Rain. Not always bad.

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I think everybody likes travelling in their own country less than any other country in the world, especially when your country rains as much as mine. When you want to visit somewhere in my home country you have to expect it may rain or in my case absolutely pour down.

Nikki booked a coach trip for us to Stonehenge, Windsor Castle & Bath, from London that is quite a distance to cover in a day. When we arrived at Victoria station to get our coach, as expected, we were the only Brits on the coach, our guide was also British but from the second we met him the first thing I noticed is how much of a British stereo type he was. Tweed jacket, ‘granddad’ cap and the most British accent I have ever heard. I have lived in London and never heard anyone say “jolly good” until this trip. I wondered, do all tour companies around the world hire tour guides that epitomise the culture of the country?

When I think about it, a lot of our past tour guides have been exactly what we imagined a genuine person from that country to be, clever idea if it’s intentional.

Anyway, first stop Windsor Castle. We only had 2 hours to explore which included queuing up to get in. Once inside, the grounds are actually a lot smaller than they look but that doesn’t mean they are not impressive. There are very few places in the UK I can actually say I think are beautiful but Windsor Castle is definitely one of them.

The only other queue once inside was for The Doll’s House, which isn’t any ordinary doll’s house, it is a working house made for dolls. If you turn the taps water runs, if you start one of the cars in the garage it can be driven, providing it has petrol in it (and if your 6 inches tall lol) everything about id just like a real house.

When we got outside I heard footsteps walking towards us, four guards were marching towards us for the changing of the guard, I have seen the changing of the guards a million times in London but felt almost obliged to watch it here too. We had a great view, you’d never see that much in London.

After our whirlwind trip to Windsor Castle we headed off to Bath to visit the Roman baths. The baths were founded by a man shunned by his family for having a very bad skin disease, he would bathe in the thermal water every day which eventually cured his disease.

You’re not supposed to touch the water but everyone was dipping their fingers inside, I even caught Nikki doing it so decided to take a picture of her lol. Bath is also famous as it’s the home of Jane Austen and we coincidently managed to visit on Jane Austen day, there were hundreds of people all dressed in clothing worn in the time period her books were based.

As we were walking around waiting for our coach the heavens decided to open but luckily not for long. Once we got on the coach and headed to Stonehenge it began to rain again but this time even more. I had wanted to visit Stonehenge for a very long time and was just hoping it was not raining by the time we got there but my hopes were dashed as when we arrived we were told we only had 45 minutes to take pictures and explore. I put my camera in its bag and put that inside my jacket, within seconds Nikki and I were both soaked through. Now I was faced with a dilemma, do I take pictures of the monument I’ve waited so long to visit and possibly break my camera or play it safe and keep it under wraps.

I found a gift shop and bought one of the last umbrellas they had in stock, I was already soaked but even if I hadn’t of been soaked through the umbrella wasn’t for me, it was for my camera. By the time I’d left the shop the rain had stopped, I made my way to Stonehenge and saw this amazing monument surrounded by people. You can’t actually get near it as there is a barrier up, the only time you are allowed to go inside the barrier is on the summer or winter solstice.

I began to take some pictures hoping it wouldn’t rain again and hoping the drips running off my nose and forehead were not going to break my camera. I never used to like the rain but when a day is sunny and rainy at the same time it can make for some amazing scenery and luckily for me that is exactly what happened. The cloud began to break and the sun broke through shining directly on to Stonehenge, I cannot put into words how breathtaking Stonehenge looked.

I’d travelled a long way to see this and although I was soaked through and cold I didn’t care. I’d visited England’s oldest and most famous monument and I had some quite good pictures too (although no picture can capture how amazing it looked in real life.

When I told people I was going to visit Stonehenge everyone that had been said the same thing “it’s boring, just a load of old rocks” those people do not know what they are talking about, I would recommend anyone to go and visit (but I’d suggest visiting somewhere else on the same trip as it is very remote and you don’t need to spend any more than an hour there).

Stonehenge=Awesome!

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