Stonehenge-Bath-Cardiff

We See History

The morning of June 19th started off super early, or as I call it, normal wake-up time. We set our alarm in the parent's room for 5:30am. If I recall correctly, we were downstairs at breakfast just after 6:30 when they opened. The kids rolled in shortly afterwards, and we all found something to eat. We were on the bus around 7:15 and we rolled out almost at 7:30 on the dot. We learned quickly that our Travel Director was a very punctual man! Luckily, there were no "perpetually late" members of our tour group.

The first stop of the tour was Stonehenge!! (Yes, this one gets 2 exclamation marks, for the fact that I've wanted to see this famous site in person since I was at least 12 years old!) 

Yes, this picture is everywhere...but this one is mine!

The family remembers this trip as:

• "Smaller than I thought it would be!" (C)
• "Cold, windy, I hated it." (S)
• "Oh, and you can't walk all the way around it, you have to stop and walk back." (S)
• "Very cool, but also, just a bunch of rocks. Hard to fathom the amount of time they have been there." (me)

The best story that we'll always remember about Stonehenge actually started several weeks before our trip:

Coincidence and Happenstance

We have friends, call them the "M's", whom we have known for over 22 years. Our eldest children (mine is "N" in this blog, theirs will be known as "E") were born 2 days apart, and have been "besties" all their lives. In a random conversation a few weeks ago, we found out that E was going to be going to the UK too.

This summer.

No, the week we were going...

Actually, London...

Staying at a hotel less than 2 miles from ours...🤯

The same dates as us...🤯🤯

And then she'd be heading off for a tour...

of Stonehenge...

The exact same date and time as our tour of Stonehenge... 🤯🤯🤯

And while they were texting on the respective tour buses, we lost internet access on the site, so it took a few trips around the stones before S finally ran into E and we all got to say hello and catch up!

And so, even though we live just 30-ish miles apart, these two friends who haven't seen each other much in the last few years due to life and school, managed to meet up 4 thousand miles from home with much joy and happiness! 

Onwards to More History!

By the time we got back to the gift shop/parking area at Stonehenge (there's a shuttle up to the stones and back...it took a bit), there was a massive line for food. We barely had enough time to grab just a couple of bags of popcorn for myself and S, who were starving, and get back on the coach. The next stop on the tour was Bath. 

I had no idea what to expect here. I went in not knowing what was here, or what we'd be doing. I found a perfectly delightful town that I would love to explore further! 

Darren had the bus drop us off and walked us into the site of the Roman Baths where we would later get tickets. He showed us a few interesting spots along the way and then pointed us to a lovely cafe where we could get Cornish Pasties for lunch. Given that Curt and I love these, we hurried over to get near the front of the line for food. We then took our hot pasties back to the square in the middle of town to enjoy the buskers under the shadow of this gorgeous cathedral. 

After lunch, we were given tickets to enter the Roman Baths museum and explore on our own for a few hours, until it was time to meet up with the group again. 

Again, this was another part of the tour where I had no idea what to expect. The history in this building was mind-blowing. To think that the actual Romans had walked those exact stones that we were just mere inches from, or sacrificed cows on this block that was still there...it's so hard to wrap my brain around. 

I can't fit all the pictures from Bath in this post, so the rest are here for you to explore: 

https://link.shutterfly.com/TUGx62oWDrb

Another Country - Wales!

The next few hours were spent driving to Cardiff, crossing into the country of Wales. Along the way, Darren would pop onto the bus's intercom system and give us little tidbits of information about the places we were driving past or through. We got lessons on the local agriculture, politics, religious practices and more, both present and historical, over the course of the entire tour. If I recall correctly, this trip focused on the different sheep found around the UK, some raised for wool, but most for meat. The reason for this lesson now was that our Welcome Dinner included an optional "Lamb faggot" dish (which is the word for meatballs), which I did get and found to be edible. ;P (Not my favorite meal of the trip but also not the worst.)

We arrived at the hotel to find a lovely "Congratulations!" gift in each room for the girls. Trafalgar knew we had booked this trip as a celebration of N's graduation from High School, and S's start of High School, and had passed that info on to the hotel. They put out macarons and strawberries for us.

As mentioned before, we had our Welcome Dinner this evening, at a lovely authentic Welsh Pub. The food and atmosphere were delightful, and it was a wonderful end to a full and busy day.