Monday, October 3, 2011

Windsor, Bath & Stonehenge

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We had a trip to Malta booked and were going to take a long weekend in the Maltese sun soaking up the sites, but thanks to the heavy workload in this insane round, we had to cancel so the Wife could work.  Seems to be a bit of a theme this year, huh?

At least this time we were in London and not Jo’berg, so no real loss. Although I had planned an awesome weekend in Malta, just for another day I guess.

We spent all day Saturday outside of London, riding through the countryside to see Windsor Castle…

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This a a fave residence of the Queen and was really, well…fit for a queen.  The state apartments don’t allow photos, but the grounds were lovely and we even got to see the changing of the guards…

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It was strange and a bit boring if you ask me, but we did get our quintessential British guard photos…

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with who I’m thinking might be the tallest of all the guards in the country.  I wanted to ask him, but he was being all guard-y and serious so I’m just going to go with it in my head.  Tallest guard ever! 

St. Stephan’s cathedral was really gorgeous…

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and allowed us to visit the final resting place of Henry VIII, which as a huge Tudor’s fan, I was pretty excited about.

We were then off to Bath or as the English say Baaath. 

The city is Georgian architectural wonderland and we rode through taking it all in before arriving at the Roman Baths…

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In truth we rushed through the baths so we could visit the really impressive Abby that was next door

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After Baaath, we had another hour ride to Stonehenge…

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I’d heard conflicting opinions on Stonehenge about it living up to the hype or not and I’d say, at least for us, it really did.  Mysterious- check. Imposing- check. Beautiful setting- check.  Just really cool to see- check.

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It hit all the marks for us and I’m really glad we made the trip out to see it, definitely the highlight of my day.

After an 11 hour day of touring, we picked up some take-out and watched half a movie before completely conking out.  Yes, I know, we’re very hip.  I know only the coolest of the cool spend their Saturday nights in London this way. 

We spent Sunday at the British Museum and then later met up with our Londoner friends for dinner on Brick Lane to finally have some Indian.  I can’t believe I’ve been in London this long without having some tikka masala!

We have some dear, dear friends that we absolutely adore coming in from Atlanta this week!  This week!!!  Friends! Friends! Friends!  YAY!!!!  YAY!!!!! YAY!!!!!

As you can see, we’re just a wee bit excited to see them. 

Pics from Saturday…

6 comments:

Joseph Difini said...

Beautiful. I've always wanted to go to Stonehenge, such an intriguing landmark. Nice blog by the way!

Peace,
JD
http://illuminateliberty.blogspot.com/

ablackwelder said...

I love Henry!!!! Of course I have Spinal Tap swirling in my head at the mention of Stonehenge! Beautiful pics as usual! Miss and love ya'll! Hope to see you in Decaturhenge soon!

MAV said...

Thanks, Joseph, it is such a mysterious place. I caught a pretty good documentary about it earlier this year (not knowing I would have the chance to see it) and was really thankful I got to check it out in person.

MAV said...

@ Angie- I've gone from having Manilow stuck in my head in Rio to Elton John (that God awful "I was made in England" song-how do I even know that one??) so consider yourself lucky.

We'll be in Decaturhenge before you know it! Miss and love you too!!

cynthia said...

Love, love, love this post! I love all things Tudor, also. And Stonehenge looks so awesome, I'm glad you liked it. I read a good book (a novel but based on theories) about how/why/when it was built a while back.

MAV said...

Cynthia- if you can remember the name of the book, I'd love to read it!