Bus Tour: Having spent the previous day walking around Central London, today was the perfect day to get off our feet a little bit and take a bus tour to parts outside London. There are many different tours to choose from, but we opted for one that would take us to Windsor Castle, Bath and Stonehenge. After breakfast, we walked to a hotel the next street over from ours where we boarded a bus for the short ride to Victoria bus station. Once there, we transferred to the bus that was to take us on our selected tour.
Windsor Castle: We first traveled about forty-five minutes outside London to the city of Windsor, located close to Heathrow Airport, originally constructed during WWII to protect Windsor Castle from enemy bombers. Once there, our guide escorted us up to Windsor Castle, where we gained admission and were then let free to tour at our own pace. The vast majority of the tourist sites we visited while in the United Kingdom made available audio guides, in a selection of languages and usually included with admission. This was the case with Windsor Castle.
Inside the Palace: Windsor Castle was originally constructed by William the Conqueror in the 11th century to protect London at a strategic location on the River Thames. A palace was added to the castle grounds in the mid-13th century by Henry III. The palace has since been expanded and is the longest occupied palace in Europe.
The first part of our tour took us past Queen Mary's Doll House, a miniature replica of an aristocratic home, with functioning electricity and plumbing. We then continued on through the Drawings Gallery, with artwork created by the royals on display, and to the State Rooms. Here is where guests are greeted, visit and dine with their hosts, and sometimes have even slept. A major fire engulfed this area in 1992, but it has been immaculately restored to its previous condition.
St. George's Chapel: Since we were very near the end of our allotted two hours at Windsor by the time we exited the palace, we were unable to go inside St. George's Chapel, also located on the castle grounds. Like Westminster Abbey, St. George's is the site of many royal burials and has served as the venue for many royal weddings. We rushed back to the parking lot to board the bus in time and were soon on our way to the next stop on the tour, the city of Bath.
Bath: After traveling westward through rolling hills and past many sheep farms, along roads not built with bus traffic in mind, we arrived at the city of Bath. Bath is located at the only site on the island of Great Britain where natural hot springs occur. The Romans exploited this during their rule by building a bath house and temple here, and named it Aquae Sulis. Following the Roman exodus around AD 410, few people remained at the site, which fell into disrepair and was eventually buried through natural silting processes. The baths were rediscovered in the 18th century and excavated, with many other archeological dig sites still located throughout the city.
The Roman Baths: We started our tour of the Roman Baths by walking around the terrace, which sits at street level today. From there it was inside to a two-level museum displaying the history of the baths and temple and the people who lived there. We also saw the spring overflow and drain in this area. Next, it was back outside for a close-up look of the Great Bath, walking on the same stonework as the Romans nearly two centuries ago. Off to either side of the Great Bath were suites of Roman baths. Although it was not permissible to touch the water, it was made available for tasting within one of these suites. Both Peep and I drank a small cup. Having been heated by volcanic activity and then carried through underground rock, the water had a strong mineral taste to it. Our final stop within the ruins was at the Sacred Spring, the source of the water for the complex.
Touring Bath: Following our tour of the Roman Baths, we climbed back up to street level to admire some of the architecture of this historic city. All the buildings in Bath are made from local Bath stone, which is golden in color, making for a very picturesque cityscape. Located just outside the entrance to the Roman Baths is Bath Abbey, originally built in the 7th century. We did not go inside the abbey, but did get views of the angles climbing Jacob's Ladder on the facade of the western side of the building. Already mid-afternoon, we decided to get a bite to eat, each purchasing and consuming a traditional Cornish pasty, a baked pastry filled with beef, potato, rutabaga and onion. We would have liked to get a closer look at Bath Circus, which we had ridden through on the drive in, but after walking about halfway there realized we wouldn't make it back in time for the bus departure. We weren't the only ones from our tour group having difficulty getting in the sites in the allotted time, evidenced by the fact we ended up waiting fifteen minutes for one couple to arrive, who never did, so we left without them. There was a train station in the city where they could purchase tickets for the journey back to London, although they did miss the last stop on our tour, Stonehenge.
Westbury White Horse: On our way from Bath to Stonehenge, we passed by the Westbury White Horse. The Westbury White Horse is one of many hill carvings found throughout England. This one dates back to 1778 and is a restoration of an earlier carving, which may have been smaller and facing the opposite direction, located on the same spot and documented to the year 1742. Minor alterations were performed in 1873 and it was last cleaned in 2012. Hill carvings are created either by removing the topsoil to reveal the underlying bedrock, by placing stones directly on top of the existing soil, or by digging trenches and filling them in with chalk. Without regular maintenance, they rapidly disappear.
Stonehenge: Our last stop on the tour was at Stonehenge. With no written records of the monument from its time of construction and use, many theories have been developed to explain its existence. The famous circle of stones, consisting of bluestone, sarsen, and sandstones, sits at the center of a much larger network of earthworks, or mounds and ditches. Evidence of a village and several hundred burial mounds in the surrounding area have been found. The alignment of the stones provides strong evidence that the structure was used as a solar calendar. Much restoration work has been done to the monument, with stones that had fallen over being re-erected and many of the vertical stones being set in concrete. However, many of the stones are missing due to souvenir seekers of the past, and visitors are now kept well back from the stones themselves. After forty-five minutes at the monument, it was back on the bus for the long ride back to London, where we arrived well after the sun had set.
See London by Night: Now back in London, we hopped on the nearby tube to ride one stop to catch the bus for the See London by Night tour. The bus used for the tour was an open-air, double-decker bus. By the time we boarded, all the prime, top deck, open air spots had been taken, so we resigned ourselves to see the sites through the bus windows. The majority of the tour consisted of places we had seen earlier in the week, with just a couple new spots along the way. The last part of the tour was a nice preview of the sites we planned to see the next day.
About halfway through the tour, I noticed Peep starting to nod off. Once finished, I asked her how she liked the tour and she responded that the guy announcing was too loud and she kept hitting her head against the window, which kept waking her up. It had been a long day.