Like I mentioned yesterday, we don’t usually opt for organized tours. However, Bailey and I both really wanted to see Stonehenge. I did my research on how to get there by public transportation, and it looked to be a long and arduous journey. And not very cheap! I read online to see what other people did and many people said that they ended up taking a tour bus straight there from London because it ended up being not much more expensive. I’m new to the field of tour buses but I eventually found Premium Tours and they had some pretty good reviews so I thought we’d try it!
Looking more into it I saw that they often combine Stonehenge stops with other stops and found it to be cost effective to hit Bath and Windsor Castle on the same day. That’s a lot of stops far apart for one day! But, we only have a few days in England and we wanted to see what we could because we don’t know when we will be back. We only ended up having an hour and a half to two hours at each stop, which was perfect for Windsor and Stonehenge but I would like to spend a weekend someday exploring Bath!
Our first stop was Windsor Castle first thing in the morning. I opted for a sort of tour bus that takes you to each destination and provides information/commentary on the way, but gives you your own time to explore at each stop. That seemed to be a good balance for us. We really enjoyed walking around the beautiful grounds of the castle, but unfortunately you can’t go inside most of it. That is because it is an actual royal residence. In fact, the Queen was there today! We looked all over for her but only found a different old lady with a dog. Still exciting.
The Staterooms were gorgeous. They had such a beautiful collection of paintings! Everything was so posh, it kind of makes one upset about not being royal.
We also went into St. George’s Chapel which was really magnificent and another place we couldn’t take pictures. But many important people were buried there so it was interesting to see their tombs!
Afterwards we watched the changing of the guards ceremony with a guest appearance from the Nepalese Gurkhas who also play the bagpipes. That was unexpected!
We hopped back into the bus for a long beautiful ride through the English countryside. I love the rolling hills, how green everything is, and the bright yellow patches of flowers. So charming!
Our next stop was Bath to see the Roman baths. Very cool! This particular bath was nasty looking but I would definitely jump in if I was allowed to. It looked so nice and warm! In the pump room they had a little faucet pouring the actual spring water, so we totally drank the waters of Bath today. It is supposed to be very healing of almost any ailment, and should make you live longer. We will see what happens!
We each grabbed a (very delicious) pasty to eat while standing in the courtyard admiring Bath abbey. I freaking love cathedrals. We stopped in for just a moment to admire the surprisingly bright, light interior before hopping back on the bus!
Like I said, a little more time in Bath would be nice. We wouldn’t necessarily need more time to see the Roman baths, but the town was so cute, I’d love to explore it a little more. Next time!
Stonehenge wasn’t too far away. I didn’t really know what to expect from this stop. There’s not much anyone knows about the monument, and many people I’ve talked to have skipped visiting it because “it’s just a bunch of rocks”. But I felt it important to go, and I am so glad we did!
We took a little shuttle up to Stonehenge after parking and quickly reached the rocks. We were able to get closer than I thought, and I must say that my breath was taken away! For some reason it was very awe inspiring. It had an interesting feeling about it and I’m not sure why. Maybe just because it is mysterious? Or because it is so ancient? I’m not sure what it was, but I loved being there! We walked around it a few times as the sun came out from behind the clouds. Truly a magical experience. Don’t miss Stonehenge!!
It was time to head back to London, which was good timing as it started to pour. I do admit, it was sure convenient to have a bus taking us everywhere we wanted to today! I would recommend this same tour if you only have a few days in England. If you have more time I might recommend splitting up the stops between different days as we easily covered over 200 miles. I hate wasting so much time in transit but I think today it was worth it to be able to see so much. And it was nice to nap between stops!
We ended the night with an okay Italian place near our Airbnb. The restaurant was too hip, not authentic enough, but it filled our stomachs after a long day of fun sightseeing!
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