Now for the completion of the mini London trip. Friday night it was rough to sleep. My bed was creaky so I felt guilty moving any because i might bother someone else and the lights were on til past midnight. Thankfully I had brought my eye-mask that Delta had given me in first class on the trip over to Madrid. So I put in on and did my best to sleep. I woke up promptly to my alarm. I don't know if Iphones can even have their alarms go off in just vibrate but if they do I'd like to find out how. It didn't seem to make a difference though. Everyone still seemed pretty asleep. I tried to dress and get my things ready as quickly and quietly as possible and find my way downstairs to breakfast. The tour bus would pick me up at 7:55 at the Paddington Hilton, my goal was to be there at 7:45am. Main problem: breakfast didn't start being served til 7:30am. I was there early and as soon as I was able to I got a bowl of coco-krispies and some apple juice. Figured out the toaster thing but a little late and did not know where the butter was so that was not the best moment. Did get some little cheeses, a couple of which I tucked away in my purse for the journey. By 7:40am I was on my way to pick up. Turned out really easy and got on the bus with no problems. The bus then dropped everyone off at Victoria Station to find their gates for respective tours. Got to my gate and felt a bit lonely. But no fear. Two girls from Boston noticed my ticket was the same as theirs and we started chatting. The three of us would become tour buddies. Sadly though since I was the only person on the tour who was traveling by them self my seat was chosen for me. :/ Right across from a couple with a two year old. Oh goody. The bright side was that I was just two rows in front of my new Boston friends.
Before we could get off the bus at Windsor Castle we were lectured on how much time we had and that we needed to buy lunch there and that it should be a cold lunch and blah blah blah. I immediately grouped up with Holly and Jay and we set out. We took pictures of everything. We tried to go to Queen Mary's doll house but the line was a little long and when the tour guide saw us in line for it he told us we should forget it. Sad day. At least we did get a picture with one of the guards.
Poor guards. To stand there all day in the sun perfectly still in those uniforms while thousands of tourists stand beside them and take pictures. Sounds miserable. When our time was nearly up we had top scramble to figure out the way back to the bus and make our food stop. The line was already getting big when we got in line. At least the prices were pretty good. I would have loved to have one of the meat pies and mashed potatoes but I figured I should obey and only get cold food. And back on the bus for another couple of hours with the two year old whining/laughing/screaming and his parents changing his diapers in the bus while the tour guide rambled on and on and on and on. I really have no idea how the man was able to talk so much. But he was. It did not help that I was getting cranky from lack of sleep. I tried to content myself with taking pictures outside the window which was quite picturesque. We were on our way to Bath, home of Jane Austen. That would have been amazing to go to the Jane Austen museum! But we barely had much time to get through the roman baths. We got 1 hour. And tour guide did kind of threaten to leave us in Bath if we were late. Even told us the price of a bus ticket back to London. My trio was not going to be late. Consequently we rushed through the baths snapping pictures left and right and trying to listen to some of the commentary. It was a bit of a whirlwind that ended with us having 5 minutes to buy things at the gift shop. What caught my eye and emptied my wallet? A glass bottle of "genuine" Bath Waters. Yes. I paid 4.30£ for this water which is not drinkable but can supposedly be rubbed into the skin for its "healing" affects. What I did not focus on until after was that it has over 100mL in it. I don't have checked baggage. It was me and my backpack and I had to make it through security with this souvenir. Crap. I could only say a prayer
that I wouldn't be stopped and have my pricey water taken from me. Of course, the more pressing matter after I realized this was to get myself to that bus on time. And success. Granted the bus was a few minutes late due to there not really being any parking. So much for being on time. It was about 4 at this point and there was only one stop left: Stonehenge. I'd always heard about it and was pretty excited to see it. After all, I chose the Stonehenge tour over the central London tour just to see this much talked about ruin. The bus ride went somewhat smoothly. Got there and were told we got a whole 45 minutes. This turned out to be more than enough since you cannot even touch the rocks. Nope my friends it is roped off so that for detail you have to use camera zoom. I contented myself with taking a picture from every possible angle until my camera died. Then off to the gift shop to get a couple small, non-liquid trinkets. At this point I was also pretty hungry so when I saw a food stand I went for it. I also got hot food, namely a beef pastry which was quite delicious! It would be all I had for dinner so I am glad that I got it over ice cream. The 2 hour drive home was accented by the tour guide helping each person figure out where they needed to get off whether at Victoria Station or one of the 3 other drop off points. Yes, hotel pick-up does not mean hotel drop-off as well. Dang. Thankfully Holly and Jay's hotel was close-ish to mine and we got off in the rain together and wandered back asking for directions every so often. When we parted ways I was on my own to figure out the last 10 minutes. It turned out not to be too bad, just a couple wrong turns. And I managed to get into a souvenir shop to buy some gifts for people back home. And of course because I really wanted to test security I bought one of my grandmother's a fridge magnet that was also a half snow globe. Special. For myself a Paddington bear not that I've ever read the books but I came to the conclusion that I had stayed in Paddington so I needed a corresponding trinket. New goal: read one of the books. He is a cute little thing that now sits on my desk next to my "Bath Waters."
So yes, made it back to the hostal. Paid for a towel so I could shower and paid 3£ for internet connection. After taking a shower I tried to get my things as organized as possible for the next day so that I would not be too loud in the morning. Then it was off to texting my mom through whatsapp, playing words with friends and checking facebook. Found out that the padres are getting a new dog. Mom sent me a pic of the little setter cutie who reminds me of Bandit. I christened him Charlie and everyone approved. In ten months I will meet him - by then I should be ready for a new dog :) I feel like I need a pet fish or something here. I digress. Chatted until I went to sleep and then was woken up by people coming back at 3am. 3am!!!! So chatted a little more with mom and back to sleep.
I've been working on this off and on all day and part of yesterday.....I'll finish this later but will put at least this much up.
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