Up again at 5:30 to walk to Doubletree by Hilton to catch
the shuttle for our Day Tour by PremiumTours. We arrived early to we walked to Prête au Manger for
breakfast. I had a cheese and meat filled pastry, a cup of fruit & a latte.
We got back to the hotel before the scheduled meeting
time and we waited and waited and waited. We waited at the hotel a lot longer than
expected, but the bus was late (we didn’t miss it) because the driver got lost.
He missed a couple of pick ups and was late to others but he picked us up at
least so I couldn't really worry about anyone else. The shuttle then took us to
Victoria Coach Station where we all met or respective tours.
Us and a family were the last to arrive but we still all
managed to get seats on the upper deck of the open air tour. Turns out, we were
on all the same tours as this family, originally from the USA, now in Germany
as the dad is in the military. They were so nice and their 7 year old daughter
was so cute!
So our morning started off with an open-air bus tour of
London. At first we were upset because with the noise of the traffic and the
fact that they didn’t turn the sound up all the way, we couldn't hear a thing.
They did have a recorded track that you could plug into but I was a little
upset. Our first stop was at Westminster Abbey. While getting off the bus, we
told the guide about the sound and she promised to fix it.
It was really cool to see Westminster Abbey without the
fences up (last time I was in London they were preparing for the Royal Wedding
between Prince William and Kate Middleton). We snapped a few photos of the
Abbey, snapped a few of Big Ben, then hopped back on the bus to continue our
tour.
Our next stop was the Tower of London! I wish we could’ve
had more time there but it was so cool! Definitely an impressive medieval
structure, I definitely need to come back and see it all. We didn’t get to go
in but that’s because we had a bunch of other things to see before Stonehenge.
After the Tower we walked down to the pier for our boat
tour! I've now taken two of them and I think it’s an amazing way to see the
city. The tour bus met us at the end of the tour and drove us up near
Buckingham Palace for the changing of the guard!!!! This was the highlight of
my morning! We stopped to watch them walk out with the band, then headed up to
in front of the palace to watch them march past on their way into the compound.
It was so cool to see, the boulevard was also lined with Union Jacks (the tour
guides weren't sure why the flags were flying but their best guess was that the
London Marathon was later that week). Overall an amazing experience and I’m so
happy I got to see it this time in London! If you don’t have long in London, definitely
try and see the changing of the guard!
After the Changing of the Guard, us and the German family
separated from the rest of the group with one of the tour guides who walked us
back to Victoria Coach station. Once there, he gave us about two hours of free
time before we had to meet the bus to Stonehenge. Before leaving us to our free
time, the family asked him where the Krispy Kreme donuts were. Now, I haven’t
seen a Krispy Kreme in like 10 years and I thought they were just being
American and asking for something familiar, and the tour guide had no idea
where to find one, he thought they were strictly in North America. Turns out,
they did research and found a Krispy Kreme donuts stand in the nearby Victoria metro
and train station so we all walked over there together before going our
separate ways.
Franny and didn’t want to ruin our lunch so we agreed to
go get food and come back for a donut afterwards. For lunch we went to a pub
across the street called the Shakespeare. I had the “Big Ben” burger, and it
was as big as it sounds. A thick patty with all the toppings, including an egg!
It was delicious!!
After lunch we still had over an hour so we walked around
a little, and I got another photo in front of the Apollo Theatre. It wasn't ideal because basically all of London is under construction and there are
fences up EVERYWHERE, but I still got my photo.
We meandered our way back to the Coach station, stopping
to buy Krispy Kreme donuts on the way (they were okay but they weren't as
stupendously amazing as I remember, mainly because they weren't baked fresh in
front of us).
There was a bit of a mix-up at the coach station. We
arrived at the gate but our names weren't on the list, and we had already given
our confirmation to the previous tour guide so we had no confirmation either.
It was the same with the German/US family. Once the bus driver realized we had
been on the previous tour he told us we were fine and to get on the coach. It
was worrisome though at the beginning when the woman checking the list told us
that we weren't there!
Our driver Micheal was really funny and he told us
stories all the way there and back and he gave us a brief description of what
we’d be seeing at the stones. I tried to stay awake but I was just so exhausted
(and Franny was too) that we slept basically the entire way. Only waking up
when he make an announcement that we’d be taking a detour to the Henge.
Apparently since it was a long weekend, all the main motorways running past
Stonehenge were basically at a stand-still so we took a detour through a
military base instead.
Some of the things he talked to us about were the various
theories surrounding Stonehenge, why it was built and what it was used for.
Well, they still have no idea on what the exact truth is, but they now have
proof that at some point in its history, Stonehenge was used as a
memorial/burial site.
This theory he described by pointing out to us on the way
the mounds of earth that could be seen dotting the countryside, called Barrows.
He told us that these were burial sites, where they’ve found human bones; ritually
buried as well, with each barrow holding a different bone, one for the left
leg, one for the right, etc. Around Stonehenge is a raised ring of earth as
well, the theory there is that it marks the barrier between the living world
and the dead.
Another theory was that it was once used as a place of
healing. This theory was because of a body they discovered while construct was
taking place in Amesbury; they nicknamed this man the Amesbury Archer,
archer because of the many arrowheads that were among the artefacts buried with
him. After running tests, they found that this archer was thousands of years
old, and originated in central Europe. The theory that this was a place of
healing was that this man walked from his home in central Europe to Stonehenge
while in immense pain. All of his teeth were abscessed, and he had a painful
bone infection in his knee. He walked here in order to be healed.
Stonehenge itself was absolutely incredible. Words cannot
describe how stunningly beautiful it is. Set in the middle of nowhere, with
nothing but fields for miles around. Being there gave me a sense of
connectedness to the past; a kind of mystical feeling that I was part of
something greater than myself. And although we really couldn’t get very close
to the stones, I felt blessed to be in their presence. I hope one day we can
learn what they were truly built for, but at the same time, the mystery of it
all is half of its draw.
We went to the gift shop for a bit before heading back to
the bus. I bought a souvenir coin as well as a postcard for myself, and Franny
bought a deck of circular cards that were really cool. We also grabbed sandwiches
and cookies for supper to eat as we walked back to the bus (there was a rule of
no food on the bus).
On the way back, Micheal told us his two best (and my two
favorite) stories. So a little bit of context, when we arrived at Stonehenge,
Michael gave a long speech about how we were on a magic bus. That this bus left
at 5 o’clock and we should be back to it by then. At 5:02 the bus would
disappear! Moral of the story: don’t be late! So, the first story is of the
vanishing tourists! I believe he told us this couple was from Australia or
something (they were foreign to say the least) and they didn’t get back to the
bus by the time to leave. Now, his “magic bus” story is really not true, he
doesn’t leave. So he and the rest of the tour waited for an hour, he asked
security to check the place, nothing. They were nowhere. And to this day,
neither he nor the tour company have heard of them. They just disappeared….
What he believes is they got on the wrong bus. The irony is, the only other bus
there at the time, was a tour bus from Paris that was heading straight back to
Paris after leaving Stonehenge. All he’s been able to picture is these two
tourists falling asleep on the wrong bus and being woken up when they get to
the border and are asked for their passports! Isn’t that insane!
The second story is about the Queen Mother (the mother of
Queen Elizabeth II) and a supermarket we passed along the way. Just after the
grand opening of this supermarket, the queen mother was sitting with her
entourage, stuck in traffic, outside. he asks her ladies-in-waiting what this
building is and they tell her it’s a supermarket. “Oh okay”. She then asks what
a supermarket is (she’d never been in one you see), and they tell her its where
people buy their food and other supplies on a daily, weekly or monthly basis. “Oh
okay”. Then, she gets this glint in her eyes (I’m telling you this just like
the Michael did) and asks, “Can we go in?” Obviously, you can’t say no to the
Queen Mother, so they pull out of traffic and around the back where one of her
security guards goes in and asks for the manager, who ironically is at a
meeting in central London that day and not in the store. So the assistant manager
closes the store, asking all the shoppers to leave. And the Queen Mother goes
shopping, one of her security guards pushing the cart of course. She even had
to ask her ladies-in-waiting for some money because the Royal family doesn’t
carry cash with them! So she leaves, and the store re-opens and the manager
returns. The assistant manager tells his story, that the Queen Mother was
shopping in their store that day, and of course, the manager doesn’t believe
him, thinking its just a practical joke. But the funny thing was that a week
later, the manager received a letter from Her Royal Highness, Queen Elizabeth
II thanking the store and staff for the wonderful treatment of her mother’s
unannounced visit! Our bus driver knows this story because he is friends with
the manager of the store at the time, and he had that letter framed on the wall
as long as he was manager there!
Once we arrived back at Victoria Coach Station, we
decided to take a walk and go see Big Ben. The family was walking that way as
well so we walked with them, leaving them when we arrived at the Houses of
Parliament. We took some photos and then my camera started acting up, not
wanting to turn off. We took the underground back to Liverpool street, and we
tried to go up to viewing deck in this one restaurant (its as high as the
London Eye but it’s free to go up and look) but we were stopped at the door by
the bouncer because we were dressed too casual for the restaurant.
So we walked back to the hostel but we got back too late for me to do laundry so we just packed up because we had to leave early again the next morning.
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