Day 4- May 22

 (part of the enormous Windsor Castle)

(ancient Roman bath)

(Stonehenge)

(junior wildcat at the Texas Embassy! Whoop!)

          Today was our free day to experience anything we wanted to in and around London.  We left our hotel at about 7:45 am for a coach tour to Windsor Castle, the city of Bath (one of the ancient Roman baths), and Stonehenge. 

            It was about an hour drive to Windsor Castle, one of the residences of the royal family.  When we got there, we went on a tour of many of the rooms in the castles.  The castle was ornate and beautiful but a very crowded “touristy” spot which made it more difficult to enjoy.  We ate lunch in the surrounding town of Windsor and then headed to Bath.

            In Bath we were able to see one of the actual ancient Roman baths and a museum about it.  Again, it was very crowded with tourists.  Jessica and I stopped at a small café to get coffee before we had to meet back at the bus.  While at the café, we ended up talking to a group of eleven and twelve year old boarding school boys who were visiting the town for their weekend excursion.  For the paper that we have to write at the end of this trip, we are required to interview at least one person in every city that we spend two or more nights in, so we thought this would be the perfect opportunity to get our UK interview.  The boys weren’t shy at all and seemed excited that two girls wanted to know their opinion on everything.  They gave us some great and funny answers, especially to questions about Americans.  They were a little hesitant to admit that they thought most Americans were “bigger” (aka fat) and really liked fast food.  It was really fun to get honest answers to our questions and to heat their thoughts on any and every subject.

            After Bath, we loaded the bus once again and went to Stonehenge.  It was really an experience to see this historical site that I had previously only seen on TV or read about in books.

            After returning back to our hotel at the end of the day, Jessica, some other girls, and I decided to take the Tube to eat at the Texas Embassy restaurant because we heard they served Mexican food!  It was such a good feeling to walk into the restaurant and smell the familiar smells and order food we loved.  We chatted with our waiter about Texas and also went to the upstairs part of the restaurant to sign our name on the walls just like thousands of other Texans had some before.  We even got to take a picture with the Texas A&M flag that they had hanging from the ceiling!

            It was well after 9 pm before we left the restaurant, so we decided to go back to the hotel, attempt to do laundry in our bathtub, and get to bed a little earlier than usual.