Missed Part One? Here it is!
To recap: Michael and I were in England to board the cruise for Norway on Stampin’ Up’s 2023 incentive trip, and we decided to extend our vacation on our own dime and arrive in England early and then stayed the whole week afterwards! What fun!!
Disclaimer: for legal reasons I must state that my experience is not typical of the average person in direct sales. If you’d like to discuss the compensation plan for Stampin’ Up, I’d be happy to show you what more typical earnings as a hobby demonstrator might look like, as well as explain the opportunities available to those choosing to put in more effort.
I’m starting to lose track of what we visited and what days, but that’s ok! We tried to alternate heavy-duty museum days with walking tours and castle visits. Obviously the Tower of London was high on the list of sites to see! We were blessed with good advice on tickets and timing and were able to see the Crown Jewels and all the new Coronation displays with NO lines! Later the line had many hundreds waiting in it.
We also took a Thames riverboat tour one afternoon–gorgeously breezy way to see the lay of the land while laughing at the CORNY jokes and 45-minute skit from Horrible Histories. Definitely recommended! We saw all sorts of landmarks including the Globe Theater (which we were to visit that evening!) the Houses of Parliament, Horse Guards, The London Eye, Canary Wharf and of course the Tower Bridge.
One of the things I wanted to do most was go “mudlarking” on the Thames. It’s illegal without a permit, unfortunately, so I didn’t dig at all, just looked, and I left everything I found exactly where it was, like a good girl! But I was as happy as a clam looking for treasures! I found a pipe stem, a piece of painted tile, and an old padlock. It’s probably good I didn’t find anything truly tempting to take home!
Oh, you guys!! There is just so much to show you. We went on a day trip to Canterbury to see the cathedral town and were so glad we did. I had no idea what all is in the crypt there, absolutely priceless things that we weren’t allowed to picture (like all the best things at Windsor, too…) We learned SO MUCH at every place, just mind-blowingly cool historic things at every turn.
Right before we finally flew home, an overnight tour to Bath, Windsor, the Cotswolds and Oxford knocked out a bunch of our must-see destinations at once. There were only 11 of us and we had great fun going places larger bus groups can’t get in. It was a very welcome change from the hustle of London and I’m really glad we ended our trip being out in the beautiful countryside.
This post is huge!! But there are two last main places to show you. Windsor Castle and the city of Bath were definitely highlights. Windsor goes back to the Norman Conquest, and the hot springs at Bath go back to before the Romans invaded Britain. We were just soaking in history with every step.
Ok, I really have to quit! Thanks for letting me share our trip with you all. It really was beyond my wildest dreams to get to go to England, and now all I can do is plan to go back because I’m totally in love! I’ll leave you with the panoramic sunset view of the Crescent in Bath, worth the trek uphill when my feet hurt.
