We had to get up early (Sorry, Toria!) and hurry to the tube to catch our coach. Our tour guide, Graham, and our driver, Max (aka Maxi or Mad Max) took us out of London to Windsor, and it was absolutely beautiful! It's the largest and oldest royal residence in the world, and it really does take your breath away. First, you can walk around the outside, then you head in to see the doll's house, which is a "10 and 1" scale of the castle, and everything in it works, from the "Hoover" to the "lift". Then you enter the state rooms, and you see old weapons and artwork. We saw Rembrandt's self portrait, the famous one of Henry VIII (and his 3 kids), Charles I, and others that you see in history books. Then you see the throne rooms and the knighting rooms, and the place where the great fire of 1992 started. They couldn't repair all of the floors, so they peeled up the boards and just turned them over. Who says royals don't economize? We had to hurry to the bus, but we did stop to buy Gabe a Union Jack hoodie and Toria a Beetles shirt.

Onward to Bath; this was the longest drive at 2 hours, and we nearly traversed the country. None of us had brought books or ereaders, so we mostly dozed. It was nice to rest our feet a bit today on the bus! We stopped for lunch at a nice little place called the Mad Hatter's Tea Room, and had sandwiches and ice cream. We strolled through Bath (Looked like lots of good shopping if we'd had more time!) to the circus and the royal crescent, where the aristocrats hung out trying to avoid seeing the sheep that made them rich. We tried to go in the Abbey, but they were having church. We took the water in the pump room, and it was disgusting!

Back to the bus for Stonehenge; this journey took about an hour. We saw Jane Seymour's house (actress, not queen), some random rich dude's castle, the chalk horse, and some ancient fortifications. The first sight of Stonehenge is pretty impressive! You pay on one side of the road, then pass through a tunnel underneath to the other side, and listen to stories about it. The King Arthur/Merlin/druids version was the best. I had hoped to get some cool silver earrings for me and Nana in the shop, but they weren't that cool. We did try mead there though... tasty, but very sweet!

A bee followed us on the bus, and kept hanging out right by us, so I had to kill him. We all nodded off a few times on the way back to London, even though the college kids from Arizona behind us talked allll the way back. We stopped for a pub meal on the way back to the flat, and had our traditional fish & chips with mushy peas (Mama and cubs) and steak and ale pie (Hedge) with Guinness. Then the cubs got a sticky toffee pudding while Hedge had another. It was good, but also quite sweet, and we couldn't finish it.

We all have to take turns in the shower right in a row, because it's complicated and the curtain only covers half the shower. After the cubs flooded the bathroom, we figured out this system, and it's working. Tomorrow, we're planning on the London Bridge Experience, the British Museum, and the Library. With fish and chips for Hedge somewhere in there!