Tired of visiting main attractions in London city? Why not set out for an historic trip to the South West England to a few interesting and historic places?
The coach service to Windsor castle, Roman bath and Stone Henge from Victoria starts @ 8.30 am. As per the our guide in the coach , this is one of the longest coach routes.
Coach services in London are a good alternate to cabs and cost effective mode of travel, provided the places are not well connected by tube services and if you travel single. Ticket fare per person is 55 pounds , including entrance tickets for the places.
We start our journey on a Wednesday morning. We go past London's famous Landmarks , hearing the interesting briefing by our guide about them and some more tit bits like , schooling and shopping in London. As the peak hour traffic slowed down our bus, we reach Windsor castle around 10:30 am. One can get a glimpse of the magnificent castle well ahead from the bus. We start our journey inside the castle, keeping in mind that we have to return to the coach by 12 pm.
Windsor castle is the largest and oldest castle in the World and is one of the official residence of her majesty, the Queen. We enter into Queen Mary's dolls house. This is a miniature of the King and Queen' palace and showcased the most finest and modern goods at that period. This was created as a gift to Queen Mary by the people. When we enter into the magnificent state Apartments, the decoration in the walls with the swords and rifles lures our attention. The apartments are furnished with some of the finest works of art from the Royal collection including paintings , sculptures etc. Every room depicts the richness and glory of the Kingdom.
We stroll through the rooms in awe , hearing about the history of the art pieces with the audio guide given to us at the entrance. The audio guide is of very much help. But watch out! if you follow the audio guide completely, I bet you will miss the coach. The dazzling interiors of the Prince room and dining rooms at the end are a good architectural feast to our eyes. Slice more time for them!!
Buying some souvenir from the shops, we board the bus back @ 12 pm. As we head towards Roman bath, we drift to sleep until we are woken up by the voice of the guide around 2.30 pm. We gaze in surprise to see the buildings of same color in the entire city and come to know that the city is full of buildings with Georgian architecture, crafted from Bath stone. The warm, honey coloring of the stones gives the city a distinctive appearance.
Roman bath is the heart of the World heritage site. The Romans built a magnificent temple and museum around Britain's only hot spring, which still flows with natural hot water. We get to know the ancient history of how Romans lived here and the customs they followed with the help of the audio guide. The ruins and treasures used by them are well preserved and presented in the museum.
The botanical garden outside the museum is most colorful. As there is less time, we run for the coach. We can find hop on hop off city tour buses for Roman bath.
After few more hours of travel , we reach our final destination of the day, Stone henge. Don't get disappointed to see just 6 huge stones in the middle of what looks like a desert. Stone henge is renowned for its remarkable rings of ancient stones that ages back to 3100 BC. It is aligned with the midsummer sunrise and sunset. But it seems that the history behind the stones remains a mystery.
We finally reach Victoria station around 7:30 pm. A wonderful day filled with memories of Britain's rich history and architecture.
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