Chella Forever: Stone Henge, Lacock and Bath

We arrived back in London for a few more days and some more sightseeing. One of our many trips that we had booked was one to Stone Henge, Lacock and Bath. I have been looking forward to this trip the most. Another item to cross off the bucket list !!

Back at the Double Tree Hilton we were lucky enough to be upgraded to an executive suite which had a fridge ! Not a big deal I know but at least now we could get stuff in for breakfast and not pay for it each day. More money to spend on goodies !!

Woohoo our new room with a fridge.

I couldn't leave out the next picture. I didn't get a chance to take a pic when we first arrived. I nearly fell over when I was confronted with this. Wasn't sure how I was going to go going up but worried more about coming down !!

You couldn't see the top of the escalator and this was the second set !!

The underground in London is amazing. Some stations are 5 levels underground so can only be accessed by lifts !! We have nothing like that in Sydney !! They also have a much better system than we do with many more services. I don't think we ever waited more than 5 minutes for a train.

First stop on our all day bus tour was the Roman Baths in Bath.

Lots of these power windmills doted along the way.

The Abbey of Bath

The following pictures are of metal plates that townspeople would right notes about the bad things that others had done. By doing this they were asking the gods to have curses put on those that had done wrong.

No one was allowed to go in or touch the water as it was becoming to contaminated hence the green colour but you were allowed to drink it from a spring. I did have a taste as it is supposed the promote good health but it was also credited to helping women get pregnant !!! Didn't want that to happen !!! It was quite warm and tasted like warm bath water. Not something I'll be going back for.

After our tour of the baths we had some free time to have a look around Bath itself. Across the road from the baths was a beautiful park and the canal. The only down fall was that you had to pay to access the gardens so the pics are from the top. I could imagine my family in this park on Sunday enjoying a picnic and listening to the band in the old band stand.

Such old style England, just how I imagined it

Back on the bus and our next stop was Lacock for lunch. A little town made famous by the Harry Potter movies.

A snapshot of The Dales on our way to Lacock

The George Inn our stop for lunch.

Lunch was yummy !!! Guinness Pie and vegies in an old English pub. Doesn't get any better. After lunch we went for a short walk around the town, checked out the original buildings and the church.

All the churches are beautiful and so very old.

Houses on the street, only a footpath separates them from the road. Crazy!!

Scenes from Harry Potter were filmed on this estate.

Back to the bus to continue onto Stone Henge and this was where we found the bus parked.

Sandy Lane. Can't go anywhere without being reminded of home !!

I have always seen pictures of Stone Henge and read lots of stories about it so was very much looking forward to being there. Some pictures however showed a path way that was very far away from the actual stones. Our tour did say that we would be able to go into the circle of stones which is off limits for the general public. But I didn't realise that we could actually stand right in the middle.

And being there for sunset was an added bonus. The colours of the stones changing with the sun was incredible and will be something that will stay with me forever. I was so excited about being there and was literally jumping for joy !!!

There it is. WOW.

See right next to them, but no touching.

Our only instructions were that we were not allowed to touch or stand on any of the stones and we would have to go in two groups. The stones are guarded 24 hours a day.

They are currently building a new visitor centre a few kilometers from the actual stones and will be bussing people in from there so that there is a minimal amount of traffic and people there at any one time. It was funny to see the campervans parked on the road nearby and they are allowed to stay there. Not a bad place and view to wake up to each day. On the other side is the highway where the traffic was moving quite slowly and I fully understand why !!