Sunday May 26, 2013

We woke up at 8:00, as we needed to pack all our bags before the bus left on the Stonehenge/Bath tour at 10:30.  We actually got packed quicker than I thought, although I ended up throwing a few shirts and socks away to make room for things that we had accumulated during our vacation.  We had some breakfast at the restaurant with Melissa’s grandma and aunt Karen, went upstairs for the last time to grab our bags, and checked out.  We boarded the coach bus after putting our bags below, and we all headed out on our farewell tour.

When we finally got to Stonehenge, whoever had the tickets thought they were only brochures, and either handed them to random people or went in with multiples.  Eventually we all made it in to see the stones, but because we had pre-booked tours in the city of Bath, we only had about 15 minutes to enjoy Stonehenge.  It felt similar to Poulnabrone Dolmen, how it was basically just rocks in a field, but the scale of it was actually bigger than I had expected.  We quickly walked around the place, boarded the bus again, and headed to Bath.

There were two tours set up in Bath: one was a walking tour with a guy dressed in 18^th century costume, and the other was to tour the Roman hot baths discovered in the middle of the city.

Melissa and I ended up on the walking tour first, which I found very enjoyable.  The guy had studied history so he knew his stuff.  We wound all over the city, and the guide had arranged for us to see one of the private gardens of one of the houses on “the circus” (Nic Cage recently sold house no. 7 on the circus), so that was an added bonus.  The Roman Baths tour was extremely interesting.  It turns out that the baths were buried and only rediscovered in the 1700s; how something so extensive could be covered up by the expanding town and not found for so long is beyond me, but there you go.  Again, the bus was due to leave the city around 5:30, so we couldn’t see absolutely everything but still saw most.

We bought our train tickets to London Paddington at the Bath Station for 30 pounds each.  TRAVELLERS TIP: WHEN THERE IS A LARGE GROUP TRAVELLING, CHECK FOR GROUP DISCOUNTS!!!  Turns out we could have joined in with everyone else, and although the first person’s ticket would have been 30 pounds, all additional tickets sold for 15.  Oh well.

We arrived at Paddington Station around 8:00, and took the tube to Swiss Cottage, where Adam, Devin, Alex, Alan and Madonna had a hotel reservation.  After Adam and Alex got the keys to the room, we smuggled the other five of us in, and settled into the room for the night.  Madonna and I stayed in the room while the rest of the gang went out for some food.  We ended up having pizza, Chinese, and pasta, along with some convenience store snacks and soda.

The highlight of the night came at bed time, as Melissa and I needed to leave at 6:30am.  With 7 guests and only 2 twin beds, we needed to be creative.  Alan fell asleep on the floor, but we ended up pushing the two beds together, and the other six of us slept on these mattresses somehow!  Yes, you can try and picture it, but I was there and still don’t know how it worked out.  Devin, Adam, Madonna, Melissa, and me sleeping transversely (across the crack) and Alex was along the wall below everyone else’s feet (except me who shared a pillow with him).   Melissa and I only made it part of the night until, due to uncomfortable conditions and snoring, moved to the floor.  We had a horrible night’s sleep, but came away with a very funny story.

Saturday May 25, 2013

I was alone in the morning.  It was nice that Melissa’s uncle kept calling to make sure I was alive.  At least one person cared…

We needed to be ready and waiting for one of two shuttles to take us to Highclere castle, leaving either at 1pm or 1:15.  I got downstairs around 12:45 and waited around with the other ‘smarties’ that showed up early.  After boarding the 1pm shuttle, we were informed we were stopping at a church instead.  We pulled up to see a fleet of period-style cars to give us a truly memorable experience pulling into Highclere.  Except I had no date.  So I just rode with some random people.

Melissa and Malorie woke up at the Vineyard to find they had no running water.  They had to wait for a repair man to fix the water, shower, and needed to order breakfast to the room as they missed the breakfast downstairs.  They got to Highclere with the girls around 9:30 to get ready.

I got to Highclere as they were setting up tea and finger sandwiches, so I got my first food of the day.  We then played some lawn games and walked around the castle until the ceremony began, sometime around 3:00.  The first time I saw my bride was when she was walking down the stairs, immediately before Siraj saw his bride.  They were both beautiful.

After the ceremony was time enough for a tour of some of the rooms, and then into what I can only describe as a library (maybe a lounge) for dinner.  The food was excellent, as was everything the entire day.  We then went into the main hall which they had transformed from the ceremony to the dance floor, and danced the night away.  We got back to the Donnington hotel around 1am, and I collapsed into bed and fell asleep before Melissa had finished taking her hair pins out.

Friday May 24, 2013

Melissa and I woke up around 9:00.  I just sort of laid around in the bed while Melis worked on the computer and answered some emails.  We thought the breakfast provided by Donnington went until 10:00, but around 9:45 we realized that the note slipped under our door the night before said that it only went until 10:00.  We rushed down and arrived in the hotel restaurant in time to have a hurried breakfast. 

There was a taxi waiting to take me to the nearby golf course, and at 10:25 I went to the lobby where we were supposed to meet.  The other guys stayed up the night before extremely late, drinking at the hotel bar, and were also meeting there, albeit groggily.  We finally left the hotel at 10:45, and with a 5 minute cab ride, got to the golf course embarrassingly late for our tee time.  And we were the first guys there.  I don’t know exactly when wee teed off, but the staff had to put us off the back 9, which had less water, but more trees and hills than the front.  The three foursomes each ended up playing a sort of best-ball round, but we ended up quitting after 7, 7, and 5 holes respectively, due to the cold temperatures, rain, and lateness for the scheduled luncheon (I say this in my head in a very English manner, you know shhhejuled…)

The steak sandwich that I ordered in the course bar was excellent, the Guinness on tap sat a little flat on my palate (but still good) and we had a great time all getting to know the rest of us a bit better.  Melissa’s brothers and I took a taxi back to Donnington while the groomsmen went with Siraj to the wedding rehearsal at Highclere castle.

I began to feel a little weird, almost like I ate something bad and felt a bit sick to my stomach.  I laid around until Melis came into the room before the dinner.

Meanwhile…

Melissa met up with the other girls and went downstairs to the Donnington hotel spa.  Each of them got back, neck, and shoulder massages.  The girls staying at the Vineyard hotel went back, Melissa got ready for the rehearsal upstairs, and she then took a taxi with Melanie to the Vineyard.  A van took Melissa and the wedding party to Highclere for the rehearsal.

After the rehearsal, the van took everyone back to Donnington for the rehearsal dinner.

We both came down to the hotel restaurant again for the dinner, my rather reluctantly, and after some table shuffling ended up sitting next to Adam and Devin.  Melissa probably has more to say about the dinner other than “the food was good” but it’s not really her blog, its mine, so I’ll just say that the food is good.  I was continuing to feel sick more and more throughout dinner, and just as the servers brought out dessert, I reached the threshold of my tolerance.  I excused myself from the table, said a quick word to Malorie and Siraj, and headed to my room.  I only had one close-call in the hallway, but I got to the room and laid down on the couch.  For the next 5 hours.

Melissa came up, packed some stuff, and went with Malorie to the Vineyard for the night.  As the matron-of-honor I gave her my permission to abandon me for the night, and off she went.  I was alone with my sickness.

I eventually fell asleep around 1am, once my stomach finally left me alone for a while.  I felt sure that Melissa made a good decision to comfort the bride-to-be.  And there was nothing she could have done for me anyway, other than listen to me gripe and groan.  I just hope Malorie appreciated my sacrifice…