Anytime you plan a trip, you have to make decisions on what to see and do and what to not.  It stinks sometimes, but you just can’t see it all.  Even though we were going to have a month in the United Kingdom, we had to pick and choose what we were going to see, and thus what we weren’t.  I suggested Stonehenge.  Not everyone was so sure.  

“We can’t go to England and not go see Stonehenge!,” I said.  

I tried again.  “We have to go to Stonehenge!  I mean, It’s Stonehenge!”  It’s iconic.  It’s mysterious.  It’s in National Lampoon’s European Vacation.  We added it to the list.  Our first attempt was thwarted the day we left London.  Scott, who’s taken on the job of primary navigator, plugged “London to Stonehenge ” into Rome2Rio, a useful, although sometimes nonsensical, travel navigation website.  He got the directions and never thought twice about it.  

The instructions were to get on the train at London Paddington Station, take it to Pewsey, then get a taxi to Stonehenge.  Easy enough.  (You might see where I’m going with this.) Remember we’d had a very unpleasant morning.  Our AirBnB was close to Paddington.  We set out in the rain, found the platform, waited a bit while trying to overcome our (then) sour moods and got on the train.  It was a relief to sit down on the train, our second one since we arrived in England.  We watched London fade into suburbs and the suburbs fade into the countryside.  It was lovely.  

After close to an hour, we followed the instructions and got off in Pewsey.  It must be a little town because its train station is TINY.  We went out front to catch a taxi and you guessed it, no taxis.  That’s okay, we’ll call a taxi, well actually four taxis.  Yup, he called four taxis, no luck.  Okay, we’ll check Uber.  No Ubers out here.  Okay, what about a bus?  Scott found a bus we could get on, so we started walking to find the bus stop.  Did I mention it was raining?  We found what looked like the bus station and then debated whether or not it was in fact the bus stop where we were supposed to wait (our Spidey senses must have been up).  We stood for a few minutes  in the rain and then saw the bus fly by on the road just twenty-five meters or so from the stop.  Not kidding.  

We headed back to the station in the rain.  By this time everyone was needing a bathroom break. Would you believe it?  The station was locked up tight!  I’m serious.  Remember the kid who was out of sorts that morning?  This sealed it.  Rain, no bathroom, no taxi, no way to tell her (oops, I gave it away) how and when this was all going to be over.  We found a way to get out of the rain for a moment to brainstorm.  We decided to give up on Stonehenge for the day and just see how we were going to get to Bath where we had reserved a place to stay. 

Scott saved the day and found a bus that was coming soon to a different bus stop.  We headed down the hill, walked along the little highway and found the bus stop.  We waited with anticipation to see if it would come and end this series of unfortunate events.  It did!!  The rest of the day was smooth sailing.  We took the bus (our first of many this month) to the nearest station where we could catch a train to Bath.  When we arrived in Bath and only had to walk three blocks to our Guest House, we were so grateful.  And, It wasn’t raining.  In fact, the sun had peeked out and it was one of those magical afternoons after a rain, just perfect.  

That’s probably why we found a place to get GF pizza that night.  I mean, after a day like that, pizza just seemed right.  We’d have to figure out how to see Stonehenge on another day, but at least we were settled again, our bellies were full and happy and all seemed right with the world once more.