The bus with tourists spilled here and there, started the day tour to Windsor Castle and Stonehenge from a designated hotel. Amongst others, we noticed a lady from Chinese descent was busy chatting away on the cell phone.
The drive through the busy lanes of London leading to the highway towards the Windsor castle went uneventful, while the guide was sharing the tidbits of architecture and infrastructure of the city.
When we reached the quaint little Georgian and Victorian town of Windsor, the guide walked us through the entrance and told us in his heavy Briton accent to meet him back at the bus, down the hill at 12. 50pm. I was delighted that we can explore the chapel and the whole castle by ourselves. After checking the hall of Garter, Tipu Sultan’s robe, sword, the beautiful Chapel and the guards with their black fur hats…we could hear our stomachs grumble. Just outside the castle we discovered a beautiful stretch of pubs, Italian and Chinese restaurants. We settled on Chinese, to not much of our surprise we found the girl from the bus busy at another table. She proceeded towards us to confirm what time we had to be back at the bus. Vamsi, loyally, replied at 12.50pm.
As the time was nearing, Vamsi and I started the walk down the hill by the cobbled lanes, old buildings and the old steam train towards the parked buses. We sighted few buses leaving….but as we came closer, to my horror, I realized the bus we were supposed to be on, wasn’t there, hmm….did it leave ! They couldn’t have, they cant, can they !
Vamsi, who was momentarily saner of us two, went to another parked bus driver to ask what happened. The bus driver who was busy smoking, looked at him without a hint of recognition. He told us the red bus from Victoria Station has just left. He was actually upset and sympathizing with the driver who had to delay his schedule waiting for us! hello ! we are the ones who are stuck !
We didn’t have a cell phone on us nor did we have a no to call, there was nothing we could do to make it better. While I was panicking, Vamsi found a lighthearted moment. He spotted the Chinese girl leisurely walking towards the buses and us. He couldn’t stop laughing and I couldn’t help getting angry and be mildly amused by this unfolding drama, what can I say, misery found company! If it weren’t for us, she would have come back to catch the bus sooner, huh !
As it evolved, all three of us were generously offered a lift back to town in the bus full of Italians, an upset driver and a charming tour operator. The rest of the day was full of unexpected trips to Madame Toussard’s, a cruise on river Thames, and of course window shopping at Harrods’s.
The cream of the cake was the following day, when the original bus company offered a day tour to Stonehenge and the Roman Bath and said that the day before we were expected at 12.15pm not 12.50 pm. Yup…
- this was in drafts for over 7 years...omg - wrote this and never published on jul 27th 2006. A year before T was born.
