Welcome to my epic vacation recap! This is a recounting of my ten-year anniversary trip – which also happens to be my first time overseas! Read on for Day 3 – though fair warning, since it was an 11-hour tour, this is a long one.
June 22, 2024 (Day 3): Windsor, Bath, and Stonehenge
Having stayed up far too late visiting, which was of course delightful, it was less than ideal to wake up at 5:30 a.m this morning. It was totally worth it, but that didn’t change the fact that it was a very painful morning as we crawled out of bed on approximately 5 hours of sleep, especially after the red eye the day before. But, miracle of miracles, we somehow managed to put ourselves together, out the door, and on the Tube in a timely manner. We were delighted to find a cute coffee shop right outside the Tube station and promptly availed ourselves the luxury. I got a pistachio latte that was, not going to lie, better than any I’ve had in the States. We also split an almond croissant which was to die for.
It’s a good thing we aimed to be at Victoria Coach station early, because it took that full extra half hour to locate WHICH line was ours and had barely gotten there when our tour guide was shuffling the group out the door and onto the bus. Everyone was on board and ready to leave promptly by 8:00 AM. Well, except three people who arrived late, blamed everyone but themselves, were exceptionally rude to the tour guide, sat behind me and Daniel and were cranky THE ENTIRE DAY. Who pays for a tour like this if you’re going to be cranky about it? It was honestly rather irritating.
But, that aside, it was a day for the ages, fulfilling dreams I’ve had for years. Honestly, I think I was too tired to really register anything at first, because I actually started the day with very little excitement. It was more a sense of duty and feeling like I knew I was supposed to be excited. I continued to feel that way the entire hour-ish drive to Windsor Castle, and then the hour wait in an insanely long line to get into Windsor Castle. But then we got through security, walked onto the grounds and the full profile of the castle spread out before and suddenly it sank in. I was at WINDSOR CASTLE! Cue pictures.
We took way too long taking pictures of just the outside, but that ended up being a good thing because apparently you can’t take pictures inside the castle. Which is truly a shame because I can’t even describe how luxurious every single room in that castle was. It was incredible, filled with more decor than you can imagine, artistry that we only dream of nowadays, coats of armor, weaponry, and every single detail you can possibly imagine. Daniel and I have decided that when we are rich, we also are going to decorate our ceilings. Seriously, when did we move to plain white ceilings? There is something to be said for the magic of looking up and seeing art everywhere. And I don’t just mean paintings, but I mean art in the luxurious design of a ceiling that has intricate designs carved into it.
I also got to see Queen Mary’s Dolls’ House, and as you all know, I adore miniatures, so that was a delight. Apparently it works. In other words, the lights, electricity, water, it was designed so that everything operated realistically. Sadly you don’t get to see that in action, you just get to admire all the intricate little details that go into it, but it was still super cool.
We detoured early on to see the Changing of the Guard, which Daniel loved…and I did not. Because I was too short to see anything. Seriously. After getting on my tiptoes multiple times and only catching glimpses of a couple hats, I left Daniel there and meandered the courtyard, finally sitting on a bench and learning quickly that though England was cooler (in the 60s), the sun was still quite warm, so I took off my jacket.
Well, we were about three quarters of the way through the tour when I realized I was missing my purse. Have you heard of someone panicking? I think I panicked more in that moment than when I got into a car accident a few years ago as I imagined trying to navigate multiple countries without my purse, ID, credit cards, etc. I ran to the bathrooms I’d used earlier, searching every stall and creepily standing outside ones that were occupied so I could check those as well, before remembering that there was a good chance I had taken it off in the courtyard to remove my jacket. Thankfully, Daniel kept a cool head and rather than dashing to the courtyard to search every nook and cranny, as I was about to do, he suggested we actually ask someone for the lost and found. That security guard will never know how close he came to a hug when he pulled my purse out, with not a thing missing. May God forever bless the person who turned it in. I’d like you to know that I basically treated that purse like a baby the rest of the day. It did not leave my sight again.
The next stop on our tour was Bath! As in, the Bath from Jane Austen’s novels. Let me detour for a second though to say that the drive there was absolutely gorgeous! The countryside itself was worth taking that tour for. And, for anyone else who goes there and is wondering what the purple rope thing strung along the road is, it is a way to track how fast people are going so that they can send out speeding tickets to anyone who dares go faster than the speed limit. I think that was the moment I decided England was great to visit, but I was glad I didn’t live there.
I was disappointed at first as we rolled through town because it looked more like a downtrodden old section of DC or New York than anything. But then they brought us to the tourist section – and that is exactly what I expected to see. Daniel pointed out one location that looked exactly like street Captain Wentworth and Anne walked down after their kiss in Persuasion, so we got multiple pictures of it so we could check it later. (future perspective: IT WAS!! IT WAS TOTALLY BATH STREET, WHERE THEY FILMED IT!) We also saw Bath Chapel which was just incredible – check out the carvings of angels climbing up it!
But the surprise of the day for me was the Roman Baths. I’ll be honest, we paid the extra to get the tour that entered the Baths because Daniel wanted to see them, not because I cared at all. But they were SO COOL. Seriously. Walking over the same ground that you know Romans were treading in 70 AD was mind-blowing. We got to walk all around the main bath, look at the small bath, and walk through so many rooms with original ruins and foundations, including a running spring, an immersion pool, a swimming pool, a room they basically used as as sauna, and got to drink water from one of the original springs!
We finished off this part of the tour by getting Cornish Pasties, which I was super excited about because I knew I needed to try a pasty in England. Daniel got one of the traditional meat and cheese ones – I couldn’t because it was stuffed full of onions, but I did get a spicy curry chicken one that was still amazing. They were well-flavored, flaky, and delicious.
We proceeded from there through more gorgeous countryside to Stonehenge! It was super cool to see it finally rise in the distance – it felt fairly surreal after hearing about it for so long that it didn’t seem quite real. But, I’ll be honest, when we actually got out of the bus and walked up to it – I was surprised by how small it actually was. Daniel, however, was able to see all the details that make it so amazing, so I’m going to let him describe the next part.
Stonehenge was amazing! We had just seen the Roman Baths, which were 2,000 years old, and then to be standing next to these stones, that had been sitting where they are for 3,000 years when the Romans baths were being built is truly mind boggling. Although smallish (compared to London or Bath), the fact that people 5,000 years ago could cut stones this carefully was incredible. Even the tops of the stone had ‘bumps’ that aligned perfectly with the cross stones so that they wouldn’t fall! Very impressive. Finally, as I thought about these being so old, I wondered what they looked like in their heyday. Were they just stones? Or were they perhaps decorated with hanging cloth between the stones or draped over the stones themselves? Maybe they were painted with something? So much scope for thought about what was, is fun and humbling at the same time.
See why I let him describe it? He is so much better than me at ancient ruins like that. My main observation while looking at it was, I admit, a quote from Shrek. “That’s a niiice boulder. ” Daniel was upset. But mostly because he didn’t think to quote that first.
We got back to London fairly late and exhausted, but also starving. By the time we got from the coach station, through the Tube, and back to our hotel, took some time to rub our aching feet, and decided to go to the pub across the street, it was 10:00 PM…and they had stopped serving food. But on of the very kind bartenders told us about one place a block or two away that served food until 11:00 PM, and by 10:30 we had found it, along with half of London, managed to find a table, and finally got to try fish and chips in England. Along with mushy peas. Which is apparently a big thing. I tasted them and understood much more why people warned us the food in England isn’t good.
We also ordered what we thought were a couple of drinks. They were 10 pounds each, which is about the price you pay for a drink in Virginia, so when the menu said pitchers, we both, without even talking about it, assumed it was just a term they must use in England for a larger drink. And then they brought out two literal pitchers. TWO PITCHERS! That waiter was definitely laughing at us as we told him there must be a mistake. It’s a good thing it was mostly soda. But we still didn’t finish them.
The system there was fascinating. They had cameras literally everywhere in the two story pub, and you scan a QR code and order your food, paying for it immediately, and they bring it to you and when you are done, they are there within minutes to clear the table because they are watching you via camera. Also, the RUMORS ARE TRUE. There was no option to tip!! It felt like we were doing something wrong by not finding a way to add a tip on, not going to lie.
Well, the upside of doing the red eye the day before and forcing ourselves to stay up the rest of the day when we landed was that we adjusted to London time immediately. Which means by the time we got back to the hotel around 11:30, we were ready to collapse into bed, despite it technically only being 6:30 Virginia time, and get a good sleep in preparation for another busy day on the morrow.
Step Count: 17,493
Forest Idylls 
Awesome that you figured out that was the same street they used in Persuasion! So cool.