We splurged on a tour to Windsor, Stonehenge and Bath because we thought it would save us a lot of time and hassle in seeing these three places.  Well…that wasn’t exactly the case.  We had the meanest tour guide EVER and we were rushed through every single site. It started in Windsor.  The tour had left late and so when we arrived at Windsor Castle, there were already a billion people lined up in front of us. There was a family with a baby in our group and they stopped to take a picture on our way to get in line.  The guide shouted, “Would you also like to get a coffee while we all wait for you?  I’m sorry you have a baby, but that’s not our fault.” I was stunned he would be so rude! Good thing the town was so cute!

The line moved at a snails pace. We sent the kids to grab some McDonalds breakfast sandwiches while we waited.  And waited. And waited. We did catch a tiny bit of the changing of the guard from our spot in line.

We were supposed to have 2+ hours at the castle but as we neared the front of the line we only had about 20 minutes till we were supposed to be on the bus.  The tour guide extended our time by 30 min as long as we swore we’d be at the bus on time.  We RACED through Windsor, hitting the State apartments and St. George’s Chapel where Harry and Meghan got married a couple weeks ago.  We had ribbon bracelets that signified we were with a tour group.  Blake put his on too tight and I had to use fingernail clippers to get it off his wrist.On the way back to the bus I put Blake on my back so we could run and make it on time.

You can’t take pictures in the State Apartments and there were signs everywhere.  I totally spaced out when I saw this dragon sitting on who I assumed might be St. George and I snapped a pic because it was funny.  A guard came up to me and said, “YOU CAN’T TAKE PICTURES. ”  I apologized.  He wasn’t having it.  “There are signs posted ALL OVER THE PLACE!  How in the world could you forget?” Geeze…these Brits are serious about the rules!

Then it was a 1 hour 40 min bus ride to Stonehenge. We all read, had naps, and played screens.  When we got to Stonehenge the tour guide told us we had 1 1/2 hours but that was plenty of time.  “You should be able to walk around the rocks in about 10 minutes.”  So we didn’t worry too much about time. We took a shuttle out to the site.

When we got there we beetles EVERYWHERE.  They were flying all over and getting stuck in our hair.  Blake was freaking out and he refused to stop fanning himself or moving around so they couldn’t land on him.

Stonehenge was beautiful!  But our audioguides were boring.

We got in line to take the shuttle back to our bus, but the line was moving slowly and not many shuttles were coming.  We were going to be late!  As soon as we got back to the visitors center we ran back to the bus parking lot.  We were 3 minutes late.  The tour guide said, “You all really need to make an effort to be on time.  There’s a chance we won’t make it to the museum in Bath and that will be your fault.”  WHO IS THIS GUY???

Bath was  probably my favorite stop.  We raced through the museum so we could spend time walking around town.
Across from the museum was a Cornish Bakery.  My dad and I poked our heads in to see what they had to offer and we were greeted with the delicious smell of Cornish Pasteries–steak, potato and gravy wrapped in a flakey crust.  We had been hoping for a “grab and go” dinner so I ran to tell everyone else to come back.  Well, right then they put everything on sale for £1.50.  We stocked up and they were DELICIOUS!!  I wish we would have bought more!  Everyone loved them.

Blake had been begging for ice cream all day, so we made a stop and then ate our cones as we walked down to the bridge for a lovely view.

Now it was time for the long bus journey home.  We made sure not to be late this time.  There was a cute little used bookstore across the street and so Rusty and the kids went and they each got a book to read on the way home.  I’m glad we got to see all these amazing places, but I certainly DO NOT recommend Golden Tours to anyone.  Happily, the tour guide was in a much better mood after Bath and he didn’t say anything rude the entire ride home.