In the morning, I was confronted with the discovery that another Japanese school group had arrived. Both groups took over the breakfast restaurant so tomorrow, I will be taking my breakfast at least 15 minutes later.
The day got better when I found that my tour guide would be Margot, the same guide I had on my London tour - and she remembered me too. The tour didn't start off too well, when one of the new drivers decided that it would be hilarious if he hid our driver, Mohammad's keys. Let's just say, none of us on the bus were laughing. But, after finding the lost keys, we shook it off and were on our way.
First stop, Stonehenge. As we neared the stones, the weather changed with the darkening of the clouds, a sprinkling of rain and a wind that made it hard to hold a camera steady.I was quite looking forward to Stonehenge and was disappointed. As Joy mentioned to me before I left Melbourne, they were, indeed, "A bunch of rocks". I took many photos, just in case I change my mind later!
It was here, at Stonehenge, that we lost two of our travellers - two Japanese ladies that spoke very little English. They made us ten minutes behind schedule as we waited as long as we possibly could before heading off to our next destination.
Next stop, Salisbury and lunch. At The Cloisters pub, I felt like I was back in high school and not chosen for a team! Everyone went off in their little groups and I was left sitting on my own. Thank God Margot took pity on me and let me sit with her – I seemed to be the only one on this tour travelling alone.
Just as we received our food, the two Japanese ladies showed up! Of course we were mystified as to how this happened - was it the working of the magical Stones? It wasn't until the end of the day that we found out - they hitched a ride with another tour company. And, not only that, but the tour guide on that bus spoke Japanese.After lunch, it was time for a tour of Salisbury Cathedral and I was happy to find that we were allowed to take photos inside, but not where the Magna Carta is held.
It is quite a majestic building - inside and out. Margot was great at taking us through the inside of the building and pointing out certain features. Unfortunately, I didn't get to see the Magna Carta as I ran out of time – me and my church thing again.Our next destination was my favourite of the tour - Bath. The drive approaching Bath is simply beautiful. As we wound our way up through the hills, we had a spectacular view of the buildings - you could hear everyone say "Wow".
I found the Roman Baths impressive. Their structure seemed quite fabulous and the relics found showed a great Roman style. It was just a small example of how advanced the Romans were. I didn't spend too much time there as the rest of the town of Bath waited.
And I'm glad I did. There was simply not enough time to see everything but what I saw made me want to move to Bath! I didn't even have time to go into the cathedral but managed to walk some of the streets and take in some of the spectacular views. After a three hour drive back into London (most of it spent in slow crawling traffic), our tour ended at Victoria Station but, before disembarking, Margot did a mini-interview with me about my tour and London which she will put on YouTube. Apparently, it will be available next week on the Golden Tours website. I probably look awful as I was extremely tired. Forgot to fix my hair too.
Before taking my bus back to the hotel, I decided to walk over and pay the Queen a visit. She didn't invite me in, though.
As it was nearly 8pm, it was fairly quiet and I managed to finally take some pictures of Buckingham Palace and the Victoria Monument. Well, some is an understatement – I went a little crazy.I then caught the Number 16 bus and finally made it back to my hotel at around 8:30pm.
Oxford, Stratford and Warwick Castle tomorrow.
