Gettin' Outta Town - London Day 3 (and last day of my European holiday)

Up and early again, on a lovely London morning, for another group tour. Same pick up and same tour starting pointing. Now I was a pro helping other people!

I was excited to be getting out of the city. This day I was going to be on the coach for more time than I would actually be visiting an attraction. That was due some to the traffic getting out of the city, and the rest was due to getting out of the city. We went to Windsor Castle, on the outskirts of London, Stonehenge, even further out, and Oxford, about an hour-and-a-half drive from Stonehenge. It was nice to be out in the country. All in all, this tour lasted approximately 11 hours!

Windsor Castle – what an experience! We visited Windsor Castle on Thursday, April 21, 2016 which will always be known in the annals of British history as Queen Elizabeth II’s 90^th birthday. Maybe not the best day to visit Windsor Castle! When we arrived we weren’t even sure what we’d be able to do or how long we’d be able to stay. The Queen’s people would tell us when we arrived, as she had a schedule to keep. Part of her itinerary was to drive out the castle gate (St. George gate) and then get out of her car and walk a bit so her “people” could see her and wish her a happy birthday.

Windsor Castle

This particular flag when flying means the Queen is in residence

When we actually got to the castle, we had about one hour to go through very stringent security and then see whatever we could see in the castle. Our guide – who was fabulous; spoke everything in English and followed right up in Spanish for two couples, and never missed a beat – recommended we see the State Apartments where the Queen and Prince Phillip live when they are in residence, and the St. George Church. In that one hour I did just that. Absolutely no pictures were to be taken in the apartments (oops again), but while I was in that part of the castle, the guard was doing something out on the lawn so I managed to get a picture of whatever that was that was going on. No pictures in the church either (I am so bad).

There was a small Shakespeare exhibition I ran through before moving on to the State Apartments.

Entering the State Apartments - where the Queen and her husband live when here at Windsor Castle

From a window in the apartments

Stained glass window in St. George Chapel of Windsor Castle
(I was not supposed to be taking pictures so they are not the best)

Ceiling

Beautiful chapel

I felt like I literally ran through both things and didn’t really get much out of it.

Our guide told us that we should leave through the St. George exit by 11:30 or we may get stuck in the castle area until the whole parade and Queen thing was over. He said we absolutely had to be on the coach and leaving at 12:30 p.m.  I may be a rule-breaker when it comes to pictures, but I am adamant about getting to places on time when I’m told to be there, and I always feared I would miss the coach if I didn’t arrive on time. He said, “when you come out the gate, stay to the right and follow the road around and look for the landmarks I point out to help you get back to the bus.” Well, when I came out the gate and tried to go right, the police said I could not go right. Even if I did, there was no way I was going to get through the massive crowd of people, security, cameras and news people. So, following very loose directions from that policeman, I started to find another way to get to where I needed to be. The next 45-minutes were horrendous. Most of the security and police officers were not from Windsor so they had no idea how to help me get to the train station where the coaches were parked. Every alley I tried I got stopped by a crowd of people. All I could hear in my head was “We will be leaving right at 12:30 in order to make our tour time at Stonehenge.” That fear of being left behind set in. People everywhere. Well-wishers with British flags (I even had one), children on shoulders, cameras everywhere, people looking out their hotel windows, shopkeepers coming out of their shops, etc. If I weren’t so frantic to find a way out (I did feel trapped) I would have been caught up in the excitement of it all.

Where all those people are? That's where I was supposed to turn right.

At one point I came across a section of barrier that was directly across from a group of elderly people in wheelchairs with flowers for the Queen, which meant she was probably going to do some of her walking to these people. There was room at the barricade for me to get really close for some pictures and I thought, “Hmmm, what if I stay here, get a picture, and then try and find my way out?” I asked a local (mum and her baby) if the Queen would be coming this way and she said “for sure.” I got excited. I asked, “do you know about what time?” and she replied, “it’s scheduled for 12:30.” That was it for me. I headed back into the crowd. I actually walked quite a ways into the town before I could beg to cross the street. Once I got to the other side some very nice volunteers made the people make room for all of us that were trying to get someplace besides standing and waiting for the Queen. I got back to the shopping/café area about ½ km from the coaches with a few minutes to spare, so I grabbed a “toastie” (toasted ham and cheese sandwich; I’ve made better) and made sure I made it to the coach by 12:30. Only myself and another family group were on the coach at 12:30. We ended up not leaving until 1:15 p.m. because so many of our people were stuck in the madhouse. BUT, some of those people got some great pictures of the Queen and they promised to send them to me. The whole thing was wild and frantic and exciting.

Guards getting ready for the Queen's parade

The London Times on the Queen's birthday

The Queen receiving flowers from her people.
My tour buddies said they'd send me actual pictures they took.

Our next stop was Stonehenge. It was about an hour’s drive away, so I dozed a little. When I woke up we were truly in the country, the very green English countryside. Before long our guide said, “Just over the next hill you will see the rocks.” I was wiping the sleep from my eyes and didn’t even have my glasses on when I saw a whole bunch of light colored rocks on the green grass. I started taking pictures in my excitement. I thought, “Hmmm, I thought they were bigger and darker,” thinking about the pictures I’d seen. I then realized that I had just taken pictures of sheep! I started cracking up and couldn’t stop laughing. I told the older couple that I was kind of hanging out with and they got a kick out of it and for the rest of the day, every time we saw sheep they’d say “Sally, more rocks!” It was so embarrassingly funny.

My first "rocks" picture

Once I finally did see Stonehenge, it was just exactly like I thought it would look. We got to the visitor’s center and took a shuttle up to the site. I guess people used to be able to actually walk around and through the stones, but the ground was being so beat up and graffiti started appearing on the rocks, it had to be made somewhat secure with a perimeter we couldn’t go past. That’s fair. I thought we had great access even from our distance. We were provided with a self-guided, audio tour that gave some of the history of the stones and surrounding area. It was pretty cool. Lots of pictures being taken. I met a gal who was traveling alone (in a group) and her holiday had just begun as mine was just ending, and we took pictures for each other so we wouldn’t have delete more stupid selfies.

These "coverings" were in several places. They are covering holes that were discovered and believed to be
holes for some sort of poles put there at the same time as the standing stones.

Sheep roaming all over the green fields.

We spent the full amount of allotted time at Stonehenge before heading off for a very abbreviated visit to Oxford. I was okay with that until we got there and learned a little bit more about the University (38 actual colleges make up the University) and saw how old everything was in the town of Oxford. But our tour guide did the best he could. He phoned ahead and asked for a couple of the shops to please stay open until we got there to buy souvenirs, get some food, and use the facilities. We then did a quick walk through some of the most notable parts of Oxford – Christ’s Church, College of Divinity, a couple more of the “college” buildings, and the famous Bodleian Library. Our guide told us there is at least one copy of every single academic book published in this library, in three or four stories underground, with a robot and conveyor belt to help retrieve books, which could sometimes take up to an hour or more to accomplish. Not all students have access to this retrieval system. It’s mostly for the “Fellows” and post-grad students. We didn’t get to go into the library or any of the other buildings, but it was cool to be able to see them and get some history.

Monument to the four fallen Christian martyrs

The actual spot where the four martyrs were executed.

Some of the colleges of Oxford University (not my picture)
We ran through our short tour that I honestly can't remember half of the buildings we saw.

Balliol College, founded in 1263

The streets of Oxford

Divinity College

Clarendon Building

Oxford's "Bridge of Sighs" connecting two buildings of Hertford College, over New College Lane

The old Quad & Bodleian Library

Radcliffe Camera - houses the Radcliffe Science Library

The stone road we were walking on

The twin towers of All Souls College

It was a two-hour coach ride back to London, and it was about 8:30 p.m. when I stepped into my favorite little Italian restaurant on Praed Street, around the corner from my flat. It was quite busy and noisy, but I really wanted a good salad and that shrimp and risotto again. I met a really nice couple – Andy Reynolds (born in the UK) and Mary Finnerty (from Ireland) sitting next to me and we started up a nice conversation. Mary and I both decided London was just too big and too chaotic, and that we all enjoyed getting out of the city. Come to find out they live in Galway, Ireland, which is on the coast, and before I left the restaurant I had Mary’s email address and was Facebook friends with Andy (a fellow musician and producer of music), and invited to come stay with them when I go to Ireland. I’m going to take them up on it! What a wonderful way to end my holiday.

I got home much too late and still had to pack for my morning flight and see if I could get access to my boarding pass. As usual, the Internet connection was so bad in the flat I couldn’t access it, which meant getting up even earlier to allow myself time to walk to Paddington Station, get a ticket on the Heathrow Express, and stand in the ticket/boarding pass line and go through the stringent security at Heathrow. In all of my tiredness, I had forgotten in my very organized bag of gifts for family that I had a beautiful jar of English strawberry jam for Amy, bought at a really lovely little shop in Versailles, and a small snow globe I bought in Chamonix, France for Eva. I got to take the snow globe through but the jam in it’s beautiful box got tossed out because it was larger than 3 ounces. I totally didn’t think about it when I put it in my “purchases” bag and it made me sick to throw it out, not because of the money, but because I really wanted to give that jam to Amy. Sorry sweetie.

As I am typing this particular post I am actually on the plane home. I got up at 5:00 a.m. and still have not been able to sleep on the plane. We should be landing in a couple of hours. I will be happy to be home, sleep in my own bed, hug my Eva, and do some laundry. I know the travel bug will bite me again all too soon, but for now, I am satisfied. I came, I saw, I conquered. I did it! Traveled solo to Europe for my very first time, and lived to tell the tales!