were thatched roofed houses/buildings - it was really cool to see them and then hear how they're made.
We had an hour long trip through the rolling hills to Bath - again a city with TONS of history and theories of how it was founded. Its really interesting, especially adding all the myths about the natural hot springs that make up the Roman Baths (if you want to know more, look it up or just ask me!!!) I have to say that Bath is one of my favorite cities so far, even though we only got to drive through it and stop at the Roman Baths... its gorgeous! We drove my Nicolas Cage's home, which cost over 4.5 million pounds - so theres an idea of how nice it is there. The buildings are this gorgeous cream color that has happened as the stone ages.... beautiful!
By the time we left Bath I was exhausted and because we switched coaches to head back to London we didn't get our seats at the very front so I could see out. The person who ended up sitting behind me (another rude one) wouldn't allow me to lean my seat back and they had NO A/C on while driving on the windy roads. Sadly I get car sick so the 2 1/2 hour ride home was no fun, and on top of it they decided to turn the HEAT ON when we were in stop and go traffic getting back into the city. Because I felt like poo by the time they dropped us off I just got into my pjs and laid on the bed in our freezing hotel room. :) Charlie ordered nachos from room service and we were able to get some rest. I ended up watching Kill Bill just b/c I couldn't fall asleep. haha
Saturday the fifth was our last day in London :( We slept in quite a bit just to relax and not rush ourselves. We got our yummy breakfast from the hotel - fresh yogurt and fruit, plus a croissant - and then headed out. We walked through Kensington Gardens again, just because its fabulous...
(a friend we met in the park who ate right out of my hand!!! )
over the river into Hyde Park, and then past Buckingham Palace again towards Piccadilly. Of course I had to stop at the ice cream stand... oops?
It turned out to be Gay Pride day in London so the streets were all blocked off from traffic and were filled with people every direction you looked... it was pretty crazy and cool at the same time. They had a stage set up in Trafalgar Square with music and people talking, there were booths set up with information and everything...
Having never seen protesters be blocked off and be so angry before in my life I had to take a picture...
(This ladies and gentlemen are the 20 most ignorant people alive... and they wonder why nobody listens... psh)
Anywhoo after that excitement we roamed all over the city again - down to parliament with the intention of going into Westminster. Of course it had closed 20 minutes before we got there... :( Needless to say I was disappointed beyond words, that was at the top of my list of things to see and do in London so now I have something to look forward to on my next trip. We were going to go on the Eye but the lines were about 4 hours long and it was already 8 or so miles into our walk w/o lunch so we went to find food instead, taking pictures along the way across the Thames River.
We found a Thai restaurant and were suddenly VERY thankful for Table for Two - they didn't even have Thai Iced Tea... what the heck? After fighting the winning crowds we didn't get much shopping done all 3 H&Ms that we found were so packed we couldn't even walk in... ridiculous! Is Saturday national shopping day in London? We made it back to our area of the city by 7ish in the evening, got dinner and I proceeded to take a bubble bath while Charlie watched the tennis recaps. We had to get up early the next day anyways...
No comments:
Post a Comment