It's been a few days since returning from our vacation and with a few more days of rest I think I will finally recover. Our vacation was wonderful and I've decided that the next few posts will be a brief description of our trip-day by day.
Day 1: Devin and I caught a plane in Billings-flew to Denver, and had to run thru the airport to make our red-eye connection to London. We were excited when we received our seat assignments-we had the two seats-aisle and window with no one on either side. YEAH-until we realized they were located by the restrooms. Yep--10 hours of bathroom lights on-off-on-off...I remembered everything BUT a sleeping mask. Dang! Earplugs? check Sleeping pillow? check Blanket and socks? check Mask? nope Oh well-who needs to sleep?!
Day 2: We arrived in London around noon and it took forever to get our luggage and go thru immigration/customs. We located our transfer and headed to the hotel. There was no time for rest so we went for a walk thru London. This was WITHOUT a map. IDIOTS!!!! Our hotel was located in a section of London that was 100% Muslim. Everything was in Arabic and everywhere we walked was a cloud of nasty smelling smoke (the kind the Cheshire cat smokes in Alice in Wonderland). We found the main road and made a walk for it. What I didn't know was it was the shopping district of London. I am not a shopper and cannot stand people so this was not the most pleasant experience. After a few hours we walked back to our hotel to meet up with our evening tour. That night we joined a group and went to a pub by the River Thames and had a wonderful dinner. After dinner we caught a boat and cruised along the river. We were able to see all the sights along the river---Big Ben, Parliament, London Bridge, London Eye, etc. and towards the end of the cruise the sun was going down and the lights were coming on. It was gorgeous.
Day 3: We woke up at the butt crack of dawn to eat an "English" breakfast and join our tour group. Breakfast was actually very good until an idiot decided to place two croissants into the toaster and start a fire. Who does this? We picked our seats on the motor coach and began our trip. We drove to Stonehenge took a lot of photos. It was so cold!!! The wind wouldn't quit. We drove thru the London country side and stopped for lunch in a cute town called Salisbury. After lunch we traveled on to Bath. I loved Bath; Bath the city, not Bath the roman pools. When we went thru the roman pools all I could think of was fat, dirty, sweaty, Roman dudes sitting in a gross hot pool full of fungus 100's of years ago. (the pools aren't filtered so they are NASTY!) We found a really good ice cream shop and enjoyed the atmosphere of the city. We continued on to Cardiff, Wales where we enjoyed a welcome dinner with our tour group and had time to get lost on a walk thru a neighborhood. No worries-we weren't lost for long. The hotel room was small and cozy and it was our first evening of double beds. I kinda like having a bed all to myself. A little selfish I know- but with my ear plugs on and not having to fight over the covers I actually had a few hours of uninterrupted sleep. Yeah----
Until the next post---I know; you're all on pins and needles waiting to see what happens.
