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Friday, Dec 16, 2022
The day of the big tour!
Note: this would be a fasting day. I hadn’t been doing very well lately for eating ,so I figured taking a day off would be a good idea. The only downside was missing out on some treats that I couldn't eat during the tour, although I could buy whatever I wanted and save them for later. It wouldn’t be easy, but my mind was set on it and my decision was made.
I had to leave around 7 AM, as I had to catch the Tube to get over to the meeting place for the bus. Google maps was a little odd, because it was telling me the wrong direction. I was able to sort it out and finally get going towards my stop, arriving at the bus area around 8 AM. They were still waiting for others so it wasn't a problem. I sat myself at the very back of the bus. This way I'd have more opportunity to take photos out of both the left and right side windows. It didn't help that much as it's hard to take good photos through car, train, or bus windows. However, it was nice to have so much room.
We had the usual set up: a driver focused only on driving, and a tour guide. The guide was a decent fellow, although with somewhat of an attitude. He was getting towards the end of his tour guide career, so doing this no longer seem to be the best job for him. But overall nice guy. He told us about a lot of history and places in London as we drove out of the city and headed west, and eventually, we made our first stop at Windsor Castle. Windsor is a great tour to do once. The biggest downside is no photos inside the castle. Thus, you're really left with just your memories.
Now, the access to the castle is a little tricky from the bus lot. You have to go up stairs and cross over long bridges and then through town, and finally reach the castle entrance. I would say the main problem with this is just having to remember the path of how you got there, because you would be on your own once inside, and expected back at a certain meeting time, so if you have an app to track your steps like breadcrumbs, that could come in handy.
There was a line to get in when we arrived, so our group (about 30 of us) got into that line and we waited out in the cold for about 45 minutes. It was 23° outside. That wasn't particularly enjoyable but there wasn't any other choice. Our tour guide was nearby and would still give us some facts and history, and perhaps myths, as we waited. Finally they open then we got to go inside. At that point, we could just wander where we wanted. I went into the castle and observed how wonderful the place is. There were so many fascinating rooms with fancy paintings and exquisite furniture arrangements that I badly wanted to take photos, but could not – though I noticed some people trying to sneak pictures here and there some even getting caught and scolded. Hard to blame them for trying; it is a very amazing place.
After exploring the inside of the castle, I went around the grounds and took photos as they were allowed outside. The guards doing their guard thing were interesting. I didn't really do any shopping; however, I did stop by the gift store and bought some chocolate, which actually tasted pretty good even though I didn't eat it until the next day because of the aforementioned fasting.
And yeah, while it was tricky, I did manage to find my way back to the bus stop, and when everyone arrived, we headed out for our next destination.
This would be Stonehenge. I missed going to Stonehenge when I was a student in London, so 20 years later, I was finally getting that. Once at the parking lot, you still have to get on another shuttle to head over to the big tall stone area. After doing that, I got to see what all the fuss was all about.
It is actually really cool. I enjoyed finally getting to see it. One issue was that due to heavy rains and snow, the path was afflicted, and we couldn't walk a full 360° loop around the stones. However, that also meant you could get shots where no one was behind it, so I guess there was a silver lining. I took many photos (and probably the same ones several times).
There was somewhat of a crowd there, but apparently not near as bad as in the summertime, so I was happy about that. After about 20 minutes or so, I took all the photos I wanted and headed back to the visitor center. That place had some great exhibits and historical information and a small museum. Plus there was even an exhibit outside where you could see how they theorize the stones were originally moved, and also test your strength by pulling a demo cart – really cool. Once our meeting time arrived, we all got back in the bus and drove off once again.
The third and final place would be Bath, another place I missed out on during my time as a student. (I was making up for a lot of things now.) Of course, I knew a lot about the baths from history but I had never seen it live. This was pretty exciting. We got there around 4 PM so the sun was setting which was too bad because I really wanted to get some photos of the sunset in the river. Oh well, nothing I could do about that.
We lined up to go inside the main bath, and that that point we were all on our own. I marveled at all of the exhibits and history inside. It is mind-boggling to see how they set things up so long ago and created heated baths in other rooms. But the main bath was the key point of interest. With the steam coming off of it and the twilight sky, it made for some wonderful photos.
One thing that was a little surprising was the ground was quite uneven in several places. I imagine that's just how it either was then, or is now. That's fine with me, but it just seem like it would be tough for some people to avoid tripping or slipping. Tour at your own risk.
After exiting the main bath, I went around the town and took photos of anything that looked beautiful or interesting. I walked over to the river and the famous bridge, but it was just too dark at that point to get any good photos. I also tried some of the places that were recommended beforehand, like the Sally Lunn’s Buns place, but a lady working there said the buns probably wouldn't be very good if I waited a day to eat them (due to my fast).
I also noticed there was an ice cream store (The Real Italian Ice Cream Co.) and people were actually in it – it was now down to 26°F. A fudge store definitely caught my interest, but I resisted the temptation. I wanted to go into a pub called “The Ale House” and buy some mead because the tour guide had mentioned how good something like that could be. The tour guide also mentioned he would be coming back a little early so if anyone wanted to go in there, they could meet up with him. However, he never showed up until the bus was about to leave so that didn't work. I got no mead.
The next little incident was on the bus. Someone had purchased some fish and brought it on the bus and it created a pretty bad smell that permeated the entire bus. The tour guide had informed us not to do something like this (because of that smell) but apparently someone didn't listen. So the tour guide made a huge ordeal of it. I knew who it was, because I saw him near the back of the bus. He never admitted to doing it, but he did resea his bag very tightly, and it actually worked because the smell died down. It didn't really seem like something to make such a big deal of; however, people were asked not to bring fish back and he did violate that request. So no pity for him.
It was a long straight drive all the way back. It was dark outside. They played some nice music, but there was a lot of chatter with the tour guide and one of the passengers going on an on about European football, which wasn’t the worst thing in the world, but a little irksome as people wanted to sleep and this unnecessary conversation was getting in the way.
Hours later, we arrived in London and were dropped off. I stayed around a few minutes to have a chat with the tour guide. Again he was a little cranky, but overall a good chap, and he said he was quitting his job, and only had a week of tours left to give. After that, I took the Tube back to the city of London where I was staying. I was definitely pretty hungry by that point, but again it was a fasting day, so no food. I just needed to wait until Saturday for that.
Actually, I decided to end the fast at 9:30pm. I picked up Franco Manca pizza and wow! It hit the spot!