Thursday 30th April 2009

We both had a great sleep – so good we missed hearing the alarm clock, so we had a mad dash to shower and dress, and get the bags out before breakfast. However, we were ready in next to no time, and still made it down for breakfast and the bus on time.
We left Torquay at 8.00am heading for Stonehenge. It is a wet, grey, cold day – not a great prospect of the place we have been so looking forward to visiting – oh well, it will add to the mystique.
Ian gave us the potted version of how Stonehenge is believed to have been formed, and we arrive around 10.00am, there are only a couple of buses ahead of us which is good as it gives us the opportunity of taking photos without too many people in them.
The rain has turned into drizzle, but we throw on our coats and head off with out audio guide to explore these magical stones. I manage to take only 40 photos !!! in the 1½ hours we have here. I would have liked more time, but it was back on the bus as we head off to Salisbury.
This was a fairly long drive and most of us fell asleep on route – as has become the norm for this tour.
At Salisbury we had 1½ hours to explore either the Cathedral or the town as well as have lunch. Deb and I decide to explore the cathedral – it is massive. We had lunch in the restaurant there, then a quick look around inside the cathedral – we objected to the suggested “donation” of ₤5.00 per person, and went inside for 10 minutes without paying and had a very brief look around.
Back to the bus by 2.00pm, and then we headed off to London for our final hotel stay at the Hilton Metropole where we stayed on the first night. The drive in was quite tedious, and we were caught in the usual traffic jams. It took 2½ hours to drive the 72 miles we had to travel. On the way in one of the Aussie males gave a couple of very nice speaches of thanks to the driver Tom and our tour director Ian – which was applauded by us all.
Once at the hotel there was the usual rush to get the room keys. Deb and I have a similar room to the previous one we had here, only this time on the 9th floor.
We find out that there is a post office nearby, so take our packages of souvenier brochures and post cards off to be posted home, so we don’t have to carry them. They all weigh quite a lot, and take up too much room in the cases.
We go back to the hotel for a rest, before going out again – this time down the road to Paddington station – which is only about 10 minutes walk from the hotel. At the station we collect our prebooked tickets to and from Cornwall – we are off next Tuesday, and didn’t want to have any hastle on the day we have to travel, trying to figure out how to collect the tickets.
After collecting the tickets we walk back to the hotel, stopping at a small café for a light dinner – we have to try and eat a lot less again, as we have been “pigging out” the whole time we have been on the bus tour
Back at the hotel, we sort the bags, work out what we will do tomorrow – (go to the London Eye and do the River Cruise) because the weather is going to be fine and the temperature around 17°C – which will be quite warm after the cold weather we have had since leaving Scotland.