London: Day 1 & 2

St. Paul's Cathedral and Millennium Bridge by the River Thames in London

The Market Porter Public House during our pub tour.

Windsor Castle (right) and St. George's Cathedral (left)

At the Roman Bath House in the city of Bath

By the Avon River in Bath

At Stonehenge

Piccadilly Circus at night.

We arrived safely into London after stops in the Memphis & Amsterdam airports. The flight to Europe was over 8 hours long but didn’t seem too bad because we each had our own TV screen and a wide selection of movies to choose from which helped to pass the time. We arrived at the hotel at around 4:00 p.m. London time. After a quick shower to freshen up, we headed out for a guided tour called “Along the River Thames Pub Walk”. We got to see quite a few famous London landmarks including St. Paul’s Cathedral, The Millennium Bridge, the Globe Theatre, Tate Modern museum, and of course, the Thames River. We also got to sample a few local brews at 2 pub stops, Youngs Founders Arm & The Market Porter. By the end of the night, we were completely wiped out (basically 24 hours since we started our trip with little to no sleep). We had just enough energy to grab a quick pizza before we turned in for the night.

Today (Saturday) we had another long day. We took a bus tour outside the city of London which included stops at Windsor Castle, the old Roman city of Bath, and Stonehenge. The entire tour and travel time lasted about 12 hours, but we definitely got to see many interesting and beautiful sites. First, at Windsor Castle we got to quickly tour the grounds and see some of the State Rooms inside the castle. The interior decorations are so amazing and truly fit for a queen! The city of Bath was about a 2 hour bus ride from Windsor, but it was definitely worth the wait! The city was built among 7 hills in the English countryside. It was originally founded by the Romans because of the natural hot springs that are found in the area. The main attraction of the tour was to visit the ancient Roman bath house but we found that the city of Bath itself was almost more breathtaking. While touring the city, we also passed by a rugby match and watched a cricket match for a few minutes. We both think that we could spend a few days in Bath relaxing and taking in the sights, but we were limited to only a few hours on the tour. Our final stop was at the ancient ruins of Stonehenge. You may remember this sight from the National Lampoon’s European Vacation when Chevy Chase clumsily backs into one of the stones and brings the entire monument down! However, in real life you really aren’t allowed to get that close to the stones but we did get close enough to enjoy it and snap a few pictures. Honestly, Stonehenge is something that we are glad we visited once, but don’t really have much desire to go back again! It’s basically situated in the middle of the English countryside amongst sheep and farmland so besides the rocks there isn’t much to it!

We ended the night at Piccadilly Circus which is kind of like the Times Square of London. We saw a lot of interesting things – people, buildings, and vehicles. We are planning to head back sometime during the day also.

Hopefully we will get the chance to update the blog a few more times during our trip. We can’t make any promises though because the internet situation is a little sketchy. The internet connection we are using now is in a pub by our hotel, so we really don’t mind seeking out a good brew and free wi-fi.

Cheers!