On the way to Bath and Stonehenge

Day 3 and the orange vests are already out for one room late to the bus! “On time on target” is Capt. Gibson’s motto and three of gentlemen will be wearing the orange vests today for not being on time. 

Corinna is our local tour guide for our visit to Bath and Stonehenge. As we left the hotel for the 2.5 hour drive to Bath, she filled us in on several interesting tidbits of London. 

The River Thames snakes through London. It is very clean (although it looks quite dirty) and houses over 100 kinds of fish including sea horses. We also passed by the oldest remaining bridge over the River, from the 1700s. 

We learned a little bit about each of the burroughs (neighborhoods) that we passed through including Richmond, Twickenham, Hammersmith, and Kensington. Along the way we saw these areas:

-The house that inspired Jefferson’s Monticello

-Where the painter Whistler is buried

-Where actress Vanessa Redgraves lived and the movie Beatrix Potter was filmed

-Mick Jagger’s childhood neighborhood

-The national rugby stadium (which is a very residential area which was surprising to me)

Yesterday Orane told us that London is a constantly changing city. Construction cranes litter the skyline (all the red dots we saw while in the Eye last night). Brand new buildings and constructed next to and in some case over and around older buildings. The result is an eclectic mix of architecture throughout the entire city. This is quite different than Paris proper which has a much more consistent architectural theme. Here are some of the various houses we saw along our way out of London. 

This sign seems to sum it up perfectly- one of these things is not like the other!

Corinna is quite a British character and our entire crew enjoyed her unique expressions and British-isms. Here’s just a sampling of what we heard in our first 15 minutes on the bus. 

-I’m crackers

-He was beastly but terribly witty

-I could cover them in honey (what you do to your enemies)

-They make friends or they make war (related to community gardeners)

-Park your wretched car

-They kicked the bucket

-God I hate sport (referencing the many soccer and rugby fields throughout the city)

-Buzz off

-Jolly good job

Next up is the “bunch of rocks” of Stonehenge..for now I suspect the majority of the bus will be snoozing!