I haven't forgotten about you

I've just been extremely busy and it's hard to blog when I'm not home during the day. Thursday and Friday were uneventful. So uneventful that I took some pictures of the food I ate just so I would have something to blog about. Obviously, I never got around to it, but don't worry, it wasn't anything special.

Friday night was when everything started picking up. After a quick dinner of jacket potatoes and beans (a common meal here), we went to the scout meeting.

The scouts went through a rotation of pitching tents, first aid, knot tying and sawing. The Husband helped out as an unconscious person.

The meeting ended with a fun game of dodge ball.

After the meeting, the scout leaders got together and hung out by the fire. It's nice to be able to get out in the community and have an evening out with others. We got a ride home and went to bed for an early morning. We had to be in London earlier than ever before. We were going to take a tour coach through the country to Windsor Castle, Bath and Stonehenge. I grabbed a quit half of grape fruit and some coffee as we planned to have a true British breakfast in London.

I had an egg, hashed browns, grilled tomatoes and bean (they do love their beans in this country). The husband had scrambled eggs with toast and chocolate cake (of course). Then we were off to catch our coach for an 8:45 departure.

The trip had its pros and cons. The cons were associated with the tour company and "guide." There really were no cons related to the places we actually got the chance to visit so I'll stand on my little soap box here and complain a bit (just a bit, I promise) about the tour itself. We went with a company called Evan Evans. A friend of mine actually recently went on a tour and raved about it so my complaints could mainly be attributed to our poor tour guide. First of all, this kept displaying on the screen:

Its not super clear in this picture but it says "Evans Evans Tours," not "Evan Evans Tours." This gets under my skin like none other. I understand type-os happen but there were two instances on the slides that rotated where they spelled the company's name wrong! It just shows the lack of professionalism to begin with. At least they got it right on the giant bus.

Our tour guide wasn't really a guide at all. He shared a few pieces of information but nothing truly relevant or interesting. He also didn't see to be knowledgeable about certain subjects when asked. Our first drive to Windsor was about forty-five minutes. He talked for a fraction of it. When we got there and got off the bus, we were to meet him at a set location in an hour and a half. After the self-guided tour, we headed back to the bus and were told that it would take two and a half hours to get to the Roman city of Bath. After the first hour of silence, the bus driver finally offered to put on home music. It may have been poor planning on my part but I did not bring a book or an iPod as I anticipated a TOUR with a speaking guide. We got stuck in some traffic and he said it would take a little longer. Even with the traffic, we made it to Bath in two hours. I would assume that if he's done this tour before, he should know how long it takes to get places. 

At Bath, the same thing happened, we got off the bus and were to regroup in an hour and a half. Then it was another two hour drive to Stonehenge. This site was the first one I didn't feel rushed at because while we were given 45 minutes, it really only took 30. Once again, back on the bus for another two hour ride back to London. Our guide, Peter gave us some misinformation regarding the London Eye and places to eat, which made us question everything else he's told us. We had planned to catch the Eye after the tour but he said it closed at 7:30 and that the price was 11 pounds. Good thing we called because it closed at 9:30 and was 18 pounds.

All in all, we were unimpressed with the company as the guide is representative of Evan Evans. We are well aware that different guides will offer different information but this suggests that there is no standard across the company. For less money, I could have gotten on a regular coach (rather than a tour coach) and done the same amount without any added benefit. Essentially, the tour guide was more of a chaperone.The only positives were that we didn't have to wait in line too long for the attractions as we were with a group (which can also be avoided with strategic planning), and that although VERY rushed, we were able to scratch three places of interest off our list. 

WARNING: The rest of this post will contain A LOT of pictures (because we covered A LOT of ground)

Now that I've gotten that off my chest, I would highly recommend every place we went to, just not particularly with a tour. As I mentioned before, we started the day off at Windsor Castle. It is the oldest and largest functioning castle in the world. When the Queen isn't in London, Windsor is her preferred home. Inside, we saw Queen Mary's famous doll house, complete with working plumbing. We weren't able to take pictures inside the castle but here are a few shots from around the grounds.  

Then we were on our way through the beautiful British countryside to Bath.

Bath is an ancient Roman city known for its hot spring. The Romans came and set up a temple around the bubbling warm water. I particularly love ancient Roman engineering and how well it was preserved. I find it very easy to imagine what it was like to live in the time.

Here is what hung on the entrance to the bath house. The museum did a great job at piecing everything together based on the ruins. This theme was present throughout entire rooms.

Again,  here is an altar recreated to fill in the gaps.

The springs aren't too hot and it would have been nice to go for a dip

We got out a few minutes early, grabbed some pasties for lunch and stumbled into a fudge shop. We did not leave empty handed.

We wandered around town before we got back on the bus.

As we were leaving, we got this beautiful view of the city.

Then we made it to Stonehenge.

Just like the Roman engineering, this prehistoric site still blows my mind. How did they get the stones to stand up AND stack them perfectly leveled?

When we got back to London, we headed towards the London Eye. On our way, we we passed Westminster Cathedral...

 Not to be confused with Westminster Abbey.

I don't know much about the London Eye other than it's just a giant ferris wheel. It takes about a half an hour to get all the way around.

Up high, you can see a fabulous view of the city.

For dinner, we headed to a Latin resistant, Iguana. Mexican food isn't my favorite cuisine but it is one thing I do miss and will eat as soon as I get back. I settled for veggie chili and rice with tortillas. It was very good and was also nice to have guacamole for starters.

This morning, we were planning on going to Portsmouth but our train was delayed last night and the weather was so bad today we slept in and hot up the carboot sale again. We picked up two helmets and an ankle brace for me.

Then we went to the grocery store, had lunch and got to working on our bikes. We cleaned them, degreased them and then regreased them. No squeaks or clicks now! Hopefully they will get some use this week.

That's it. Until next time, Cheers!