On December 26th, Boxing Day, public
transportation in London was going to be limited and the many museums and other
sights we would’ve wanted to see on our trip would be closed for the
holiday. So, we decided to forgo the
city crowds and get out of town for the day. Before sunrise, we hailed a taxi (our only
ride in an iconic black cab—loved Jack’s “Thanks, Mate!” to the driver as we
got out) to Victoria Station to board a bus for our guided tour of Windsor,
Salisbury, Stonehenge, and Bath.
Just 20 miles southeast of London, Windsor was our first stop
of our day trip. Our tour buses pretty
much had the quiet streets of Windsor to ourselves to explore. Windsor Castle was closed for touring on
Boxing Day, but we enjoyed seeing what we could from outside the gates and
walls. Our “tour guide” just did a
little historical spiel at the Queen Victoria statue and then let us wander on
our own. I’m glad I remembered to look
for the “Long Walk” where we ran in to a family from our church and tennis club
who were also in London over Christmas and just happened to be on the same
Boxing Day tour with the same tour company, but just on a different bus. My friend Katie took a few great photos of our
family of four right there on the Long Walk, our only of all four of us (besides
selfies on iPhones) from our trip. I’m
so thankful for these!
After all the hustle and bustle and crowds of London, I
truly enjoyed exploring a small, charming town in England. Harry and Meghan had been married here in
Windsor just the May prior and I can hardly imagine Windsor accommodating the sheer
number of people who ascended upon this quaint town for that event. Luckily, it was all quiet for our time in
Windsor and, after about 45 minutes of exploring, we were back on the bus to
continue on our trip.
We enjoyed taking in the English countryside from the
bus. The “Salisbury” part of our day
trip was actually just driving through the small town and seeing Salisbury
Cathedral’s famed highest steeple in the country from a distance. Between Salisbury and Stonehenge (only about
30 minutes apart), we stopped at a pub for a traditional English pub lunch,
complete with roast beef, mushy peas, and Yorkshire pudding, and capped off by
sticky pudding. Back on the bus with
full bellies, we were on our way to Stonehenge.
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