{Travel Tuesday} Stonehenge and Bath

I’m back!

We had an amazing time in London and Paris and I can’t wait to share all of the pictures and details with you guys. At first I was just going to do a few recap posts, but I decided to write full-detailed posts once a week instead. While I was planning our trip I found other blogs’ travel posts to be really helpful, so hopefully my itinerary details and tips can help someone else with their planning. Plus it’ll be fun to look back at all of the details of our trip in a couple of years!

So, welcome to the first edition of Travel Tuesday!

We started our vacation with a group tour to Stonehenge and Bath. We took the Bath, Stonehenge, and Secret Places tour with The English Busand couldn’t have been happier with our experience. They definitely lived up to their excellent Tripadvisor ratings. Our guide Andrew was friendly, funny and very knowledgeable.

Our first stop was Stonehenge and it was incredible. The oldest section is estimated to be about 5000 years old. To put that in perspective, that’s 3000 years before Jesus was born - it’s hard to even comprehend that amount of time.

We listened to the audio guide and walked around the stones in awe of the mystery behind the site.

 

After seeing the size of the stones in person, I have no idea how they were able to move and arrange the rocks. My mom is convinced it was done by aliens.

After Stonehenge we headed to the beautiful city of Bath.

We had free time for lunch before our walking tour, so we stopped at Pasty Presto (recommended by Andrew) and ordered a traditional pasty. It was kind of like a portable beef stew pot pie and it was very good.

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After lunch we all met up for a short walking tour around the city. Bath is full of beautiful buildings, most of which have planters full of bright flowers. I’ve never seen such healthy, beautiful flower arrangements…probably because I live in the desert!

 

The second picture is Bath Abbey. Did you notice the angels climbing up and down the ladders on both sides of the building?

After a little more free time in Bath, we headed back to London. On our way back to the city we stopped at the “secret places.” So far the internet hasn’t ruined the “secret places” secret, so I’m not going to tell you what they were. But I will say that they were very cool and worth the stop.

The trip was also a great chance to get outside of the city and see some of the English countryside.

I loved the houses with thatched roofs. Seriously, how cute is this place?!

And how amazing is this place? I want to live here!

We got back into London around 8:30 p.m. and Andrew was nice enough to drop everyone off near their hotel or by a tube station that was a direct line to their stop. We were the second to last to be dropped off, so we ended up getting a nice night tour of the city.

We had a great time on the tour and loved all of the locations. It was a great start to our trip and I would highly recommend The English Bus. They offer a couple of other tours, so check them out if you are going to London. 

Next week: Windsor Castle and Kensington Palace!

London/Paris, Here I come!

I can’t believe our trip is finally here! We leave Saturday night for London and I’m so excited!

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I won’t be blogging for the next two weeks, but I will be posting pictures from my trip on Instagram whenever I can get a Wi-Fi connection. You can follow me at: SamTJH22

P.S.  Please don’t take this as an invitation to rob my house while I’m gone. My boyfriend will still be home and he’s not afraid to shoot an intruder…I’m not even kidding.

I’d Rather Be Fishing Sign

Cue the applause! I actually created something that I pinned!

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As you all know, I’m putting together a gallery wall in the office. My boyfriend and I both use the room, so I want both of our personalities to be reflected in the space especially since I don’t ask for his opinion anywhere else in the house. I thought a his/hers gallery wall would be a fun way to do that, so I’m hanging items he likes over his side of the desk and items I like over my side. I love how it’s turning out…plus my boyfriend actually likes it too.

My boyfriend LOVES fishing and we are only about 15 minutes from the lake, so he takes his boat out at least once a week. He spends a lot of time and money fishing, so of course I had to include something fishing related on the gallery wall.

Here’s my inspiration:

(Source via Pinterest)

I loved this sign because I know my boyfriend would rather be fishing than doing most other activities, but I didn’t love the $49 price tag. So I decided to make the sign myself using the same method as my EiffelTower Wood Shim art.

I used two packages of wood shims plus two smaller pieces leftover from my last project. I already had the gray paint, white paint, and vinyl, so my version cost less than $5!

I followed the exact same process as my Eiffel Tower art, so if you need more detailed instructions, click here. The only difference is that I painted my shims gray and used a little white paint and water to whitewash the boards.  

Here’s the finished sign with the rest of my boyfriend’s gallery wall items:

I only have a few more items to gather until the gallery wall is done. I’m hoping to finish before my trip, but we’ll see…