We had so much fun in our short time in Andover, it needed to be split into 2 blog posts. You can find the first here, where we share our trips to, Stonehenge, Stourhead and Highclere Castle or Downtown Abbey to most. Our time in Andover followed on from our time in Chelsea where we spent 4 nights touring London.

England Tour – Andover Part 2

Andover while not a tourist destination, is a picture perfect town which is very central to all of the locations we visited. This week I am sharing our trips to Bath, Brighton, Hinton Ampner and Winchester.

After our visit to Stourhead, we were keen to head to some more stately homes, with their stunning gardens, Hinton Ampner didn’t fail to impress. This was our favourite of all the homes we visited, run by the National Trust. It was a warm and friendly home, the kind I could imagine living in. It felt like home as you walked in the door.

The gardens were equally impressive, with a huge kitchen garden along side the manicured gardens. I spent a good 15 minutes chasing the bumble bees around, they are so cute!

While all the National Trust homes are open for children as well, Hinton Ampner was the most child friendly of all.

Brighton was next on our visiting list, and I must say I just didn’t get it. We are very spoilt for beaches here in Australia, but it wasn’t the pebble beaches I didn’t like. I found it to be a very dirty place and extreme touristy which really isn’t my thing.

The coastline further along the road, was spectacular though, I think we all would have preferred to explore there instead.

Winchester was a lovely spot for a quick visit. We had lunch in a pub, where our view was this stream, so incredibly European. The buildings in this town were so different from those around them. It was a beautiful day and strolling the streets was a delightful way to spend the afternoon.

Lastly we visited Bath. This was an important visit for us, as it had been my Step Mothers favourite place in the UK. Though she has passed now, we continue to strive to see her favourite places as she was well traveled and wished us all to follow her lead.

While I enjoyed the architecture of the entire town of Bath, it was the Roman Baths that took our breath away. Roman baths in the middle of England, it is just an amazing piece of history to explore.

This was the last of the places we saw while staying in Andover. Like I said, it was really central for all we wanted to see. I’d like to send out a big thank you, to Racquel’s host family for allowing us to stay in their home. Our trip was all the better for their hospitality and while at this point we had not yet met, we all knew we would be firm friends.

Are you a fan of Roman architecture? Can you imagine hot baths in the middle of England?

Nicole xxx