London, Stonehenge, and Varekai

---

Well, the "travel frog" (as Dasha likes to call me) was 'hopping off' again this weekend. Yes, I know it sounds crazy, but I headed to London for a long weekend. Several months ago, an old high school friend found me on the web and emailed me. To find out, he is now living and working in London and guess who was touring through London this weekend, yes Cirque (Varekai)! Actually Cirque had been there for about a month and just extending some extra shows into this week so I asked Greg if he was doing anything and headed off to London. Greg worked on Friday so I stayed in the city where I was picked up by the tour bus on Friday morning. I have done most of the tourist things in and around London so I decided to head to Stonehenge. The cheapest and easiest way to do so was to buy the full package so the tour also stopped in Bath and Salisbury Cathredal, but I really wanted to see Stonehenge. For some time, it has been on my list of things to see and do so what better time than this weekend when I had Friday to kill.

For those that travel much to London, particularly this time of year, know the weather, rain and cold; but not this weekend. I could not believe it, we had sunshine, I mean bright sunshine Friday through Sunday. During the day it warmed up to around 55oF and then cooled down at night to around 40oF, but it was AWESOME weather knowing what I thought it would be like so it was a great weekend to go.

No problems getting there or to the hotel. I crashed in my little hotel room, but it was clean and did the job for the one night. The next morning, I was not sure where the hotel pick up point was since they did not actually come to my hotel so I just got on the tube and headed to Victory Station where the tour started. Okay, I am going to stop complaining about the prices in Moscow as things in Moscow are cheap compared to London. The best way for me to describe the prices there, pay what you would expect to pay in the US then double it since the pound is 2:1 to the dollar. I about hit the ground when I saw they wanted 4.12 pounds for one tube ride. That is $8.24 just to ride the tube (metro) once! Yes, it was peak time, but still...I could not believe it. The same was true of about everything. Take the price and double what you would expect to pay in the US.

Since it is not tourist season, the tour bus was pretty empty. I think there was 20 people on it and I tour guide was very good as well. He talked enough to be informative, but not too much to be a bother so I tipped him and the driver at the end pretty well. Our first stop was Bath. It was a very interesting city, but we really did not need to spend 2.5 hours there. It gave people time for lunch and to look around the city after touring the baths. There was a lot of history there, but I was not all that interested. After I finished touring the baths, I did a little window shopping and then found a small cafe for some fish and chips. It soon came time to head for Stonehenge.

I am not sure what it is about Stonehenge, but I have always been fasinated with it. When we arrived, our tour guide said some will be greatly disappointed as it is not as large as every thinks it or just not do a lot for you so they only gave us 30 minutes there. When I first approached it, I could understand his comments, but after I got closer, I was more in awe of it. I quickly walked around listening to the audio tour and snapping pictures. Again, for many, I am sure it is very boring and I can not compare it to the Great Pyramids in Cario, but it was awesome for me to see and experience. I honestly would like to go there and just watch the sun rise and fall on it. The sun was setting when we were there but not near sunset so I do not have any great pictures of the sunset on Stonehenge, but I did enjoy the visit and could have stayed there many more hours.

After Stonehenge, we headed to Salisbury. I like churches especially with stainglass windows, but my mind was still back in Stonehenge. I hope you enjoy some of the pictures of this wonderful cathedral. We did not stay here long either, but we were still late getting started back to London which did not excite me since I was suppose to meet Greg in less than an hour when the trip back was suppose to take two hours. It was not a problem for Greg, but it was just the idea, I selected this tour because it included Stonehenge and got back the earliest of the ones I could select.

Greg and I were trying to find each other in Victoria station and for those who have never been there, it is a busy station with multiple of the same stores like Burger King which we were both using as a common point, but later found out there were two of them in the station. It also did not help that Greg bulked up since I remember him from High School days which is about the last time I saw him. He was this skinny guy in high school and now is a body builder. We had met once since graduating, but he is a lot bigger than I remember him; thanks goodness he recongized me when we finally were in the same area.

We grabbed some dinner and headed to his apartment which is actually in Reading UK, 15 minute train ride just outside of London. He did not have much of a living room, actually there was a room, but it only had wait lifting equipment there (body builder). Greg moved enough of the equipment so he could sleep on the floor and let me have his room. All I know, is he needs to turn on some heat as it was very cold there at night with no heat. He refuses to run his heat to prove a point to his English mates (friends and workers) that he is from the north. I survied, but it was cold. On Saturday I ran errands with him then we headed back to the city to see Varekai.

As always, Cirque was fantastic! I had cheap seats as I got them at the very end. The good news, I was in the third row, but as far right as you could get. Having seen the show several times (actually 6 times if you want to know exact...lol), I was not so worried about what was going on stage, but I had the best seats in the house to see backstage as the performers came on and off the stage as well as the band. It was very interesting to watch. I would have never selected those seats had I had a choice, but I am really glad I sat there. I was not sure what Greg would think of it, but he too really liked the show.

After we got back to Reading, we stopped at one of Greg's watering holes for a toast/drink. We only stayed about an hour before heading home to bed. In the morning we had breakfast and then headed off to the bus station for my ride back to the airport. No problems getting to the airport or my gate until I landed back in Moscow when I was "greeted" by the entire population of China all at passport control. Of course not really, but there must have been a jumbo jet come in about 30 minutes before ours and typical Russian passport control, we only have three lanes opens. I was at the front of the plane so I thought I would get through quickly until I saw that line and new it would be an hour so I texted Misha to let him know and waited. I told the guys behind me do not worry, all of the Russians will go through the Russian only line then they will open it to the general public and once they do that it will move quickly. Sure enough, that is exactly what happened. They just laughed at me and told me I must come here a lot...lol

When I got outside, there were three tour buses for the Asian group that had come in before me, many who were still in the line and had not moved over to the Russian line so I did not feel too bad even though I am mad at the Russian system at passport control. The other thing that was funny was the lady at Heathrow London was not going to give me a boarding pass because "your visa is no good." I could not figure out what she was talking about since she had not even run it through the system and only looked at it. Something about it being stamped (by the Russians) made it invalid. Now she was very nice but she was convinced she was correct but did offer to ask her suprvisor without me even asking. Her supervisor came over and she argued with her as well, but finally agreed it was a multiple entry visa. No problems, just interesting.

Now I am back at it until my next trip which will be Prague and Frankfurt in March. Until then, I am sure I will find some place to go in and/or around Russia via car.

---