Although I finally did get back to sleep around 3:30 that night, my alarm was set for 6:30 because I had to be at Victoria Couch Station by 8 AM for my Premium Tours bus trip to Stonehenge and Bath.
If worse came to worse, I could sleep on the bus.
But until then, I had some coffee, showered and was out the door a little after 7 so that I could catch the Tube to Victoria Station and wander around until I finally found Victoria Couch Station a few blocks south of there.
With some peace of mind that I had found Gate 15 in time…
…I ate a ham salad sandwich in my belly before boarding…
…and then got ready for an adventure.
We arrived at Stonehenge in about 2 hours…
…and rode from the visitors’ center to the site with a kindly horned woman.
As we walked the path, the crows were waiting for us…
…while the sheep really couldn’t care less…
…as they were enjoying a delicious breakfast.
I slowly circled the stones with my audio guide…
…reading the informational boards along the way…
…and trying to take photos…
…from all sorts of angles…
…sometimes with me in them.
You get the idea.
I headed back to the shuttle bus, passing those watchful crows once more…
…had a cappuccino in the cafe before reboarding the bus…
…and then made our way to Bath.
From here, many either went on to the Roman Baths, churches or walking tours.
I walked around the Christmas Market…
…checked out the town a bit…
…and then ate lunch at Acorn, where I had this carrot and cashew pate with pickled carrots and other things…
…followed by 3 types of winter squash (pickled, fondant, pureed) along with ewe ricotta gnudi, hazelnut and Tuscan kale.
I ended up asking for a piece of bread (got charged a pound) to scoop up the leftover sauce.
Fortunately, the lunch didn’t fill me up, so I ran over to the nearby pub The Huntsman…
…went upstairs to the dining area…
…told them I only wanted their Sticky Toffee Pudding…
…and was seated on a leather couch and served this delight…
…Fullers Vintage Ale Sticky Toffee Pudding with Jude’s honeycomb ice cream and peanut brittle.
Dee-lish!
After some serious vegging on that couch for a bit, I walked around town some more, burning off some toffee, and then went to the bus meeting point to take a long and quite drive back to London.
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Later that night, I decided to eat dinner at Gail’s Kitchen, a restaurant that Julia seriously recommended from the last time she was in London.
I started with Cremet (brie-like goat’s milk cheese), honey and oregano over sesame flatbread…
…grilled artichoke, olives and cheese…
…and sticky chicken (really good!) covering a garlic puree, sweet carrots and almonds.
And I would have been done with my meal if I hadn’t previously seen…
…these baked to order chocolate chip cookies served with milk.
What a delightful finish to my meal and the day!