Day 5- London

Day 5 20 August 2008 Today i got on a tour bus early in the morning in London and we visited Windsor Castle. This was amazing and we were told that the changing of the guards would be the following day which was disappointing. After an audio guided tour around the palace the rooms were just as impressive as Buckingham Palace. As i nearly finished my tour around i had 20 minutes before i had to be back on the bus and i had the abbey to go. As i left the palace building i heard a band playing and as i came closer to the sound found out that the changing of guards was happening. The crowd was minimal and a clear unobstructed view of the changing of the guards was obtained. Unfortunately, they don't let anyone leave the castle whilst it is occuring (and it goes for well over 30 mins). The problem was i had 10 minutes to get to the bus, and they had already told us that if we missed the bus they would leave us behind. Well time was ticking by and the crowd waiting to get out was growing larger. Finally after a great performance of band music the guard and band left the castle and proceeded to march down the road and through the main town of Windsor, as soon as the guard left the gate, they let the group waiting go out of the castle. The problem was the exit was through the gate and i was part of 150 people running through the gate and down the road just 50 metres behind the guard and band in the middle of the road with people lined on either side of the street watching all 150 trying to get to the bus before it left without us. It was quite a sight!!! Well i just made the bus (which was a 7 minute run) away just in time. We then headed to Stonehenge pub and had a meal before travelling to the sight of Stone Henge. This is everything that you expect and truly an experience that i had been waiting for for some time. Unfortunately as you may be aware most of the stones have been taken by farmers and only a few remain today. But the walkway around still allowed you to get very close but not within the stones. The stones are really large and tower above. We then headed to Bath and visited the Roman Baths. The horrible colour pool apparently has not been swam in for years and is actually now a health hazzard. It was interesting to see the ruins of some parts of the baths which had been uncovered. After many many many hours in the bus i returned to London and headed out to a pub in London.