Today, we took an all-day tour of Stonehenge and the Cotswolds with Mad Max tours. The tour leader John was an excellent driver and guide with a penchant for saying “something worth noting”. Stonehenge is smaller than I expected, but the audio tour is informative. For those who don’t like audio tours, you can get just as good a view for free by stopping on the side of the motorway. Avebury (another henge with stones) has some nice advantages over Stonehenge: visitors can walk right up to the stones and touch them, it’s free, and there are fewer crowds.

The villiages of the Cotswolds were quaint, old, and owned entirely by the Historical Trust. There wasn’t really much to do in them except look at the old architecture and eat at the local pub.

This morning we departed on a train for Bath Spa from London Paddington station. Valerie found a very nice bed and breakfast (Hawkins of Bath) in Bath just about 1.5 miles out of the city center. The owners (Glyn and Diane) were extremely nice and the B&B is conveniently located just a block away from a bus stop to the city center.

After arriving, we had just a couple hours before all the tourist spots in Bath closed for the night. We toured the Roman Baths and then stopped by the Pump Room for afternoon tea. Kim had warned me that the Roman Bath water had quite a foul taste, but (in my opinion) it was just slightly less palatable than San Jose water. I’m not sure if this is a compliment for Roman Bath water or a criticism of San Jose water.

The Paralympic marathon route runs right outside of our hotel. We originally planned to take a hop-on hop-off (aka HOHO) bus around London and Westminster, but the bus was not running today because of the road closures for the marathon. Instead, we took advantage of the complete lack of London vehicle traffic and walked around the City and Westminster. As we were walking the strangely calm streets of London, we took the opportunity to watch the wheelchair marathon as the competitors passed by.

In the evening, we met up with Lucy (my dad’s cousin) and family who graciously invited us to dinner at their home in/near Islington. Mark prepared a very tasty “very full tart”. It was great to be able to meet more of my extended family.

Today was our first day in London. Valerie found us a nice business hotel (Club Quarters) in the City of London next to St. Paul’s Cathedral. We arrived at the hotel in the afternoon, at which point Valerie promptly fell asleep. Kim (my dad’s cousin) and family invited us out to an old British pub called The Mayflower in Rotherhithe next to the River Thames. It has been almost six years since I’ve last seen Kim, Jane, Meri, and Kier, so it was quite nice to see them again. Kim provided some interesting historical commentary about the pub and developments along the Thames. Jane and Meri helped us plan tomorrow’s events.

For those traveling to London, definitely pick us an Oyster card (available for purchase in the arrival area at Heathrow) for use on the Underground and coaches. Thanks to Jeff for the tip.

After several weeks of trying to book a flight from SFO to LHR on British Airways using our Avios points (frequent flyer miles), we finally found a flight departing on Friday afternoon. Finding a flight has been quite an ordeal. Both of us have been checking the American Airlines website every two hours for available rewards flights for weeks now. (We used the AA website since the BA availablity checker is strictly worse than AA.) Since BA allows a free stopover in London, we’ll be staying in Great Britain for 5 days before continuing on to Oslo. Despite the fact that neither of us has ever flown on British Airways, over the past couple years we’ve accumulated a ridiculolus quantity of Avios points using our BA Chase credit card. (As a side note, for BA Chase card holders who are reading this, don’t try to get the companion pass unless you plan to fly from JFK or ORD or DFW to LHR. Trying to find a BA-only route from anywhere other than those airports is a pain.)

This was the first (and probably only) time that either Valerie or I have flown first class. Ever since she started reading travel blogs, it’s been Valerie’s dream to fly in first class. First (as BA calls it) was nice, but probably not worth it. The SFO first class lounge is smaller than the business class lounge. The fully reclining seats, turndown service, and free cotton pajamas are certainly very nice. However, Valerie can’t sleep in any moving vehicle that is smaller than a cruise ship, so many of the amenities of first class are somewhat wasted on us.