Monday 28 December

Our last day on tour! It has been great, although it is getting progressively harder to get Belle up each morning 😬. We have found this tour group to be friendly but have not made any great friends. It was only a six day tour, and we do spend the first couple of days staying out of the way so the group can discover for themselves that they will survive with six kids on the coach!

Actually, the bus driver told us that he has three times driven coaches where people have left the tour in disgust before it is finishes because they couldn’t cope with children running up and down the aisle and annoying them all day. So we usually sit quietly at first so people can make up their own minds. And then as the tours progress we get compliments – and presents haha! One lady from Canada bought the kids chocolates because she was so impressed with them, and another older lady heard the girls saying they couldn’t find the colouring pencils on the coach so she went and bought them a packet at Ludlow. We just smile, thank them, and tell them they don’t have to live with them (or get Belle up at 6am each morning…). 

I told Abi she is my favourite child on tour – while all of them have been (mostly) well behaved and polite and complied with every time schedule etc., Abi coerces her sister awake and into the shower every morning, lays out her clothes for her, always gets herself ready on time and keeps her bag tidy, and then ensures the little three are quietly entertained on the coach and at restaurants. It has made my job much easier! 

So today was the last day we had to push Belle along, made easier by the fact today was the one all three of us girls were looking forward to. Abi studied Bath at school this year, so was especially keen to go there. We left the hotel (after yet aNOTher full English breakfast!) at 8am and headed straight for Bath. On the way there I reminded the little three about Stonehenge – there is a game they play on their iPods called Guess the Country, which is very educational and has this picture as its background, so they were very impressed they would be up close to the actual thing!

  
Our time in Bath was nowhere near enough! We started at the Royal Crescent in the botanical gardens, which was beautiful, and then straight over to Bath Abbey and the Roman Baths. We were given an audio guide and 90 minutes there, but could have spent so much longer! Everyone was mesmerised and informed, and it really solidified some of what we had learnt in Rome and Pompeii. 

   
    
 We then bought some sandwiches to take with us as we left at 11.15am, prepared for our picnic lunch at Stonehenge. The crowds at Stonehenge were ridiculous. Thankfully, we had privileged entry and went straight through, onto the bus that took us out through the field to the site of the stones. It was more impressive than I expected, but difficult to take any photos without many strangers in every shot. Tim, Abi and I became separated from the others when we returned to the cafe and souvenir shop, so we went through the exhibition ourselves and met them back on the coach at the scheduled time. 

   
 The last leg of our journey was then into London, where we alighted the coach for the last time at the Cumberland Hotel and caught two taxis from there (for only ten pounds) around to our hotel. As it was dark by the time we arrived, we don’t have our bearings yet, but I unpacked and bathed the little kids while Ross and Jarrod went grocery shopping at Sainsburys. Ross then cooked dinner in our apartment kitchen while I. Did. Some. Washing!!!! I got through all the piles (below) before bed, so all is right again in my world 😊