We waited at our chosen pick-up point, Thistle Marble Arch, and they were a lil late which made us a lil worried. Dropped us at Victoria bus station if I'm not mistaken, and there we joined the rest of the group waiting for our guide and bus.
Our first stop, Windsor castle! Wasn't that far from London, probably an hour's drive or so. We spent about 90 mins here, probably lesser.
There was an OBE awards ceremony that day, so we saw some classy guests in suits and feather hats or something accompanied by castle guards going through that door. Princess Anne and the Queen were there apparently.
Why are there benches!
Lovely beautiful castle!! I think this is the first REAL castle I stepped into! Real as in the type of castles that I have grown up seeing in pictures, cartoons and books! With bricks and towers and stuff.
Cute English boys.
I was really impressed with the structures.
Beautiful view of the city below.
Gosh!
Autumn is Awesome!
Classic.
Unfortunately, we weren't allowed into the State Apartments due to the OBE, which SUCKS MAX because that was supposed to be AMAZING! Instead we only saw the Queen Mary's Doll's house - which was really cool too and apparently has functioning water pipes, real miniature wine and toilet paper! Seeing the doll house reminds me of the one in The Borrowers.
The marching of guards. Those ridiculous bear hats. lol
My love.
A very friendly.... guard? I have no idea what is he but he's really nice. Aunt Rose asked if he gets a lot of people asking him for pictures, he replied "Yeah, I'm on Youtube too". LOL.
The common guard that's not allowed to speak or move. He looks so young. Makes me wonder, why do people become castle guards. Do they have a choice?
The castle is very well taken care of as you can see.
St George's Chapel - the first church that I've seen with stained glass for real!!! I LOVE STAINED GLASS. It's the same with my love for castles, I just think they're so magical, mysterious, ancient, majestic~ I didn't see any stained glass in Austria or Italy, was very disappointed then. lol
Unexplained mystery that is Stonehenge. About an hour and a half drive from Windsor. It's super cold here because it's super windy like shit. Wear a beanie/cap whatever if your hair is long, or you'll end up with hair in your face in every picture. lol
That's the closest we can get to the stones, unless you paid for a private sunrise/sunset viewing. It's in the middle of nowhere, just plains everywhere so nothing else to see here. At this point, we made a new friend on our tour called Mei, a Japanese student studying French in Belgium travelling for the first time in London. :D
Well you can see a lot of sheep here. Actually you'll see a LOT of sheep as you travel out to the countryside. You hardly see any cows or horses, it's just sheep allll the way. Spent about 45 mins here and off we went to Lacock for late lunch.
Lacock Abbey - which was used to film Hogwarts classrooms. We didn't go in obviously as we had no time to explore. And you gotta pay for visits.
I love this village. So classic and it's one of the best preserved medieval villages in UK - looking just like how it was hundreds of years ago.
There is not a single street light here.
Popular place for movie filmings. Pride and Prejudice was shot here too.
I simply love old places.
They have really short doors for some reason.
Our lunch was at this 13th century pub.
Small, cosy place.
This might as well be the most awesomest fish n chips I've ever had. Seriously.
We ate really fast so we could have like an extra 20 mins to explore the village again. This bakery shops looks really cute!
Halloween's over yo.
This house is supposedly haunted.
St Cyriac's church.
Pretty cat. It was stretching so lazily it didn't even notice me.
This is Lily and James Potter's house. I wasn't sure at that time because it had a sign outside saying 'pottery sale' or something and I hesitated to go any closer in case someone comes out and chase me away, or pester me to buy something. Arrgh.
Can you guess what building is this?
Notice the bench inside. It's actually a bus stop wtf! I only knew because there's a label there saying so.
I can so imagine olden time people living in this house.
Off to Bath next - passing by amazing landscapes like this rolling hills as they call it. In fact our whole ride was really scenic, we also passed through an absolutely stunning tree tunnel earlier!
City of Bath with its Georgian architecture. Not my favourite kind coz it looks a bit more modern but it's still quite pretty. We reached close to 4pm - just in time for the last entry to the Roman baths.
This is the Roman Baths - what Bath is famous for obviously. Gotta pay extra to go in this one.
It's a hot spring bath that the old Roman big shots love to bathe in.
It's like so cool to see things as they were centuries ago. You can actually see steam coming out from the waters there.
I think there's algae or something why does the water look so green.
We're not supposed to touch the water in case some weird bacteria enters your body - but I did a quick touch with my finger and it's lukewarm. :P
On a see-through bridge over the stones.
What is this I don't even know.
The Roman Pumps.
The majestic Bath Abbey.
Apparently the last Gothic church in England. It's free entrance to this one but because we chose to visit the Roman Baths, we didn't have time for this. It was already closed by the time we came out.
This is 5pm. Beautiful.
Why is the place so clean.
Cute chairs.
I laughed at 'Tea Pigs'. lol
It's beautiful but it's also quiet and melancholy.
We left close to 6pm and reached London like 8.30pm. The best part of this tour is definitely Lacock for me, it's really different because it's not a city like the others. Windsor was nice too, but it was disappointing not being able to see the State Apartments. I wish we had more time to see Bath. I would love to return and explore more of the city if I have the chance. It seems pretty cool and there's a river there and I want to try Sally Lunn buns too! We found the shop but it's crowded and there's just no time for it (how many times have I said this?).
Anyway, a great trip for people on tight schedules wanting to see more in less time. =)
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