While I didn't leave the UK (or Great Britain or England for that matter), I did do a bit of traveling this weekend. Against my better judgement, I decided to take a tour of Stonehenge, Windsor Castle and Bath. I say "against my better judgement" because I hate going on tours, especially big tour buses. Sometimes, they are necessary --- in Iceland, it was pretty important to be on a tour in order to hear all the commentary about the countryside. I chose a small tour there and even that one was a little annoying (mostly due to the hungover Aussies). I couldn't find a reasonably priced smaller tour here, so I had to resort to the one with the best reviews on TripAdvisor. Unfortunately, it was one of those massive buses that pour out a million tourists with cameras around their necks. There were 53 people on the tour bus. I will say that it was one of the best run tours I've been on. We never had to wait longer than 2 minutes from the specified time to move on to our next location. Everyone was pretty considerate in that respect.
Windsor Castle
Windsor Castle was a quick drive out of the city. We only had about 1.5 hours there, so I didn't have enough time to have tea with the Queen (she was home) and tour the place, so I chose to just tour the castle. (I can do tea with the Queen anytime!) The castle itself is impressive and the grounds are beautiful. They don't allow you to take pictures inside the castle, but I did take lots of pictures outside.
The State Apartments inside the castle were a little ornate for me and the Queen Mary Doll's House totally creeped me out (miniatures and clowns creep me out), but I really liked the St. George's Chapel. Henry VIII and Jane Seymour (not Dr. Quinn Medicine Woman, Henry's third wife) are both buried there as is Charles I. It is also the chapel of the Order of the Garter, the highest order of English knighthood. The coats of arms of the various knights are all displayed on the ceiling of the chapel.
While I was on the grounds of the castle, they had the changing of the guards. Afterwards, I was walking to the bus and nearly got run over by some of the guards. Those guards take their job seriously.
Stonehenge
After Windsor, we got back on the bus and drove about an hour to Stonehenge. The thing about Stonehenge is that it is a bunch of rocks. It's in the middle of nowhere and it is a bunch of rocks. The weather there is usually lousy (cold and rainy) and it is a bunch of rocks. Yes, it is interesting because it is estimated at being 3100 BC. But it is a bunch of rocks. OK....old rocks. The kicker is that nobody really knows why it was built. As part of the ticket, you get an audio guide. You essentially walk around the rocks in a circle and the audio guide talks about how they think it was built (lugging some of these 4 ton rocks from southwest Wales) and how the rocks are heavy and old and nobody knows why they were built. Speculation ranges from human sacrifice to astronomy. Quite the range there. You would think by now, they would have been able to figure out why the darn thing was made. Didn't anybody leave a note? Instructions on how to use it?
As you can see, I was thrilled to be there.
Bath
After the successful trip to Stonehenge, we drove another hour or so to the town of Bath. Bath is in the county of Somerset in southwest England. It is about 100 miles from London and is a UNESCO World Heritage Site (essentially the United Nations stamp of approval). It is the home of the remains of the only Roman hot springs bath. These hot springs were supposed to have healing qualities, so a temple was built around 50 A.D. and dedicated to Sul, a Celtic god and Minerva, the Roman goddess of healing. The baths still have natural hot water flowing, although it looks nasty, so I wouldn't ever consider bathing in it no matter what kind of skin condition I had.
The city of Bath itself is very cute. Lots of architecturally impressive buildings. It's also known for blown glass. Unfortunately, I wasn't there long enough to get a full tour of the town, but I will definitely be back.
All in all, it was about a 12 hour day. Granted, I wasn't on my feet that whole time, but it was a long day. In retrospect, I wish I would have done these trips in three separate chunks. It would have given me more time in Bath and Windsor. I could have done the drive-by on Stonehenge. Oh well, next time, I will trust my gut.
Windsor Castle
Windsor Castle was a quick drive out of the city. We only had about 1.5 hours there, so I didn't have enough time to have tea with the Queen (she was home) and tour the place, so I chose to just tour the castle. (I can do tea with the Queen anytime!) The castle itself is impressive and the grounds are beautiful. They don't allow you to take pictures inside the castle, but I did take lots of pictures outside.
The State Apartments inside the castle were a little ornate for me and the Queen Mary Doll's House totally creeped me out (miniatures and clowns creep me out), but I really liked the St. George's Chapel. Henry VIII and Jane Seymour (not Dr. Quinn Medicine Woman, Henry's third wife) are both buried there as is Charles I. It is also the chapel of the Order of the Garter, the highest order of English knighthood. The coats of arms of the various knights are all displayed on the ceiling of the chapel.
While I was on the grounds of the castle, they had the changing of the guards. Afterwards, I was walking to the bus and nearly got run over by some of the guards. Those guards take their job seriously.
Stonehenge
After Windsor, we got back on the bus and drove about an hour to Stonehenge. The thing about Stonehenge is that it is a bunch of rocks. It's in the middle of nowhere and it is a bunch of rocks. The weather there is usually lousy (cold and rainy) and it is a bunch of rocks. Yes, it is interesting because it is estimated at being 3100 BC. But it is a bunch of rocks. OK....old rocks. The kicker is that nobody really knows why it was built. As part of the ticket, you get an audio guide. You essentially walk around the rocks in a circle and the audio guide talks about how they think it was built (lugging some of these 4 ton rocks from southwest Wales) and how the rocks are heavy and old and nobody knows why they were built. Speculation ranges from human sacrifice to astronomy. Quite the range there. You would think by now, they would have been able to figure out why the darn thing was made. Didn't anybody leave a note? Instructions on how to use it?
As you can see, I was thrilled to be there.
Bath
After the successful trip to Stonehenge, we drove another hour or so to the town of Bath. Bath is in the county of Somerset in southwest England. It is about 100 miles from London and is a UNESCO World Heritage Site (essentially the United Nations stamp of approval). It is the home of the remains of the only Roman hot springs bath. These hot springs were supposed to have healing qualities, so a temple was built around 50 A.D. and dedicated to Sul, a Celtic god and Minerva, the Roman goddess of healing. The baths still have natural hot water flowing, although it looks nasty, so I wouldn't ever consider bathing in it no matter what kind of skin condition I had.
All in all, it was about a 12 hour day. Granted, I wasn't on my feet that whole time, but it was a long day. In retrospect, I wish I would have done these trips in three separate chunks. It would have given me more time in Bath and Windsor. I could have done the drive-by on Stonehenge. Oh well, next time, I will trust my gut.
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