Scenes from Windsor

Walking out of church and catching a very British scene of the soldiers marching...



You weren't allowed to video inside the church, but I wanted to share how lovely the sounds were in the cathedral!

Windsor & STONEHENGE

We are super cheap. This means that the idea of paying mega bucks to stand in line to see a few rooms in Windsor Castle didn't appeal to us. We did happen to be in town on a Sunday, though, which meant we could visit the Cathedral were Harry & Meghan married for free by attending a service. Sold! Please note that this was my second service in the Queen's church this year. It was also the only two times I attended church in 2018. Whoops!

We had time to pass before service to we wandered around town and again noticed how adorable it was. It really feels like a teeny, tiny London.

A local pub feeling festive

A view of the living quarters at Windsor Castle

The driveway. Yep.

We were amazed by this long driveway leading to the residences at the castle. The driveway is 2.64 miles long. I cannot imagine the maintenance time they spend on that thing!

Petefish.

It was finally time for service so we headed in amongst mainly locals. I guess most tourists are willing to pay for tours and don't just attend services. Strange. ;)

Looking up in Windsor Cathedral

Our view during church

The sermon was actually interesting and a little...politically incorrect. Jackson enjoyed more than I did, but it was just kind of surprising. The minister was upset about the term "Happy Holidays" taking the place of "Merry Christmas" and called it persecution and the erasure of Christianity. He said that by allowing Christ to be removed from the holiday it was no longer special. Again, I didn't agree with him and I don't find wishing someone a happy holiday to be something worth arguing over, but he felt strongly about it and I valued his opinion.

Typical gloomy day in Windsor

Handsome guy

The church was just lovely

Trying to get a photo of just how large the grounds are

Post-church Petefish

After we finished with church and walking through the city a bit more, we headed back to car and made the 75 minute drive out to see Stonehenge.

What is Stonehenge? I was surprised to learn that many folks were not familiar with this ancient semi-circle. Stonehenge is a prehistoric monument in Wiltshire, England, two miles west of Amesbury. It consists of a ring of standing stones, with each standing stone around 13 feet high, seven feet wide and weighing around 25 tons. The origins of the structure are a bit of a mystery.

For some reason I'd always wanted to see Stonehenge so getting there felt a bit surreal. There is no traffic until you get close to the site and then it is stop and go for miles!

I couldn't bring myself the cull the photos I'm sharing so just scroll on by...

STONEHENGE

TOO EXCITED!

WHOA.

It was so windy, excuse my hair.

One last look...

We walked around the museum and then decided we'd better get on the road to Bath since it would be dark soon and the roads to Bath were a bit rural.

It took about an hour but soon enough we were checked into our quite nice hotel in Bath and out looking for some dinner. The hotel clerk mentioned a local pub as a great place for Sunday dinner. We got there and they were between meals (something that does not happen often in the U.S.) so we had to stroll around time and wait. Bath is so cute that this was not a chore other than we were pretty hungry!

How cute is this place?!

The BEST cheese dish EVER.

Our kind waitress recommended the halloumi fries with a sweet chilli dip. I had not heard of this kind of cheese, but she said we would not regret it. It turns out that halloumi is a semi-hard, unripened, brined cheese made from a mixture of goat's and sheep's milk, and sometimes also cow's milk and will be served in Heaven. It was the most delicious dish. I'm tempted to get back on a plane right now just to have it again, honestly.

Post-life changing fried cheese--blissful.

I was excited as I guess Sunday roast is actually a lunch meal, not dinner, but they had some left and the chef made it new again for me. It was excellent. I always struggle to get enough veggies when I am traveling and this came with a dish of peas, too! Excellent!

BRITISH FOOD IS LEGIT.
SUNDAY ROAST & FISH N' CHIPS

We were quite happy with this experience! We wandered back to the hotel high on seeing sights we'd always dreamed of a heavenly cheese. 

London & Windsor

It was a day of travel triumphs and fails

We figured out how to ride a connecting train from one station to the Eurostar station in Brussels. Win!

We made it on the Eurostar and to London without issue. Win!

We found luggage storage for a day of exploring London. Win!

We figured out which way on the underground got us to pick up our NYE firework displays tickets. Win!

We found an excellent pub for lunch. Win!

We walked to a scone shop and got scones that looked amazing. Then I bit into it and realized it was cinnamon filled. LOSS. HUGE. LOSS.

We toured the Churchill War Rooms without waiting in line because I booked advanced tickets. Win!

We walked to an underground station to return to our luggage and it was PACKED! We couldn’t get on a train. Loss!

We walked/ran the 55 minutes across town and make it with 17 minutes to go before our luggage storage time ran out! Hard fought win!

We hauled our luggage and made a train heading for the airport to get our rental car that was also packed and wildly uncomfortable after that run across town. Another hard fought win.

We picked up our car, drove on the left and made it to our hotel in Windsor for the night. WHEW!!!

Then our hotel only had underground parking and it was full so trying to get around the garage was another ball of excitement.

That was a day!!! If they had a Chuy’s here I’d be a margarita deep by now...

Happy Americans!

Fish n chips & meat pie? SOLD!

Handsome dude!

"DO I LOOK BRITISH IF I DON'T SMILE?"

CINNAMON ADDED SCONE!! FAIL!!!

Waiting on the tour...

Churchill's War Room!

What a cool place to see! The center
of all decisions made by the British army

Mr. Museum goer

The offices were small, cramped and dingy

The beginnings of secured phone lines

I liked this quote.

Their bedrooms left something to be desired!

Amazing how far technology has come
since then

Churchill had to pee in a pot!!

I guess no one is immune
to Uncle Sam!

Once we'd adventured all over London trying to get back to our luggage, getting our luggage, eventually getting our rental car and driving to Windsor felt easy. I slipped into driving on the opposite side without much issue this time and our car had GPS so it was pretty simple to make the short drive up the motorway to Windsor. We were super hungry by then so we wandered into the little village for some dinner that came highly recommended.

We truly enjoyed our waitress, but the food was just ok. We did understand why Meghan would want to live here over London, though. It was an adorable village that we were excited to explore more the next morning.

Dinner in Windsor
A SALAD! FINALLY!

Brussels via video

I found a few videos from our trip that I wanted to share...

Brussels

We left Antwerp and took a quick train to Brussels. We were looking forward to seeing this historic city and it was quite lovely.

Town Center was magnificent

Photos don't do it justice!

Brussels had a Hard Rock Cafe so we had to stop to get a pin for my mom. We decided to just go ahead and grab a bite to eat there.

Water that should have gold in it because it was over $10!

What's that? Nachos? YES, please.

Only a true Euro eats a burger with a fork
and knife!

The food was actually quite good and we had a nice time chatting with our neighbors about their impressions of "American" food. They were obsessed with the burgers and it tickled us.

Stop it!

Where to next, Rick Steves?!

I loved these window displays!

The peeing statute is quite famous.
We're not sure why.

Jackson doesn't follow instructions.

WAFFLES!

The world's first Godiva store!
*Still overpriced.

Petefish.

Look at the window! I cannot deal!

Oh my goodness do they know their
way around chocolate

Drinking a beer and seeing the sights. Tis the life!

A little more holiday spirit!

We love to watch ice-skating and these folks did not disappoint!

Waiting on the light show...

OH MY GOODNESS.

Their famous festival of lights show went on for about 10 minutes and was simply amazing. While the weather was colder here than likely anywhere we'd been, we still had a really nice day soaking in all of the lights and sights of the city.

A shopping mall

Distinctly NOT  shopping mall

We walked through a mall on the way back to the hotel. Jackson said there was another one closer to the hotel where we could grab dinner. We walked into his "mall" only to realize it was a full hospital! We didn't stay and try their cafeteria! ;)

We opted to retire early that evening as we had tickets to get to London early the next morning. There was some kind of festival going on where young people shot off fireworks all night so while that was mildly disturbing we got used to it. 

The futuristic train station

We figured out how to ride a connecting train from one station to the Eurostar station. That may not seem impressive, but it was. It turns out Brussels being the seat of the European Union doesn't mean that they have signs in English! We had some time to spare so we got breakfast, did some shopping and then boarded our train to cross the "chunnel" to London.

Spending down our Euros on snacks!

Buckled into the EuroStar and ready for the next part of our trip

You often hear bad things about British food, but after being in this part of Europe for a few days we were downright amped to have fish and chips! Let's do this, London!