Catch up: Stonehenge, Bath, & Windsor

Sorry about the lack of blog posts lately. I found out that a friend from home died very unexpectedly on Sunday night. While I have been travelling, he has regularly checked in with me over Facebook, giving me updates and reminding me to stay safe and have fun. I have not felt much like writing, but in one of our last online conversations he reminded me to always “Keep smiling, Traveller Caelan” so that is exactly what I am going to try to do.

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Catch up time again as I have fallen behind on the blog posts.

As part of the international summer school, the university offers  a couple of additional social trips. Last weekend I opted in for the weekender trip to Stonehenge, Bath, & Windsor, and had a great time.

We started out on Friday night, driving to a hostel near Stonehenge. We spent the night having dinner at a nearby pub and hanging out at the hostel. The hostel was awesome – it was set out in the country, and was also a children’s fun park during the day. We had the run of the place, which included huge gardens, a trampoline, and fields with miniature ponies, sheep, and a donkey.

The next morning, we had a great hot breakfast at the hostel and then headed over to Stonehenge.

After Stonehenge we went on to Bath. We had some free time to start, so me and a couple  of friends went to the Jane Austen Centre there. As a huge Jane Austen fan, this was a real treat for me. She visited the city twice and lived there for several years, and two of her books are set in the city. The Jane Austen Centre also does a good job explaining Jane’s life and how living in Bath affected her writing.

Wax figure of Jane at the Centre:

We met up with our group again in the afternoon to go see the Roman Baths, which were so cool. Me & the other girl from my course who was on the trip (the two major history lovers) spent ages in here, listening to the audio guide in full, which was fantastic.

Me & couple of friends spent a quiet night at the hostel with a case of Pimm’s and board games.

The next day, we had more free time to explore in Bath; we walked to the Royal Crescent, a semicircular row of beautiful and very majestic-looking townhouses with gorgeous views of the city.

Later on we headed to Windsor, where we got time on our own to explore Windsor Castle. Me & a couple friends went to see Queen Mary’s Dolls’ House and the State Apartments. Unfortunately I didn’t get any photos of those, as you’re not allowed to take pictures anywhere inside the buildings, but I was lucky enough to catch these guards marching about:

We finished off the evening in Windsor with a delicious roast beef dinner that included my personal favourite, Yorkshire puddings, before heading back to the university that night. An excellent weekend.