Contiki Two: Day One - London to Bristol

We’re going to have to get used to these early Contiki mornings again, though we did manage to get down to the courtyard of the Royal National Hotel at 6.45am. At least this time we didn’t have to try and get a taxi as well. Our bags weighed under the 20kg (thank you storage!) and we were able to get onto our lovely orange Contiki bus and be away.

First up, Anna took us on a driven tour of London where we once again saw Westminster Abbey, the London Eye, Trafalgar Square Harrods and the Hard Rock Café. But we were also able to see some other sights we hadn’t had a chance to catch earlier, such as St Paul’s Cathedral, London Bridge, Tower Bridge and the Tower of London. It was good to at least have a glimpse of them even if we don’t have time to go back and explore.

After some driving our next stop was Stonehenge. We were each given an audio guide, and in the spitting and windy weather wandered our way around the superstitious gathering. While some of the information was interesting, and the rock formations amazing considering how many of the stones were brought into England, the weather dampened our spirits a bit and we found ourselves longing for the comfort of the bus again. After a quick stint in the shop and a hot chocolate we were in the coach and thawing out once more.

Next up was Bath, a few more hours down the road. The limestone buildings are really beautiful to behold, especially as we came in from the hill. We headed off to Sally Lunn’s for lunch, where Justine and I had a romantic meal in the Jane Austen room and each ate one of the renowned Sally Lunn buns. Though, seeing as neither of us drink tea, going for High Tea seemed slightly off. We had a quick look at the kitchen museum downstairs before heading off to find the Jane Austen centre. Although we didn’t have the chance to go into the museum there, I did manage to buy myself an “I Love Darcy” keychain. Although “I Love Colin Firth” could have been equally apt.

Our next stop was the Roman Baths which we had entry into as one of our optional activities. We wandered around the large baths, though we weren’t allowed to touch them due to the Roman’s use of lead piping. No wonder people died younger in those days. We walked through the museum and saw the different statues and devices they used to use in the baths, before exiting to navigate our way to some of the old fashion sweet shops we’d seen earlier.

Once back on the bus we headed towards Bristol, our final stop for the day. There we had a rest in the hotel before walking to our included dinner, a restaurant on the canal. It was quite a beautiful view as swans floated past, but also offered an opportunity for us to meet some of the people on our tour. We then headed towards a 17^th century pub, where Justine tried some Hobgoblin, but failed to finish her glass.