Windsor Castle in the distance
En route to Windsor Castle
Our third day started with the usual complimentary breakfast and while we're waiting for our tour guide to pick us up, we wandered around the hotel lobby and discovered a travel information booth. This booth or should I say desk since it is so small anyway, offers a lot of information and travel package for any would be tourist to assist them to get around London and United Kingdom. Some of the places we saw from this adverts was Oxford Univ where Harry Potter was filmed, Loch Ness Lake and some far away places in Scotland. What caught our attention was the package offered for tourist to go to Paris, the price that was quoted was half the price that was given to us by the staff manning Eurostar train counter. We quickly made our enquiries at the concierge and decided to book a trip to Paris once the price had been confirmed to be valid. Guess we'll be going to Paris after all!
Walking towards Windsor Castle
Replica of a train
Windsor Castle Entrance
Round Tower
Changing of guards
Overlooking Eton Town centre
Lower Ward
Windsor Royal
Queen Elizabeth Statue
Round Tower
Lower Ward adjacent to St George's Chapel
Our tour guide arrived shortly afterwards and fast forward 1 hour later we're on our tour bus on the way to Windsor Castle. The journey to Windsor Castle took about 1 hour through rural area where the green is still plush and well taken care off. Upon approaching the area, we could see in the distance where Windsor Castle stand erected majestically as it should. This castle is by the way the oldest castle in United Kingdom where Queen Elizabeth will occasionally visit.
We're given 2 hours to explore the area; we walked past aping and recreational centre before stopping to take pictures at the gate to Windsor Castle. There was a lot of ground to cover as the castle compound was huge, we took our audio guide and started walking along the path leading up to the main entrance to the castle. From inside the castle we could see the area surrounding the castle which is quite mesmerizing. Our first stop inside the castle was Queen Mary's Dolls House where a miniature of real life Windsor Castle complete with furniture was built inside a glass wall. There were quite a number of dolls with expensive clothing being displayed here but unfortunately we were not allowed to take pictures here. Next stop was the State Apartments where foreign dignitaries or head of a state would normally stop to rest, there were a lot of paintings, armories and weaponries from 15th Century being displayed here. All of them are in good condition compared to the sorry state that our museum is being in. Exiting the castle on the way back to our tour bus we stumbled upon another instance of changing of guards taking place, just perfect opportunity for snapping pictures!
Journey to Roman Bath
The Roman Bath
Bath Abbey
In front of Mallory
Gay Street leading up to Roman Bath
Sacred Springs
First terrace of The Great Bath
The Great Bath
The Great Bath
Inside of Roman Bath
Looking at Obelisk
Mock up castle
Bath Street
Bath Bridge
Lunch time
Obelisk
It was raining quite heavily when we left Windsor Castle for Roman Bath, the scenery to Roman Bath was breathtakingly beautiful with all the houses built in English and Roman architecture and green areas. It might not be packed with hustle and bustle of London but there's more than meets the eye. The Roman Bath itself is a very old Roman architecture styled building where Romans would previously taken their bath here and to socialize among themselves. This site is declared as a world heritage site by Unesco much like our own Historical City of Melaka. It’s a pity that the water could not be used anymore as it is not treated and deemed unsafe for consumption. The Romans built an aqueduct here to distribute water but we did not manage to snap a picture of that. We stop at one of the shops here to quench our thirst and bought some brownies as well.
Last stop for today was Stonehenge, the journey from Roman Bath to Stonehenge took substantial amount of time where we passed by a field where we could see British army conducting their training regime and helicopters flew by over our bus to assist them in their exercise. Stonehenge is basically a collection of stones built resembling an altar like building, one of the questions that could not be answered even to this very day was - How on earth did they move a structure made out of stone weighing 50 tonnes from a location as far as 200km away? Even modern machinery is not equipped to move that kind of weight unless a proper specialized machine is used.
Stonehenge
Stonehenge
Stonehenge
Stonehenge
Jorney to Stonehenge
Our day ended with our journey back to London, today's trip took about 12 hours overall. We were exhausted by the time we reached our hotel but it was exciting nonetheless.
Regards,
MARK
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