July 26, 2026

Today is our last full day in London before our cruise. We did an all day excursion visiting Windsor Castle, Stonehenge, and Salisbury.

Before we got to the Castle, we stopped by a bridge in Windsor for pictures.

Our first stop was Windsor Castle. Windsor Castle is located about 25 miles west of London. It was built in the 11th century by William the Conquerer. It was built within a few years of the Tower of London. It is the oldest and largest continuously occupied Castle in the world. It boasts over 1000 rooms.

At Windsor, we toured the State Apartments, which today hosts state dinners. We did not want to wait to tour Mary’s doll house and St. George’s Chapel was closed to tourists since it was Sunday.

Windsor Castle was loved by Queen Elizabeth II and was her home from 2011-2022. She is buried there, in St. Georges Chapel, alongside Prince Phillip, her parents and Princess Margaret.

Below are a few pictures from around the outside of Castle grounds.

Next, we headed to Stonhenge. The drive from Windsor to Stonehenge was about 1.5 hours. Stonehenge is a collection of large rocks about 13′ tall and 25 tons each. They were placed around 2500 BC. The original purpose is not entirely known, but they served no useful purpose, in terms of shelter, food, or occupation. They were hauled across the plain for around 22 miles. So whatever the purpose, it was very important to the people that built it. There is speculation that it served as an important religious or cultural place and it the monuments do align with the summer and winter solstice.They did find bones, so in its earliest days it was a burial site.

For us, seeing it was important and the fact that these stones were placed in a specific manner around 5000 years ago was impressive. There was a path the entire way around the stones, and there were fun photo suggestions, so we have them a try.

Next, we went to Salisbury. Salisbury is home to Salisbury Cathedral. It is most known for being the home of 1 out of 4 surviving Magna Cartas.  We were not able to take pictures of the actual document.

After we left the Salisbury Cathedral, we walked around the town. There wasn’t much to do there.

After this, we headed back to the hotel, which was about a 2 hour drive. Our driver was kind of wild and crazy so that was an adventure within itself.

Last but not least, my outfit of the day. It was a bit cooler and breezy, maybe because we were out of the city or maybe because it was cooler everywhere. Either way, I would have been comfortable in pants today, but wasn’t excessively cold.