Hi, folks. Sorry I haven't posted anything, but we have been busy having fun. The tour on the 25th I mentioned previously was really interesting, although very long. We went to Windsor Castle which is about 25 miles from London. The first part, the Round Tower, was built by William the Conquerer and added on to through the years. It was built as a fortress with a moat which has since been converted into a beautiful garden. We went through various rooms of the castle. I especially enjoyed the St. George Chamber. There were huge paintings of various members of royalty through the years. This is also the chamber where they hold state dinners.

Going over the dates when various things happened was really interesting. Some dates went back to the 9th century. At Bath they went back to the Romans.

After this we went to Bath. This town grew up around natural warm springs. When they were discovered by the Romans around 44 AD after conquering the country, they built buildings around the springs and began using them. Through the years much of it fell into disrepair, but was redone in the 18th and 19th centuries and were quite popular with the rich and the aristocracy.

After this we went to Stonehenge. This is a truly amazing site. It just appears to be a bunch of stones until you realize the precision of the placement and that they weighed tons and were put in place long before the cranes and heavy machinery we take for granted these days. Since they think they have been there for over 5,000 years, no one is sure what the purpose was. However, since the stones line up for the winter and summer soltices, it is assumed it was for worship acknowledging the cycles of the year in relation to crops and the winter solstice representing that winter would be over and spring would come again.

The next day was a tour of London. We went to St. Paul's Cathedral. It was designed by Sir Christopher Wren after the great fire of London in 1666 when 3/4 of London was destroyed. He also designed many other buildings in London.

After St. Paul's, we went to the Changing of the Horse Guard. Not particularly impressive to me. Good walk was about all.

Then we went to lunch and a short boat ride to the Tower of London. This is another site begun by William the Conquerer as a fortress to protect London. Since he had conquered England himself he might have been a little paranoid that someone else would try to take it away from him. Anyway, this first fortress was called the White Tower. We saw the Crown Jewels, very grand and beautiful.

On the 27th we left London and headed to the port of Harwich for the cruise. I'll fill you in on that later.