Bus Tour: Bath, Windsor Castle, Stonehenge

This is actually posted a day late because of no internet at the charming little B&B we are staying at. I'm at an internet cafe trying to post in under an hour right now. So this is yesterday's entry talking about how I didn't post a day before... Yeah.

I didn’t write a blog entry yesterday, even though it was the first time that we got back to the flat before ten o’clock for the five days that we’ve been in London. When you’re on a big vacation like this and you have an itinerary that goes on and on and on, you don’t have the time to do the normal things that make you happy… such as killing stick figures at bored.com (Causuality!), doing a Sudoku, or sticking it to the man by playing a one player game with two sets of hands with my sister. Last night was definitely rejuvenating 

This morning we packed up, hopped in a cab at 10 AM and are now sitting in the parking lot of Heathrow airport while Dad figures out how to drive a car with the steering wheel on the other side in the most confusing roads I’ve ever come across. Good luck to him. I’m glad that you have to be 25 to drive a rental car, otherwise, I might be taking my turn at the wheel and I would be so frightened, the stress on my system might shorten my life by a few weeks.

Anyway, we’re off to Oxford for the day and then settling down in Stratford-upon-Avon for the night (Shakespeare’s birthplace). Consequently, I’ve heard a lot of Dadada-“on”-dadada kind of names and I never knew quite what they meant. I might have just been ignorant not knowing this, but the second names are usually rivers. So we’re going to Hay-on-Wye later in the trip so “Wye” is probably a river, just like “Avon.”

Again, getting off subject. Okay, yesterday was a bus tour. We met our transport at 8:15 AM which meant that I was really, really tired for the first part. We started off at Windsor Castle which is the weekend residence to the Queen. We picked up our audio tours at the entrance and set off to explore some of the reception chambers, gardens, chapels, and other ornate looking rooms. (For the record, I HATE audio tours) We saw a few famous paintings by Van Dyke, who has a very unique, natural, and vibrant way of painting portraits. I got used to the colors being a bit dull in portraits, but when we got to the Van Dyke room, you could still see the reflections on the taffeta which made some of the dresses shimmer. Windsor was the favorite castle of Queen Victoria so there were a lot of statues of her (and like we saw Sparky with Charles II, we saw a Jazzy with Queen Victoria!). My favorite room, however, was a banquet hall which displayed the crests of each of the historic knights that have served the crown. Their coats of arms had stags, dragons, lions, hounds, and other symbolic devices painted on them. Some were completely white though, and these were the shields of knights who had dishonored themselves and their country and were degraded from the Order of the Garter. In the chapel, we saw the tomb of Jane Seymour, Henry VIII’s favorite wife, along with a few other lesser known monarchs.

We got back on the bus, with the other 45 tourists. The bus was nice, it was a charter with air vents and window curtains. Our tour guide was a very prim, delicate looking old man with a short and wiry build, crinkly eyes, and a thick, pointed upper lip and knobby neck that made him look a bit like a turtle. He had a very posh accent as well as a wry sense of humor. He ended up singing most of his directions to us, and made sure that the numerous other nationalities on the tour who only spoke broken English knew where to meet up by referring to them by the name of their home country. “Got that, Japan?” “Spain, step over here please.”

Armym Hennessey was his name, and he was full of dry trivia and points of interest, but he had a soothing voice that I slept through on the way to our second stop, Bath.

This city was very much influenced by the Romans who came before. Much of their architecture was preserved, including the allegedly restorative bath pits that were respected because of their supposed healing powers. The city itself was absolutely breathtaking. There were Kodak moments everywhere. It was absolutely picturesque. In the heart of the baths, we saw deep greenish pools, murky from stagnation, but still managing to look oddly appealing. There were alcoves, columns, and statues cut into the stone near which the bathers would languish, long, long ago. The history of the place was fun to read about, but again, the audio tours annoyed me so much that I was ready to leave about half an hour before we had to get on the bus, so the family went shopping a bit. I found a street vendor who was selling British themed negligee. Definitely saw a Union Jack thong.

We stopped at a restaurant called “Shakeaway” which would blend pretty much anything for you. I got a banana and nutella shake, which is very, very thin compared to American shakes. It’s practically melted ice cream when they give it to you. Carly and I were admiring a statue that looked innoculous enough, until a little boy ran up to it, pressed a button, and water shot out of a leak. It was a water fountain! I took a drink of Bath water!

Carly fell asleep on the way to Stonhenge. I finished my book. When we got there, I was really expecting a bit more drama or hullabaloo. Stonehenge is seriously just off the highway. We could have just driven past it. There was a rope which kept visitors about 30 feet away from the monument, but you could walk around it. I mean there were only so many times you can take pictures of rocks. I didn’t get it. I listened to all the speculation and read my pamphlet back to front, and I know it’s got hidden meanings or something, but I couldn’t see what all the fuss was about. It was really cool to be there and now to say that I’ve seen it, but don’t expect anyone to stand on ceremony when you go check it out. I mean, it’s surrounded by hay fields.

When we got back to London (our last night in London!), we got dropped at Herrod’s, a large, classy, and expensive department store. Mom said that Princess Diana was dating the owner of Herrod’s at the time that she died. I could find nothing within my price range. When I walked through a display of Gucci and Dior for 7-12 year olds, I knew this really wasn’t my style. Carly bought a shirt though that cost more than everything I’ve bought in London put together. Some of the fashion was WAY out there, but it was fun to look at 450 pound dresses (more like 900 dollars).

We left the store early and slipped into what looked like a fast food restaurant for a quick dinner and encountered a very pleasant surprise. The food was all on a conveyor belt! It was Lebanese cuisine (to add to our varied lists of traditional foods which also include Turkish and Indian). You could pick off the entrees you wanted, the ring around the dish told you how much it would cost, and the entire menu would pass by in front of your eyes within about two minutes of watching. I took a video of it because it was so cool.

After dinner, like I said before, we had a relaxing night and went to bed early in order to get up for our trip to Oxford. Right now, Dad is driving like a pro in our rental car, Mom is navigating, and Carly is sleeping some more. We have another big day ahead of us. This is Kelsey Ingle, signing out.

written by

Kelsey Ingle on August 21, 2009 from London, United Kingdom

from the travel blog: A Rover in the Clover

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