Who Does She Think She Is?!

As I've mentioned in previous posts I have a lot of respect for the Queen of England and really enjoy the fact that I get to enjoy all the jubilee events happening around London this year. It's an exciting time to be in London but busier than ever and I'm struggling to accept the huge influx of tourists and craziness. Today, however, was especially disappointing. Lisa and I signed up for a tour to take us around Stonehenge, Bath, and Windsor Castle! We specifically chose this tour because we were so excited to go to the castle! We arrive at our tour this morning and they tell us that we can no longer go to the castle because although it just re-opened less than a month ago the Queen has decided that she needs to use it last minute today and we can therefore not be walking around the same place the queen is walking around! *GASP* how scandalous would that be?! In my opinion she should have just requested a wing of the castle and left the rest for us to tour but oh well...we instead went to Hampton Court Palace which was beautiful as well but not what we had planned. 

The palace did have some beautiful gardens that we really enjoyed walking around. The oldest vine in the world is housed here and is literally thousands of years old. The roots spread out massively over the grounds and the parts we could see were thick and gnarly and in their own ugly way, stunning. We were able to walk around some of the state rooms but of course with our luck the Queens private rooms were closed off while an exhibit is being set up. Good thing I much preferred being outdoors today anyways as we were blessed with yet another gorgeous sunny day! 

After the palace we headed to Stonehenge which I was delighted to see again! I still find it fascinating and it was also at this point where we began talking to some other people on the tour who were about our age and we bonded over the crazy lady who was annoying the entire tour bus. I kid you not, not a single person wanted to sit next to her and she was yelling at people (us) for getting too close to her picture in front of Stonehenge (Ummmm HI, do you see all the people here?!) and she threw a fit because we weren't going to Windsor. I mean...who does the Queen think she is that she can use her own home when she feels like it?! Anyways...we really enjoyed seeing this and wish we could have stayed longer. Unfortunately we were only given 45 minutes but it was enough to learn about what history is assumed about the stones as well as some of the conspiracy theories that people have. Our guide was quite knowledgeable on every place we visited as well as what was going on outside our bus windows as we drove past so we learned a lot on the way to and from each location. 

The last stop on our tour was the city of Bath which again we had very little time to explore but we did get to go in and tour the old Roman Baths which was just incredible to me! Why do I love old things so much?! Probably because I like to imagine myself in that time and dream of what it must have been like in those times. But honestly it was stunning to see how much of the baths are still preserved and how technologically advanced it seems they would have had to have been in order to keep up such a building containing numerous rooms and both hot and cold baths along with rooms for exercise, massage, worship and more. The fact that the original ducts still have water flowing through them and you can still see the steam rising from the pools is pretty awesome. 

It was approximately a 2 1/2 hour drive back in to London after our tour of Bath so we napped a little and enjoyed some of the pretty scenery and sunset. We all know how much I love sunsets and tonight the sun was a strange but bright orange color that I found beautiful. 

Like I said earlier we made a couple friends on the tour and after our bus dropped us off we went and got hot chocolate! They are both from Australia and Lisa and I really enjoyed talking to them for a couple hours about traveling mostly but also about work and school and general get to know you things. I spoke with Mel a lot about what it's like living in London and she and I both agree that although we love London we can't wait to get home haha. It's funny because talking to her we decided we have a lot in common in terms of both of us wanting to be adventurous and explore new places and have new experiences and that we are both afraid of regret. I would rather come to London, struggle a bit and know what it's like to live virtually alone in another country for a year and then get the excitement of going back home than spend years wondering what it could have been like if I had just gotten the courage to do it! Long story short, we decided that we would both be very happy to say "We did it!" if nothing else comes of this year. 

Love from London,

Kristin