Miss Chris

Today was the solstice celebration, we had the hotel reserve a taxi for us when we’d first arrived so we had a taxi that would arrive at 7am. Since the hotel served breakfast until 10am we asked if we could get breakfast at 10 and they said yes. The tour company, who we’d done the day tour with Nicholas said that after the solstice celebration we could hop on one of their coaches and they’d drop us off across from our hotel as they would stop at the Salisbury Cathedral as part of their tour. We went out slightly before 7 and on the dot, the taxi arrived. There was frost everywhere, it looked like it had snowed. We hoped in the cab and turned up the heat in the back. We were at Stonehenge by ... read more

We had one night left in London before leaving again for Salisbury. The treat for this day, Sunday, was to see the Phantom of the Opera at the matinee. I signed us up for, and paid for the “Gold Experience”. I spent part of the morning packing as we were to leave on Monday for Salisbury, so we would leave our large bags at the Holiday Inn and only take what we needed for Stonehenge stuff. We left and stopped to buy some tea for one son and a grandson. We were quite disappointed in the fact that many shops appear to have closed. After buying our tea we hurried on to “Her Majesty’s Theater. We didn’t know what the “Gold Experience” would be, except that we were to tell the staff we had arrived. There ... read more

We took the train back to London and this was an adventure in itself. Dale and I have routine; we get all of our bags at the door before it opens at the station. One of us passes the bags to the other, we work quickly so that we get everything off and don’t hold up the other passengers. This time, 1st, I wasn’t finding the tickets I needed in the machine. The train to Victoria came and we figured we’d wait for the next train, like 1 hour. But the conductor yelled across the tracks asking if we were wanting that train and we said yes. He came across the bridge (a bridge with lots of steps) and helped us get our bags over the bridge and onto the train. “We’d sort it out later” ... read more

On Saturday we had to hop the train to Salisbury. Over one year ago we’d purchased tickets to spend sunrise inside the Stonehenge circle, and had arranged a private tour for all things Stonehenge for the day. This was rescheduled for Sunday. We had reservations to stay at the Chapter House, a 900-year-old building that we stayed in this past summer. Our tour guide would pick us up at the Chapter House and we’d just spend the day together. We got to Salisbury and found a pub that served gluten free fish and chips. The batter on the fish was one of the best ever, light and crunchy. Not only was the food good pub food but it wasn’t very expensive either. We woke up early as we had to be outside by 7:30 am when ... read more

Day 3 in London; Today was a busy day, we had tickets to visit Kensington, 1 hour walk from the hotel, and a concert an hour the other direction. Fortunately, the tube was handy for both places otherwise we would have taken a cab. We dressed for the concert in the morning and took off, we had to be at Kensington at 11am. We didn’t know what to expect at Kensington, but didn’t expect for it to take the entire day. We were wrong! First visitors go thru the part of the palace where Queen Victoria was born and raised until she was 18. There are some pieces that exist from her time there. The room where she learned she was queen is being repaired as the upstairs flooring was loose but you can still walk ... read more