On Sunday, we woke up bright and early for a hot English breakfast included with our hotel stay. There was a selection of breads, jams, eggs, bacon, sausage, fruit salad, juice, tea and coffee. The blackcurrant jam was my favorite!
Afterwards, we all hopped on our Contiki coach for our first full day of sightseeing in and around London! The coach is a really comfortable bus that fits about 50-60 people, with soft plushy seats, power plugs, bathroom, giant windows, and a mic in front that Petula used to announce the sights as we drove through London.
Some of the sights we passed: Big Ben, Tower Bridge, Buckingham Palace, Westminister Abbey, the London Eye, and more. Our quick loop around London was actually just a teaser for us to see all that London offered so that we could later explore whichever sights intrigued us during free time.
We headed out of London for the main event for the day: a trip to Stonehenge (yep, that ancient site with all those mysterious rocks!) and Bath (a city where the Romans established a luxurious bath over hot springs).
On the way to Stonehenge, we did a round of quick introductions (with the dreaded “tell us one random fact about you!”) to get to know everyone in our group. Some of the best random facts we learned about our fellow travelers:
- One girl once worked in the sex offender division in a prison – yikes!
- One girl explained how she came by the black eye she modeled throughout our trip: the previous week, she was involved in a DFMO with a random guy while clubbing in Poland. She tripped, fell, got a concussion, and woke up in a Polish hospital with a black eye. Wow.
- One guy was recruited to work for MySpace, saw it through its rise and fall, and even got to meet JT! Totes jeal!
- There were two couples on our trip – one newly engaged, and one on their honeymoon!
Here’s a bunch of us in the coach together!
At Stonehenge, we walked around the site while listening to the incredibly soothing voice of our audio guide narrator explain the history of Stonehenge and some of the hypotheses about its purpose. It was an absolutely FREEZING day, so we warmed up with some warm “Rock cakes” from the cafe — yummy spiced scones.
And of course, the Her Campus banner made a cameo appearance! Here we are with a couple Australian girls from our tour group.
At Bath, I found it so cool that the bath, though now considered a “ruin,” was technically still functional, since it was powered by a natural hot spring (that’s not going to run out anytime soon)! This is probably one of the few ruins left in the world where you can actually get a sense of what it actually was like in ancient times — very cool. Here are some pics from our tour of the Roman baths. Great sights!
We had lunch in a traditional English pub and ordered (of course) fish and chips! Yum!
On the way back to our hotel, Petula gave us a full “map orientation” of London to prepare us for tomorrow’s free day. She gave us tips on where to go for the best shopping, where all the sights were, how much tickets would be, where to do dinner, etc.
Collegiettes, let’s be honest. We circled the location on the map for Harrod’s and Topshop (okay, and the London Eye, but mainly Harrod’s and Topshop).
Dinner was an adventure to Brick Lane, a really famous street of all Indian restaurants, where storekeepers literally stand outside trying to entice you into their restaurant by throwing outrageous deals at you! We hoped it would live up to all the hype, and hopped on the Tube with high expectations! Walking down Brick Lane, we got approached a dozen times with all manner of “Hey ladies, take a look at our menu!” or “Two free rounds of drinks for you!” or just “Ladies…!” It came off as extremely hilarious to us rather than sketchy, and we just kept walking until we found a restaurant called “Preem” that looked good to us! Chelsea and I ordered Chicken Tikka and Garlic Naan, and Stephanie got Vegetable Biryani with Garlic Naan. Everything was delicious, and we topped off the meal with a (hilarious) picture with the restaurant staff! Epic:
After getting home, we pretty much crashed immediately, we were so exhausted! Stay tuned for more from the rest of our trip…