7 Day UK tour - Part 1:

We set off on our 1 week tour of England, Scotland & Wales on Sunday just after 8am when we met our tour leader Michael (whose nickname was a challenge for us Aussies to use - it was "Abo") and fellow group members in London. Day 1 started with a visit to Stonehenge, one of the most famous monuments in the world, where typical English weather greeted us (gale force winds and sideways rain). Our recent joining of English Heritage came in handy earlier than expected, when we got free entry into the whole monument, saving us over 20 quid (BOOM!). Walking around the perimeter of that ancient monument, with its impossibly huge blue stones piled on top of each other, we couldn't help but be in total awe of the feat of engineering it must have taken over 4,500 years ago to construct the monument. After completing a lap and almost contracting pneumonia, we bee-lined straight for the bus and precious warmth!
Next stop was the ex-Roman town of Bath, where we checked out the ancient Roman baths, dropped in on a bocci/lawn bowls tournament and sipped on a refreshing Pimms in the rare English sun! After consulting tripadvisor, we thought we would try one of the top restaurant in Bath, an Italian restaurant about 20 metres from where we were to meet the bus. From the moment we stepped inside, we were treated like the most important diners in the place, with constant but not annoying service and great quality food, we would have been stoked with the choice anyway. Add to that the face that prices were as cheap as any standard cheap Italian place, made this experience one of our best restaurant experiences in the UK! And don't worry Karen, we promised the manager who made very friendly conversation with us, that we would be back in a couple of months with an extra when we visit Stonehenge and Bath!
That night we crossed the border into Wales and ended up in a cute little hotel on the edge of the Brecon Beacons national park. Sitting on our bums all day on the bus and eating great food really took it out of us, and we crashed out in our room once we'd made it through a rerun of a Jim Carrey classic; Liar Liar.