Being a Tour Guide and Adventuring Around England

Hey everyone,

So it's taken me a bit longer on writing this post because I wasn't sure how I would be going around writing it, but I think I have figured out how I want to write this, well I think. But I'm still playing a bit of catch up from the holiday season for writing in the blog, but I'm back at it now.

So after Mama Liz and Ed left London on New Year's Day me and Haley were left to adventure on our own before we had to get our train down to Plymouth later that day. We made our way around the city and over to Paddington Station. After dropping some bags off at the Left Luggage booth we explored the area, which there wasn't much. We ended up seeing 221b Baker street, and great Beatles store, but the best thing we saw or I saw was a Dunkin Donuts, which I haven't seen since I left. We then made our way down to Plymouth after a bit of a wait in Paddington. After spending the money that I did it was nice to just be able to know I was headed back to Plymouth where things were a lot cheaper.

So the next morning after a bit of a pause with not having anything to do but be a tour guide for Haley, we headed out to see what Plymouth had to offer us that day. It was great to see the city through Haley's eyes because she had the same reactions to when I saw the city for the first time. One of the first things that we had to do was head to see the Mayflower steps it, Haley made sure of it. Then we made our way around the rest of the Barbican. After we headed to the Co-op to get some food for dinner and when Haley saw some the brands I think I saw her mouth the words "Why don't we have this in the States?"

 The next day we ended up taking another large walk around the city and this time it was sunny which felt like a first, due to all the cloudy weather. We took quite a bit of a walk and headed over to Royal William Yard where we got dinner and called it a day.

The next day was a rather low key day we started late and then we went to the National Aquarium. I was surprised at how large the place was, but still not as big as the Boston Aquarium in my book. But we walked around for a bit then went and got some local seafood right next to the Aquarium. I got mussels and Haley got fish tacos which she told me I need to go back and get, cause they were so good. We then made it to the hotel and called it a night in preparation for our trip to Bath the next day.      

We awoke early the next morning to catch our train to Bath, to see the Roman Baths. I had gone to Bath before the holidays, but wanted to save the Roman Baths for when Haley made it over here. So it was a nice simple train journey to Bath Spa and then we went exploring around the city. After getting some awesome bagels for Breakfast/Lunch we ended up in one of the many parks in Bath enjoying the views of the River Avon, that flows through the city. We then finally got into the Roman Baths, which really took me back thinking that there was a civilization here thousands of years before I was even born, and I think it took Haley back too, although she became a tour guide for me showing off all the Latin she learned in high school or what she remembers. After that we got dinner and we made our way back to the train station and got the train home.

The next day was the in between day where we found ourselves having a bit of R&R between all of our traveling and seeing what's going on around the city to just take a day for ourselves. It was nice we got some food and beer at a local pub and just kept it a nice low key day, for tomorrow we were going to see Stonehenge.

After getting up extremely early we caught our train to Salisbury. I booked first class tickets, (cheaper than normal tickets and we have no idea why) and we got everything complementary on all the trains to Salisbury. Once we arrived we found our bus which took us from the station around the medieval city of Salisbury, which along the way we found out the Magna Carta was in Salisbury Cathedral. After a short ride on the bus we found ourselves on a windy hilltop getting our audio tour guides, and it was off to see one of the wonders of the world. For the first 10 minutes I kept finding myself thinking that I was actually seeing something with my own two eyes, that some people only see in textbooks. But it eventually rubbed off and I enjoyed the moment that was filled with a lot of wind and large stones.
After seeing Stonehenge we then found our way back to Salisbury and then to the cathedral. The cathedral was beautiful, but it was the Magna Carta which I was most intrigued about. Being I want to go to law school after I get back to the states, it was a moment that I won't forget seeing the document that basically started my future profession. After seeing so much history for the day Myself, and Haley got a nice Italian dinner in town and got back to our train. We ended up making it back to Plymouth in one piece all nice and happy in first class.

But just as it seemed that Haley was here she was gone as we headed back to London to get her on her flight home the next day. We stayed the night before her flight in London, and although it was raining it was a nice night. We took the tubes into Heathrow and after about an hour or two wait we had to say our goodbyes, or as I like to say it see yah laters. It was a bittersweet moment as we both didn't want to leave each other, but we knew we had to. Although with her time here I will never forget some of the things I got to experience with her. Haley, I know you read every single post so thank you for coming here and being my travel buddy, my partner in crime, but most importantly my best friend, and I look forward to traveling more with you when I'm home.

So now some housekeeping. I know this post was a bit behind as well as I have been a bit behind the eight ball as it has been said recently. But I have a few more posts that I will be posting through the next week to two weeks so keep your eyes peeled for those. Other than that have fun in the snow back home in New England!

-Tucker