London 04: Stonehenge & Bath
Thursday, July 10, 2025
I met up with Dad at his hotel this morning for breakfast, before then taking the Tube over to Waterloo Station. We had another full day ahead of us, though we would be doing everything on our own today, rather than with a guided tour. Dad had been keen to visit Stonehenge during our trip back in January, but we didn’t have enough time to fit it in to the schedule at the time. I told him that this trip we could see and do whatever he wanted, so I planned this day trip to visit Stonehenge and Bath.
We took the train from London to Salisbury, which took about 90 minutes. We arrived there at 09:20, giving us some time to get something to drink before taking the bus to Stonehenge. I found a cute café nearby that was open and we each had tea, and I had a sticky toffee cake (not pudding). At 10:00 we boarded the bus for the 30-minute drive to the Stonehenge visitor center.
The place was very crowded when we arrived, mostly by tour groups from what we could tell. After buying our entrance tickets, we hurried over to the queue for the shuttle bus that would take us out to the site itself. We could have walked rather than taking the shuttle, but it was a 2km walk and we sadly didn’t have enough time for that today. The queue for the shuttle was long, but there was a steady stream of buses coming, so it moved along pretty quick.
Once we reached Stonehenge itself, I told dad that we could walk around and spend as much time there as he wanted. I have previously visited Stonehenge, so this visit was all about dad getting to enjoy the visit. He seemed very impressed by the site as we walked around the circular path. Even though it was crowded, we were able to stop numerous times to admire the stones. There isn’t much to the archaeological site itself and we had completed our walk in about 30 minutes. Dad said he was very happy with the visit, which made me happy.
We then took the shuttle back to the visitor center, where we soon caught the bus back to Salisbury. Up next was a visit to the nearby town of Bath. Our train departed at 12:42 and the journey would take roughly one hour. The train was small, made up of two cars without any air-con inside. As it was a very hot day, it made riding in the train very uncomfortable. It was a relief when we finally arrived in Bath and could get off the train – it was cooler outside rather than inside!
Dad and I were quite hungry when we reached Bath and our first priority was to get lunch. I found a pub close to the train station that offered the standard pub food, but which had excellent reviews. Dad had fish and chips, while I had bangers and mash, along with sticky toffee pudding for dessert. We each had a beer over lunch as well – a rarity because I never see my dad drinking!
After lunch, we set out to walk around Bath for a little while. Bath is a beautiful town that is very pleasant to explore on foot. We walked by the Roman baths, though we didn’t opt to go inside (the queue was quite long). Nevertheless, dad enjoyed getting to see the exterior with the Roman-style architecture. Up next was the nearby cathedral. Though not as grand as Canterbury Cathedral, this one was still very impressive and beautiful. Our route took us through many of the charming streets of the city center and eventually over to the river.
Our time in Bath was unfortunately rather short and we soon had to return to the train station so we could head back to London. We had assigned seats for this train in a comfortable carriage. The train was delayed departing and we experienced further delays during the two-hour journey back to London. We ended up arriving more than 30 minutes late, which allowed me to claim a partial refund on the tickets (a remarkably simple process).
This evening I was seeing Evita, but my dad would not be joining me (I’d asked if he wanted to go, but he declined). We took the Tube over to my station, where I exited and left him to find his way back to his hotel for the evening. I reached the Palladium at 19:00, giving me just enough time to wait through the queue, enter and find my seat. Once again I had an amazing seat – second row with an unobstructed view! I had booked the tickets for these London shows so long ago that I had forgotten where the seats were located. It was a very pleasant surprise when I arrived!
This production of Evita was done by the same director who did the revival of Sunset Boulevard that I’d see with Al and Maddie a couple years ago. I’d hated that production because it was so minimalist and gimmicky with an over-reliance on cameras and videos. Evita was similarly minimalist, but it was done more as a “rock concert” than a full-blown stage musical. The cast was amazing – and Rachel Zegler was phenomenal! At the end of the first act, as the characters are rallying to support Peron to become president, tons of confetti and streamers – in the colors of the Argentinian flag – rained down upon the audience. It was a fun was to bring the audience into the show. It was an exciting show from start to finish, and I was very glad to have attended.
I made my way back to my hotel after the show, where I packed my bags before heading to bed. My dad had kindly brought me a new carry-on sized bag with him to replace my bag, which had broken on my first day in Lisbon. My parents had several spare suitcases in their basement and they were nice enough to let me have one. The new bag was much nicer than my old one, though slightly smaller, so I had to creatively pack everything away in preparation for my flight back to Asia in the morning.
Throughout the day I had been messaging with Thinh, who had flown to Singapore in the late afternoon (Hanoi time). I would be meeting him there on Saturday when my flight from London arrived. He had started a new job a few weeks ago and I was worried that taking this short trip to Singapore might be problematic, but he assured me that everything would be ok with his job. I was looking forward to seeing him again in a few days!
My time in Europe had been a bit of a mixed bag. While I had enjoyed doing the Camino and was glad that I did it, the experience was overall quite lonely and not what I’d hoped it would be. The time in Sweden had been relaxing, and then getting to spend a few days in London with my dad was really fun. The five weeks had flown by for me and I was ready to head back to Asia – I was missing my husband!
Friday, July 11, 2025
Once again, I got up early this morning, checked out and went over to my dad’s hotel to meet him for breakfast. My flight was departing from Gatwick at 11:00, so I didn’t have a lot of time to hang out this morning. It was nice to be able to meet up with dad one last time before I left though. Now that he had an extra free day in the city, I’d put together some suggestions for what he could do and see. He had settled on doing another trial run to reach his next hotel via the Tube, and then combine that with visiting both the Victoria & Albert Museum, and the Natural History Museum (both located a couple blocks from the hotel). At 07:00 I had to head to the train, so we said our goodbyes and I hoped he would enjoy his upcoming tour.
I arrived at Gatwick in great time, giving me plenty of time for check-in and security. I had an aisle seat on the first leg of my flight to Bahrain, where I had a four-hour layover. I grabbed dinner at the Bahrain airport and, shortly before midnight, my flight to Singapore departed. I slept through much of the second flight, thankfully (I even slept through the meal service!).
Meanwhile, Thinh had been busy in Singapore and had kept me update on his adventures around the city. In the evening he’d gone to the Jewel at Changi to see the spectacular vortex waterfall (it hadn’t yet been installed the last time he was in Singapore), then he’d gone to Marina Bay for a walk around, before finally getting dinner. I loved seeing photos of his travels – finally he was sharing his adventures with me, rather than it always being the other way around!
This featured blog entry was written by Glichez from the blog El Camino 2: Portuguese Boogaloo.
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