MT: BusOrama to Avebury & Bath Christmas Markets |
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Date: Nov 2010
Destination: Avebury & Bath, England
What do you get if you mix together 80 awesome people, a pub quiz, a luxury double decker coach, some Christmas markets & a day trip to Bath. No idea either...? Well we've got an idea now that the Magical Tours: BusOrama to Avebury & Bath Chirstmas Markets is over. And what an awesome tour it was. I seriously don't know how we do it. But Magical Tours just seems to be more & more awesome.
Meeting at Shephards Bush in London on the cold wintery Saturday morning, we all piled in the luxury double decker & head for Avebury. Now... too many people have asked me what Avebury is. I find it strange how popular Stonehenge is and how unknown Avebury is. Avebury is basically the same as Stonehenge but older & big enough to surround a small village including a great little country pub right in the middle. The stones are bigger, and more spread out. It's free & there is never a crowd. If you ever head to Stonehenge, Avebury is worth a visit & only 20 miles down the road.
Along the journey to Avebury we tried something new, something we've never tried before but I have to say, I will consider this again for every BusOrama tour going forward. We had a pub quiz (without the pub), I guess we could rename it a coach quiz. All 80 tour delegates split themselves into groups of 4 and had to answer 10 multi choice questions & then get a bit creative with the 2 bonus activities. The winning team getting free drinks, free meals & free desert at the pub that evening.
With the questions all about Avebury & Bath and the activites requiring each team recording there own team video, the coach was a noisy riot all the way to Avebury. It was all way more fun than we had ever hoped. Look out for a coach quiz version 2.0 on the next coach tour.
After a wander around Avebury is the super cold winter air & the odd bit of snow, we jumped back on the coach to announce the winners of the quiz and make our way to Bath. I have never experienced Bath so cold, could not understand how it could be so much colder than Avebury. But as cold as it was the snowy hills surrounding Bath looked amazing.
Most of the tour delegates head straight for the Romain Baths right in the middle of the city, but had to fight there way through the very crowded Bath Christmas Markets. Having never been to the Bath Christmas Markets myself I could see why they are so popular. Bath is a beautiful city & mix in amazing little Christmas stalls all over the city makes a great combination. No wonder people return to the markets year after year & a lot from outside the UK.
The rest of the day was spent between the Roman Baths, the Christmas markets, the carol services in Bath Abbey, the small cafes, the pubs & anything else that provided any kind of warmth. All meeting at the pub for a some quality pub grub before climbing aboard the coach again for the journey back to London.
Looking back on this tour, I have to thank all the awesome people that helped pull of another awesome day. And look out for another Bath Christmas Markets tour again next year.
Adrian Carter |
