So.. What have we done since our last post? Well we spent a whirlwind day in London. Seeing Tower of London, Tower Bridge, Saint Paul's Cathedral, London Eye, Houses of Parliament and Big Ben, Trafalgar Square, National Gallery, The Mall, Buckingham Palace, Harrods, Piccadilly Circus, Leicester Square, Harry Potter...
We spent a whole beautiful day walking around town seeing all the things one needs to see on her first time to London (Andrea's first time) and then topped it off with seeing Harry Potter, Deathly Hallows Part 2 at the Odeon Theater (where they had the premier a little while before).
We spent our evenings just outside London in Crystal Palace with our new friend, Emily. Thank you Emily for lending us your pullout bed and living room for two nights!
Next we braved the underground again and made it out to Salisbury Plain where the mythic Stonehenge is found. It started out a beautiful day but as we pulled into Salisbury Station the heavens opened up and it began to pour. Perfect weather to be outside walking around and taking pictures!... We took a tour bus to Stonehenge from the station and pulled up the A303 to see it!!! We saw Stonehenge! We were given little audio-players that told us the story of Stonehenge as we walked around the site. Did you know that a "henge" is a hanging stone?... I didn't until yesterday. Well we got soaked but it was worth it. Then we took a return bus back into the town of Salisbury and had lunch at a great pub and walked around the medieval cathedral which began construction in the 1200’s. The cathedral was beautiful and very interesting for its vaulted ceilings and stained glass windows. It is also the sight of the Magna Carta! We got to see the Magna Carta (an added bonus).
We left Salisbury and took another train out to see Bruce’s “wee” sister Gail, her husband Rick, and her two sons, Fraser and Alexander. We had a lovely evening playing with the boys. Fraser is into trains which made Uncle Bruce (who is also a bit of a train fanatic) very excited and exciting. After Gail and Rick put the boys to bed, Gail served a delicious dinner with tons of veggies she grew herself in her allotment. Thank you Gail and Rick for a wonderful evening!
But the night didn’t end in Templecombe! Bruce and Andrea hopped back on the train into London, switched in the Underground, then made it finally London Euston and to their bed for the evening… a sleeper train on its way to Scotland! Our BritRail pass covered much of the ticket so all we had to pay was the sleeper supplement and we got first class accommodations with two berths and hot breakfast in the morning.