We had booked a tour that will take us to Windsor Castle, Stonehenge and the Roman Baths. We had to meet up with the tour in London. We were up and out of the flat by 7AM, before anyone was up. We walked to the train station, took the train and ended up at Victoria Station. London Victoria is a major London Underground and Coach station in the City of Westminster. It is the second busiest railway terminus in London after Waterloo. As soon as we walked into the station, I recognized it. I had never been there before but had seen it in a movie or something. We walked about a block to our meeting place and boarded the bus. Our first stop - Windsor Castle.
Mike at London Victoria Station.
Windsor Castle is the largest and oldest occupied castle in the world, is the home of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II. Located in Windsor in the English county of Berkshire, is the largest inhabited castle in the world and, dating back to the time of William the Conqueror, is the oldest in continuous occupation. The castle's floor area is approximately 484,000 square feet. That's a lot of square footage! We saw the magnificent State Apartments, furnished with some of the finest works of art and still used for State occasions. We saw St George's Chapel, where the tombs of many Kings and Queens lie, notably Henry VIII and his third wife Jane Seymour and the Queen Mary's Dolls House, the most famous dolls house in the world. Then we were lucky enough to catch the changing of the guards. Next stop - Stonehenge.
Various views of Windsor Palace:
In the State Apartment was Queen Mary's Dolls' House. Queen Mary's Dolls' House is a magnificent dollhouse built in the early 1920s, completed in 1924, for Queen Mary, the wife of King George V. It was made to a scale of 1:12 (one inch to the foot) and is over three feet tall. The carpets, curtains and furnishings are all copies of the real thing, and even the light fittings are working. The bathrooms are fully plumbed that includes a flushable toilet and miniature lavatory paper. Even the bottles in the wine cellar were filled with the appropriate wines and spirits, and the wheels of motor vehicles are properly spoked. It was impressive. Unfortunately they do not allow you to take photos but did manage to sneak in a couple with no flash.
One of the few photos I was able to snap of the Dolls House
St George's Chapel :
Changing of the guards at Windsor Castle:
Before we arrived to Stonehenge we stopped at at the Stonehenge Inn on Stonehenge Road for lunch. We had a traditional English meal of Roast beef and Yorkshire pudding.
It is believed that 5,000 years ago these 40 ton rocks were dragged to the lonely windy plain of Salisbury Hill, and their secrets continue to tantalize and intrigue scholars and visitors to this day. Some say that Stonehenge was a religious temple, others that it was an astronomical clock, or a Bronze Age burial ground. No one really knows. When Stonehenge became open to the public it was possible to walk amongst and even climb on the stones. This ended in 1977 when the stones were roped off as a result of serious erosion. Visitors are no longer permitted to touch the stones, but merely walk around the monument from a short distance. We were extremely lucky with the weather. Although cold and windy, it did not rain and we could enjoy the spectacular view. At one point, we just stopped taking photos and just soaked in the moment. This was one of our highlights of the trip.
After our visit to Stonehenge we went to Bath to see the Roman Baths. Bath is a city in Somerset in the south west of England, situated 99 miles west of London. The city was founded, among surrounding hills, in the valley of the River Avon around Naturally-occurring hot springs where the Romans built baths and a temple, giving it the name Aquae Sulis ('the waters of Sulis'). Edgar was crowned king of England at Bath Abbey in 973. Later, it became popular as a spa resort during the Georgian era, which led to a major expansion that left a heritage of exemplary Georgian architecture crafted from Bath Stone. The city became a World Heritage Site in 1987, and has a variety of theaters, museums, and other cultural and sporting venues, which have helped to make it a major center for tourism. Jane Austen made her home in Bath between 1801 to 1806. Bath is a place I really wished we could have spent more time in. It has many spas and would have loved to had a spa day here. Maybe one day in the future.
Bath Abbey
Views inside the Roman Baths:
We had a long drive back to London. We arrived around 8PM. We were dropped off right by the
Apollo Victoria Theatre in London's Westend where "Wicked" is now playing. Unfortunately for us, the show started around 7:30 and we were too late. Otherwise we probably would have gone. Guess we'll just have to catch that one in San Francisco. We decided to stop at a pub called 'The Shakespeare' and have dinner there. We had fish and chips and a delicious bottle of Rioja. Then it was back to Victoria Station to catch the train back to Richmond. When we arrived at Tatiana's it must have been close to 11PM. The kids were asleep and Pilar and Tatiana were up. We chatted a bit and then all of us went to bed.
What an amazing day!
Pub where we had dinner
View of Apollo Theatre from our table
Fish and Chips we ordered for dinner
Bottle of Rioja we had
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