[Travel Tuesday] London Surrounding Areas

While we were in London, we made sure to take in a few of the surrounding areas as well.  This post will document some of the surrounding areas of London we visited during our trip.  

Oxford
We arrived in London around 7:00 am with an 8 hour layover until our flight up to Scotland.  Rather than twiddle our thumbs at the airport, we decided to check our luggage at the hold desk and take the bus to Oxford.

If I remember correctly, it took about an hour for the bus to get to Oxford so it provided us a nice time for a nap prior to sightseeing.  We loved the city of Oxford!!  Such a quaint town and of course, being the nerd that I am, I love any type of university setting.  Our first stop was University Church of St. Mary where we climbed 127 steps for a birds-eye view of the city.

Top of University Church of St. Mary Tower

Check out that Gargoyle!

The view was awesome and it was great to see it from this vantage point!  After the climb, we headed for a tour of the Bodleian Library.  The architecture was amazing!!  They hold classes in some of the old buildings as well and I want to go to class there just to spend more time admiring the views!

After the tour through some of the buildings, we wandered around the University of Oxford Campus as well as Christ Church Meadow.  It was a great way to spend our layover!!

Windsor
One of our day's in London was spent on a bus tour.  I wanted to see Windsor Castle and Brian had Stonehenge on his bucket list.  We found an all-day tour that included both stops as well as Bath!  First stop was the castle.  The place was MASSIVE and we could have easily spent an entire day here.  Also there is a neat town that we did not get to explore at all.  I would recommend spending the day here rather than running through the Castle in a couple hours like we did.

I look just a little excited to be here!

The ground also included St. George's Chapel which we unfortunately did not have time to go inside.  Right before we were leaving, we were able to see the beginning of the changing of the guards.  Next time we are in London, spending a day here will be a must!

Stonehenge

Next stop was Stonehenge, which was a bit of a hike to get there from Windsor.  While this was on Brian's London Bucket List, I could have cared less as I figured it was just a pile of rocks.  *Spoiler Alert*  It truly is just a pile of rocks!!  While Brian was in awe of the story of how the big, heavy rocks that are not indigenous to the area were brought there, I just did not appreciate it.

Bath

Our last stop for the day was the town of Bath.  This was a cool place!  Again due to limited time, we did not get to fully appreciate the area and surrounding town.  We did go on a self guided tour of the Roman Baths and this is a piece of history I could envision and appreciate!

After the Roman Bath Museum, we headed for a brief stroll through the Bath Abbey.  Again, AMAZING architecture!!  We were able to see a quick look of town prior to catching the bus back to city center.

Overall it was a busy, fun day.  It was a great way to get an overview of the areas during our limited days in London.  It definitely gives us a reason to go back someday so we can fully immerse ourselves in the towns to explore even more!

~A