Allons-y: Windsor Castle, Bath and Stonehenge

Before I left Sydney, I pre-booked a number of tours and day trips using Viator.com. I asked myself, what – realistically – do I want to see, with limited time and budget, while in England? I spent days thinking about visiting famous castles, and houses from the Grand Designs, stalking the Royal Family, retracing historical places where Jane Austen may have spent some time in.

In the end, I decided on a day trip which incorporates Windsor Castle, Bath and the Stonehenge.

Using "The Tube", I boarded the train on the blue line towards Victoria Station. Once there, I made my way to Victoria Coach Station where I joined the tour group. For the newbies, like me, Victoria Coach Station is about 5 minutes walk from Victoria Station. There were a number of tours and it was essential to join the correct one, otherwise I would be listening to the tour in Spanish or joined another tour group going to another part of England.

Windsor Castle

Windsor Castle is located around 45 minutes away west of London. It is home to the Royal family, although they were not in residence. According to our guide, the Royal family is at their other castle, Balmoral Castle. That news was a little disappointing, it would have been good to run into Wills or Harry! (Not having much luck, no Doctor Who Stars and now no Royal family!)

As we drove closer to the Castle, seeing a glimpse from afar, I started to get a little excited. It dawned on me that I was in England about the visit one the Queens residential palaces. Wow, how blessed am I to have this opportunity?

The bus dropped us off at the Station, the same station that would service visitors arriving by train. We climbed a series of stairs, walked through a walkway of exclusive shops towards the Castle. We saw the signs pointing to Eton College, the exclusive School where Prime Ministers and the Princes went to School.

It felt surreal walking up the street towards the Castle. We were warned in advance that security was quite strict and should expect the same level of security as the airport. We headed towards the entrance, took to the line where tour groups have started to line up before, next to and behind us. Sure enough, we had to empty our pockets, placed our bags to be scanned and walked through a scanner.

Once all that was over, we were given a map and were told to follow the map to explore the grounds and state apartments.

Here are some photos: