Our first stop was Windsor Castle, the home of Queen Elizabeth when she isn’t at Buckingham Palace. The part she resides in wasn’t open to tourists, but a large part of the castle was. While there were some interesting historical things here, for the most part it wasn’t that spectacular. I kept thinking that if I were the Queen I wouldn’t choose to live in such a dreary place.

Our next stop was Stonehenge. Although we saw things in Ireland that were older, it was still almost surreal being at Stonehenge. Maybe it was because the stones were so large, or that it was a mysterious place you had wondered about since you were little, but seeing it in the field as you topped the hill took your breath away.

From here we went to the village of Lacock for lunch. This village is very picturesque with its old cobblestone buildings, and it’s been used in several shows and movies including Harry Potter. Our lunch at the George Inn was brief but good. The pub dates back to the 14th century and included a medieval fireplace, complete with a dog wheel where a dog was used to turn the meat cooking over the fire. The bells at the local church were ringing, and saw when we went inside that about half a dozen residents were ringing them with ropes in the loft.

Our last stop was Bath, home of Roman Baths that were built around natural hot springs here during the first three centuries AD. There is a museum on the site now, full of artifacts from the original baths with glimpses of original foundations and walls intermingled with new displays that helped you picture the context of the pieces you were looking at. One of the more curious things on display were recovered curses that people had inscribed on plates and thrown into the springs. The entire city itself was beautiful, full of buildings built from limestone in the Georgian style.

After a long bus ride back to London, we grabbed some dinner before heading back to our hotel room to finish packing for our flight back the next day.

From here we walked on a pedestrian bridge across the River Thames to the London Eye, the famous ferris wheel. The totally enclosed cabs held maybe 15 people each, and the views of the city were great. I can only imagine they were spectacular at night too, but we didn’t make it back for a ride after dark. There was a lot to do around here, and we had to keep saying “next trip”. We stopped for some (sort of) familiar McDonald’s food. Like McDonald’s in Ireland, they had some unique items.

Next we walked back across the river, passing Big Ben on our way to Westminster Abbey. Wesminster was much more amazing than we expected, as it was full of tombs and memorials of kings and queens as well as other famous people, including Isaac Newton, Charles Darwin, and William Shakespeare. The Abbey interior and its memorials were beautiful. Unfortunately, no pictures were allowed in the main (and most interesting) part. We did take some pictures in the less interesting part of the cloisters, where photography was permitted. This did include some original wall murals that had survived, as well as a more recent portrait of Queen Elizabeth on display. That portrait, just this past Friday, was defaced.

From here, we walked to Buckingham Palace. Here we saw the famous guards (but not the changing of the guard) from outside the palace gates. At this point, whether it was because it was day 16 or because we hadn’t been walking this much, we hit a wall and had to return to our hotel for an afternoon nap. We had planned to visit the Tower of London, but once again had to say “next trip”. Just outside our hotel, though, we were surprised to see hundreds of nude cyclists. WARNING: There’s one picture in our gallery, but it just has naked butts.

We woke from our naps and headed to dinner and a burlesque show at Cafe de Paris (Wam Bam Club). Since it was a burlesque show, there was some semi-nudity (we saw much more from the cyclists on the street) but the show was much more than that as it included comedy, magic, acrobatics, singing, and dancing. Dinner was nice, and the entertainment was great.

We finished our night with some souvenir shopping and a stop at the London M&M store, which had some M&Ms you can’t get anywhere else in the world.