England – Day 02

We woke up early to go on the tube and catch our tour bus to Stonehenge, Windsor, and Bath. The service was provided by Evan Evans Tours and we left the Victoria Coach Station at 8 am.

Not too many catholic churches in London. The dominant religion was Anglicanism. 

William the Conqueror built Windsor. Longest occupied royal palace. 

We arrived at the parking lot around 9 am and walked to the queue until the castle was opened at 9:30 am. 

The walk from the parking to the castle entrance is about 15 minutes. We had to do a long line for the security for about 40 minutes.

Once inside we grabbed the free audio guide and started exploring. We started by visiting Queen Marys’ Dollhouse (putting every other dollhouse to shame). The house was designed by an architect, is made to a 1:12 scale (one inch to one foot). The bathrooms are fully plumbed with piped, running water, and include a flushable toilet.

No photography is allowed on the inside of most buildings but it is fine outside the castle. 

From there we continued walking the nearby grounds and entered the State Apartments. You can admire all the fine craftsmanship on everything as you walk through the route. 

We started going fast through the apartments in order to get to visit the inside of St George’s Chapel. 

The Chapel was the location of the wedding of HRH Prince Harry and Ms Meghan Markle. 

We left the castle and rushed to the parking lot to meet the group at the expected time of 11:20 am

Arrived at Stonehenge at around 1 pm and had about one hour to explore. 

Not too much time since you spend about 15 minutes each way in line getting into the local shuttle. 

Once at the site you get to walk close to one side of the circle. The stones to me seemed larger in person than what I imagined based on pictures. 

On the way back we stopped by the visitor center where there are replicas of the living units of the people of that time. Also, you can see a stone on a possible log rig designed to transport the big stones. 

We got to the bus and we left at 2:20 pm. We arrived at Bath at 3:20 pm. Here we were going to see the ancient Roman baths. Throughout the structure, you get to see and imagine how life was back in Roman times. 

After going through the baths we had about 15 minutes to explore the town, but in reality, we had time to walk down the bridge and take pictures of the fall colors with the city as a background. 

Stitched Panorama

Finally, at 4:45 pm we started our journey to London. By the time we got back, everyone had taken a nap on the bus 

We got down at an alternative stop on the way to the bus stop. We found a ramen place to calm the hunger since our food options during the day was less than ideal. 

England – Day 01

Headed to the airport earlier to grab some dinner at Root Down. We enjoyed burgers, tacos and the little one went for the mac and cheese. 

Once at the gate we had our ”passports verified” since we skipped the check-in counter. After waiting for our boarding group we started our journey to London.

The airplane chairs are decently comfortable and have a very nice built-in headrest. We had a large screen with a very nice movie selection. Got food about an hour after take-off, where we had the option of a curry chicken with rice and creamy pasta. Both were very good. 

Enjoyed some movies before trying to sleep. 

Once at Heathrow, we quickly got to go through immigration and customs. From here we followed the signs for the Heathrow express train. Very easy to follow and board the train. The ride was about 20 minutes and it dropped us at the Paddington station. 

We took a taxi from the station to the hotel and took a well-deserved break.

Once recharged we left our bags at the hotel and went out to get some food. We found a very nice Indian restaurant nearby. Had chicken Tikka Masala, Chana Masala, Naan and rice. 

Now with our full bellies, we got a sim card and cash. The sim card included 10 GB of data for 20 GBP. 

We walked to the Kensington Gardens park. On the northwest corner, we found the Diana Memorial Playground which has as the main attraction a pirate ship for the kids to play. There were other things for the kids to enjoy as well as a place to get food. 

Southeast of the playground there is the Round Pond, where you can see plenty of geese and ducks.

The park had quite a few squirrels running around adding to the beautiful fall scenery with all the trees changing color. 

From here we went to Chinatown for dinner with some friends from home that were also visiting London for fall break. 

The service was rushed and we basically got kicked out for taking too long after paying. 

Chinatown streets are decorated with paper lanterns and have plenty of good restaurant options. 

After walking for a while we called a night, found the nearest underground station and went to our hotel.