We woke up at 645 am, but I was up long before this because my internal clock was still way off. Regardless, we had to wake up early because I had booked a tour via viator.com of Windsor Castle, Stonehenge, and Bath!
Our hotel offers a complementary English breakfast each morning. This morning it was cereal and tea, followed by a fried egg, beans, and bacon. English bacon is more like a really salty, slightly crispy ham. I was okay with it, but Melissa was not enraptured with it.
The tour started from the Victoria coach station. To get there we took the underground to Victoria station and then hoofed it down the street to the bus depot. Since viator.com doesn't actually give the tours, our tour company was Evan Evans. Our tour guide was a nice woman whom I spent literally all day wondering where she was from. You see, our Tour was bilingual (English and Spanish) to accommodate 2 Spanish speakers on the coach. However, neither the English or the Spanish sounded quite right. At one point she made the comment that she had been a teacher in Germany, which threw another wrench in my guessing game. Later on, an older couple from Riverside asked, and it turned out she was Hungarian. I would have never guessed. Regardless, the script she followed was informative, and it was fun to listen to her repeat the exact script, including the jokes, en espanol.
Enough about the tour guide though. We loaded up onto a Mercedes tour bus, buckled our seat lets (yes, on a bus), and off we were. The first stop was Windsor castle. En route, we passed the Natural History museum in Kensington, which prompted Melissa to tell me we will go there. We also passed a house that Alfred Hitchcock lived in.
Once in Windsor, we got our audio guides and off we were. One of the things the tour guide mentioned was that the queen still spends half of the week at Windsor Castle, usually between Thursday and Monday. Apparently she grew up at Windsor (must be nice). As this was a Monday, there was a solid chance she was still there. The royal flag raised above the castle confirmed that she was there.
We had a short time there, so our pace was brisk. We headed straight for the state apartments. No photos were allowed in there, but suffice it to say that the rooms were finished extravagantly with all of then trappings you would expect for royalty.
After the state apartments, we watched a portion of the changing of the guards. I don't remember them being this highly armed the last time I saw this, but I guess the times are changing.
Last we visited St George's Cathedral, which is also within the castle walls. Most modern kings and queens are buried here, the most recent being the queen mother in 2002. Once again, no photos were allowed inside.
Here are some of the better photos taken at Windsor.
Our last chance to grab lunch was in the town of Windsor, so we grabbed some pre-made sandwiches at an eatery creatively called "Eat" and took them back to the bus to eat.
While we are, the bus sped on to Stonehenge. As we approached Stonehenge, the first thing I noticed was the distinct aroma of Davis. There is a livestock aroma that I identify with my college days, and Stonehenge had it. It is located out on the Salisbury plain separating London and the Cotswolds. This area is the largest military area in the United Kingdom, and we could hear large munitions exploding in the distance. Stonehenge starts with a visitors center and a tram ride to get to the ancient ring. Once there, we took lots and lots of pictures.
The Bus flew through the Cotswolds to Bath. The guided tour section of this consisted of the Roman Baths. The Romans built these long ago when the Roman Empire stretched to northern England.
The baths were right next to the Bath Cathedral, which looked amazing. Unfortunately, we did not have the time to go in. The baths themselves looked like our pool when I let it get out of control.
At the end of the tour we tasted the water from the hot springs that feeds the baths. It tasted a bit minerally. Afterwards, we went off to a glass shoppe and bought an Christmas ornament. The kids that worked there talked Melissa's ear off about Modern Family and movie stars. It was good fun.
We raced off to the Pulteney bridge, which has shops on it. The bridge crosses the river Avon. We visited a coffee shop on the bridge where Melissa bought a chocolate muffin that she can't stop talking about (I am writing this blog post on day 6 of our trip in York... She likes chocolate muffins). I grabbed a Fuller's cask ale at a pub next to where the tour bus was going to pick us up. I guess it wasn't as good as the muffin...
We got back to London at 830 pm and were dropped at Gloucester underground station. We took the underground to Piccadilly station and walked into the Soho to try a Thai place recommended by the tour guide (Busaba Thai). It was very good. I had the Pad Thai and Melissa had a green curry. We had to switch because her dish was too spicy. This was no burden on me, as her green curry was delicious, and I had been putting Sriracha on my Pad Thai to get it spicy enough. We walked to Leicester Square before heading back to the hotel.
We finished the day by Skyping with the kids.
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