Today we took a bus tour with Premium Tours to Windsor Castle, Stonehenge, Lacock, and Roman Baths (Bath). We originally had scheduled a tour with Tours from Antiquity, a small group tour run by archaeologists, but they cancelled at the last minute because they didn’t have enough people.

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.