Time flies when you are having fun!  It’s hard to believe this was our last day in England!

We started the day by waiting in line for Wicked tickets.  It’s all Bren has been able to talk about.  We got them!
Then we went to the Tower of London.  The line was very long the day we were on the Hop on Hop off tour and we wanted to go back.  There were still huge crowds.  The line to see the crown jewels was super long!  We walked around a little and took some pictures and then called it a day there.  We wish we had more time to explore!  Again there were so many school groups!

Then it was home to change quick and head to the theatre.  Wicked was awesome.  Our seats were first row in the balcony.  One of my best memories of this trip will be watching Brendan sing along to “For Good.”

We then went out to dinner at a typical English pub.  Aidan even got to order my drink (Pepsi) at the bar.  We talked about our favorite memories, our next trip and toasted our fun on this adventure. 

Heading home we stopped in Trafalga Square where we had been a few days ago.  The boys got to climb the lions- something on Aidan’s to do list since seeing them.  Then it was home to bed (and packing).

Tomorrow we hard back home early.  I can’t believe how quickly this went.  There is so much to think about and so many great memories.  I will be sharing more reflections in the coming days for sure!

Today was take two of our trip to Windsor Castle, Stonehenge and the Roman Baths.  There was again shuffling of people, but this time we made it on the bus!  I hope everyone else did too!

First up was Windsor Castle.  So cool.  Bren loved seeing Queen Mary’s Doll House and dolls.  Aidan loved seeing all the military gear- swords, shields, armor.  It was all very cool.  It is amazing how much history has been preserved!

The second stop was Stonehenge.  No one knows when or how Stonehenge came to be.  Our tour guide told us lots of possibilities.  Whatever the reason it was amazing to see.  It started to rain a little bit- first time the kids have been outside in the rain this whole trip!  But that didn’t stop us from taking it all in.  Absolutely beautiful!

It rained pretty hard during the bus trip for our last stop to Bath.  But by the time we got there it was sunny again!  The Roman Baths and Pump Room are also quite old.  There are relics there taking back two centuries ago.  The springs are still active and the water warm.  You can taste the water at the end of the tour.  The kids were not fans.

It was a long day but we were very glad to be able to take the trip, especially after all the trouble!!

Today we had booked a tour similar to Saturday’s with the same company.  We were to see Windsor Castle, The Roman Baths and Pump Room and Stonehenge.  We were picked up by the shuttle service at the meeting point and brought to the central location- Victoria Cross Station- and saw lots of people for the same tour.  Too many in fact.  After being shift three times (apparently there were three buses for the said tour), we were left out along with a couple from Australia.  The manager put us in a cab to meet an earlier charter bus at one of their locations.  We got there and they were not helpful.  There was no bus.  There was only the option of a refund or rebooking.  And after some arguing a cab ride back to where we started from- they actually were not going to do that!

So we went with the rebooking and decided to switch tomorrow’s plans with todays’s plans.  We went to Oxford!

We took a bus about an hour north west of the city.  It was a cool place to see!  It is of course a college (university) town.  There are lots of bikes everywhere! After a quick lunch at Pizza Hut (had to keep up the travel tradition- we went to one in India too!), we met up with a tour.  You guessed it, a Harry Potter tour.  This was a walking tour that showed off places in Oxford in the movie.  Our tour guide was a lot of fun- a recent Oxford grad taking a “sabbatical” before figuring out what to be when he grows up!

Aidan loved the trivia and came close to winning the trivia game- a girl from Denmark was a bit quicker.  He even remembered some of the history of London from our tour bus the other day!

It was an unexpected change in plans but everyone did great going with the flow.  It was a good day to get out of the city- loads of traffic as the Tour de France came through!  Hopefully tomorrow we get to see the places we thought we would see today!!