Roseyland

Click here to read all of my London & Paris trip posts in proper order.

Today is day 3, today we go to Windsor, Stonehenge, and Bath. If you missed days 1 and 2, you must scroll down and read them first. We have a lot to see today, and I simply don’t have time to stop and explain things that you missed. When planning this trip, I had a big internal debate over whether or not to take any day trips outside of London and/or Paris. On one hand we only had 3 full days in each city, which does not feel like nearly enough time to truly experience a city, but on the other hand, it would be nice to see more of each country than just a big city. After a lot of online research, I decided that a trip outside of London would be fun, so I signed us up for a Golden Tours bus tour of Windsor, Stonehenge, and Bath.

The bus was going to pick us up at our hotel at 7:45 in the morning. That’s early, but before the bus arrived, we walked down to a cafe to get coffee and something to eat. On the way back to wait for the bus, we walked by an Iran Air office. Not something you see in the US. In the window was a model of an Iran Air concord. WTF? Everyone knows Air France and British Airways were the only airlines to ever fly the concord, and on top of that, no airline flies the concord today. So what is Iran Air trying to prove with this model? Silly Iran.

We got on the bus with about 50 other people and headed off to Windsor while the guide told us all sorts of things about the English countryside that I don’t remember. Upon arriving in Windsor we went straight to Windsor castle. See the guys in the funny costumes? They are Military Knights of Windsor and it’s Sunday, so they are going to church in St. George’s Chapel.

Another picture inside Windsor castle. The Queen’s private apartment is in the tower in the distance and on the right. The state apartments are on the left. We were able to tour the state apartments, which are basically a bunch of very fancy rooms used for formal banquets and things. If you remember, they were damaged by fire a few years ago, but they have been rebuilt and are very impressive. Unfortunately, you can’t take pictures of them.

More Windsor castle.

See the flag in this picture? That means that the Queen is in residence. I would have stopped in and said hi, but our tour guide had us on a tight schedule.

Here is a picture just outside of Windsor castle of the village of Windsor. There are lots of small shops and restaurants that I would have loved to explore, but we had to get back to the bus.

This is the outside of Windsor castle.

On the way back to the bus, there is this cool covered area with cafes that have outdoor seating. It reminded me a little of Paris, except that I hadn’t been to Paris yet, but it does remind future me of Paris.

After Windsor, the bus took us to Stonehenge. I’m glad that I saw Stonehenge, but honestly, I wouldn’t travel halfway around the world just to see it. That’s just me though, you might be different.

The area around stonehenge is covered with these ancient burial mounds. What’s weird about this is that I also know (thanks to @Jspaghetti) that the area just across the river from St. Louis in Illinois is also covered with very similar burial mounds. Coincidence? I think not! Obviously this is proof that aliens colonized the earth thousands of years ago. I wonder when they will come back for us? Hmm… After studying the rocks at Stonehenge, I’m pretty sure it will be on a Tuesday.

This is the traditional English pub that we had lunch at. I had roast beef and yorkshire pudding. Yorkshire pudding bears no resemblance to pudding, it is more like bread. Weird. My aunt asked for an iced tea in this pub, and the waitress said that she thought iced tea taste like cat urine. At first this seemed strange to me, because what was she doing drinking cat urine, but on the other hand, that is exactly how I would describe iced coffee, so maybe she’s right. I still love iced tea though, maybe I should try cat urine.

After Stonehenge, the bus took us to Bath, England, which is the location of England’s only natural hot springs where the ancient Romans built a bath house. Bath was a beautiful city, it took me by surprise and felt very european.

Here is a view of the Roman bath. The water doesn’t look so clean, but you can drink it if you want. I did not try this. I am not that brave.

Another view of the bath.

Here is the bath with a giant church in the background.

And finally, one more picture of the bath.

This is a park in Bath. It rained while we were there, and before the rain, the park was filled with people, after the rain, not so much. See those chairs? in a lot of the parks in England they have these chairs, and as far as I can tell they are free for anybody to use. Government furnished chairs. That’s how socialism works, they give you free chairs, and then boom, everyone has health care. Be careful, there is no such thing as a free chair.

Here is a river in Bath, it’s pretty.

Here is the river in the other direction. This boat was nice enough to pose for me.

Here is a courtyard in Bath. See the building with the ice cream cone on it? We had ice cream there. I had clotted cream and carmel ice cream. It was delicious. They also sold fudge, and they had fudge flavors I had never heard of before. Things like brown sugar and something, and clotted cream and something. The English are big on clotted cream. It sounds disgusting, but if you ask me, it’s just another form of butter.

An hour an a half bus ride later, we were back in London. We had dinner at a pub, and I was thrilled to get to try Chicken Tikka Masala. I was worried that I wouldn’t get to try this dish, because my Aunt refuses to eat in an Indian restaurant. Apparently she has something against good food. She said that my Chicken Tikka Masala looked disgusting, but she did try it and even claimed to like it. I’ve head that this is the unofficial dish of England. It’s an Indian inspired dish with chicken in a creamy flavorful sauce. I loved it, I need to find a place in St. Louis that has it.

So that was day 3. All in all I’m very glad that we took the bus tour. I felt like I got a much better feel for England by getting out of London, even if it was for just a day. The tour was very well done and definitely worth the money. That being said, if I had more time, I would just buy a train ticket to Windsor or Bath and explore on my own. You could easily spend a day in either city. Tomorrow is our last day in London, we will be visiting St. Paul’s Cathedral, the cabinet war rooms, and we will try to see the changing of the guards. You can see more pictures and a few videos of my trip in my flickr set here.

Click here to read all of my London & Paris trip posts in proper order.

Welcome to the Roseyland London and Paris excursion day 2. If you haven’t read day 1, you should scroll down and read it first. There is a lot of important character development in day 1, and I’m afraid you’ll be completely lost without it. Day 2 was our first full non-jetlagged day in London. We had noon tickets for the London Eye, so my plan was to walk by Buckingham Palace on the way to Westminster Abbey, which we would visit before the London Eye. Here is a picture of Buckingham Palace. If you could see the flag, you would know that the Queen was not in residence. Apparently she didn’t care that I was visiting. Bitch. Anyways… a few people told me they were disappointed with Buckingham Palace, like they thought it would be grander or more ornate or something. To me it looked exactly like I thought it would, and I was suitably impressed. I also thought it was cool how close you could get to the palace, the gates are only about 50 feet from the building.

These gates are just to the right of Buckingham Palace, and they are the royal gates to Green park, or something like that. The gates are closed, but you can easily go around them and into the park. Apparently they are just closed because they look nicer that way.

This next picture is from St. James park which is a long park in front of Buckingham palace. This picture is looking away from the palace, and you can see the London Eye peeking over the trees on the right and some castle like looking building on the left. I don’t remember what that building was, but I think it has something to do with the government.

This is the front of Westminster Abbey. You can’t take pictures inside, which is nice, because there are so many people walking around the nooks and crannies, that if everyone was also trying to take pictures, it would just be ridiculous. Inside there are a number of tombs and memorials for british royalty and some famous british citizens. Sir Isaac Newton and Charles Darwin are buried here. I love that Darwin is buried in one of the most famous churches in the world. Take that stupid intelligent designist!

After Westminster Abbey, we headed to the London Eye. Here is the inside of our capsule. I don’t know why these other people are inside our capsule, but I thought it would be rude to ask them to leave, so I let them stay.

I wanted to take picture of our capsule, so when we got near the top, I went out the emergency door, climbed over the metal beams, and got inside the next capsule. Then I took this picture. I found out later that this is frowned upon, so don’t try it. Instead, you could just take a picture of the capsule next to yours and tell people that it’s your capsule. I think it was totally worth it though, and this is one of my favorite pictures from the trip.

Here is a picture of St. James park and Buckingham Palace from the London Eye.

This is parliament and Big Ben from the London Eye. I only took about 50 pictures of this building. I think this is my favorite, but it’s a tough call, they all sort of look alike.

After the London Eye, we decided to spend the afternoon at the Tower of London. The Tower of London was built to be a Royal palace/fortress, but it ended up being a prison for political prisoners. Anne Boleyn was imprisoned and executed here in the 16th century. For more information on the Tower of London, see here and here. Also, read this about Anne Boleyn’s trial, final hours, and execution. I find it fascinating. This is a picture from inside the Tower of London complex, not far from where Anne Boleyn was executed.

Here is another picture from inside the tower. The circular memorial is a memorial to all those who were executed at the tower, and it is at the approximate location of many of the executions. The building in the upper left of the picture is where you can see the crown jewels. They are impressive if you are into sparkly things, you aren’t allowed to take pictures of them though.

This was one of the coolest parts of the tower to me. Behind the upper center windows is a cell where many political prisoners were held. They carved messages into the stone walls, and you can still see them today. These are from 400 or 500 years ago, I can’t get over how amazing that is.

Here is a picture of the Tower Bridge from inside the Tower of London. The picture doesn’t really do the scene justice. Trust me, it was cool.

That night we went to see a play in London’s west end. I have to thank @susanisk for recommending Avenue Q. My original plan was to see the Phantom of the Opera, but Avenue Q was way more fun and lighthearted than Phantom would have been. After a long day of sightseeing, we needed something fun and lighthearted. Also, it includes a scene of hardcore muppet sex. Who doesn’t love hardcore muppet sex? Oh, and one more thing, in London, during intermission at a play, they have ice cream. Why don’t we do this in the US? Everyone loves ice cream. Here is a scene from Avenue Q that I found on YouTube. This is a nighttime shot of Piccadilly Circus not too far from our theatre.

And with that, day 2 is over. Tomorrow we travel to Windsor Castle, Stonehenge, and Bath. So get a good nights rest, you are going to need it. You can see more pictures and a few videos of my trip in my flickr set here.