Day 16- Castle, Cathedrals, Rocks and Bath

We joined the madding crowd today on our Globus 6 day tour of Great Britain. It was not the morning to sleep through the alarm, but we managed to get our bags packed and outside our door in time for them to be picked up. Breakfast was included, and was not bad for a hotel buffet.

An interesting mix of nationalities - all English speakers from Canada, Australia, New Zealand, USA and even England itself, which was surprising.

Jonathan our tour director is a bit of a wit, in a nice way. He does expect you to laugh at his jokes, like "a duck crossed the road and went into a pub and ordered a whiskey and water. The bar tender said 'that will be 4 pounds 10 pence'. The duck said 'put it on my bill'". boom boom.

Our first stop was to see the gardens at Hampton Court. Jonathan gave us a run down about the palace and its history, then escorted us into the formal gardens. Well tendered and laid out. The great grape vine is impressive, planted in 1758. the exterior of the castle is amazing in that its Tudor facade is how it was in Henry VIII's day. It is said that he was playing tennis on the tennis court at Hampden Court when Anne Boleyn was beheaded!. William of Orange had plans to completely demolish the Tudor facade and make the palace completely Georgian, and so the other side of the palace has a Georgian aspect. His plans did not come to fruition as his wife dies and money became scarce. Kind of glad that he didn't do it... so much of the Henry story would have been lost. We are hoping to return to Hampden Court and do the palace tour when we return to London next week.

We rested a short while in the wilderness, which looks like parkland, before getting back on our coach for the trip through typical English countryside to Salisbury and its very tall cathedral.

Two major highlights here - the baptismal font in the middle of the church - the photo says it all. And the Magna Carta - so much history everywhere. An interesting plaque was on a wall inside the cathedral grounds, which was a memorial for three protestant martyrs who were burned at the stake in 1556. Hmmm.

Jonathan wanted to know if we wanted to go the scenic route to Stonehenge and silly us said "oh yes please!". There are definitely some country roads that coaches should not go down.This was one of them, especially when we met a truck and a bunch of cyclists coming in the other direction. We saw thatched roofs and country pubs and Sting's mansion. It did cut the trip time down too as the main road was clogged with traffic.

To crest the hill and come upon Stonehenge is a goose bump moment. We were escorted through a relatively short queue and got to walk around the monument - lots of photos of course. You are not allowed to get any closer than 20 metres, but that's good because you don't have kids climbing all over the stones and ruining your photos. This in a really enigmatic place. How did it get there? who put it there? and when? And yet it has a feeling on the sacred, somewhat akin to stepping into a Gothic cathedral.... and we are smartly becoming expert on that subject.

Then onto Bath. A beautiful (can I overuse this word?) Georgian city with a Roman era bath right in the middle. The Romans established the baths on the only natural hot spring in England. The museum tells the story well based upon the archeological digs. Chris said that a lot had been done to improve the visitor experience since he was here in 1979.

We then wandered into the Bath Abbey. More vaulted ceilings and colourful stained glass. There is a memorial to Arthur Phillip who died in Bath. The abbey has many windows that allow a lot of light in. This version of the abbey was built in the 14 century on the ruins of a Norman Abbey which dates back to the 10th century where the "first' king of England was crowned.

Back at our hotel, we had a welcome dinner and sat with a couple from New Zealand. They are on a long holiday too, and are going to Oberammergau for the Passion Play. See, there are other people who have heard of it.

A lovely night, finished off with a walk about town. We got to see the famed Circus and Crescent,lined with identical Georgian apartments and some interesting art installations around town which were small lions - a "sea lion" painted blue and swirly, a marble lion, a lion of communication with writing all over it, amongst others.

And thus ended day 16.