Windsor Castle

Today I traveled about 25 miles outside of London to the Royal Borough of Windsor! Eric and I boarded a National Rail train (basically the commuter rail) at 9:00 this morning that took us to Windsor in just 50 minutes. We had pretty good luck with the weather; although it was freezing cold, it was sunny all day, which is such a rarity here! 

Approaching Windsor Castle!

We left the train station and approached Windsor Castle almost immediately, and I was struck by how truly massive it is. Thinking ahead, Eric and I bought our tickets ahead of time and were able to go right through security. We started our walk through the castle with St. George's Chapel, which is home to numerous royal tombs, including Henry VIII. Exiting the Chapel, we were just in time for the Changing of the Guard.

The Old Guard

The Marching Band. Fun fact: as they exited, they played a mashup
of ADELE songs, I kid you not! 

Just thought this was a cool shot...

We then visited Queen Mary's Doll House, an exhibit displaying a doll house built for Queen Mary in the early 1920s. This thing was incredible; everything was built exactly to scale (even the silver plates on the dining room table), and it had fully functioning electricity and plumbing. After this, we entered the Queen's Gallery, which had a beautiful collection of photographs and paintings of the current queen of England, Queen Elizabeth II. Finally, we entered the main attraction, the State Apartments. 

Before going through the State Apartments in detail, we had to quickly pass through to catch our 12:15 tour of the Great Kitchen. Our tour guide, Robert, was both informative and funny, and it was a great time. We saw the undercroft of the castle, which is used for many different purposes throughout the year. We then walked to the Great Kitchen, which was really cool. It was enormous, and had both modern and historical ovens, stoves, sinks, etc. Robert told numerous stories and anecdotes; my personal favorite was that the huge clock in the room is always 5 minutes fast, just to make absolute sure that Her Majesty is served her meals on time! It reminded me of my dad, who has always set the clock in his car 5-7 minutes fast, just in case!

After our kitchen tour, we returned to the State Apartments. At Windsor Castle everyone is provided with a free audio guide, which is actually really helpful. I learned a lot more than I expected to! We walked through the different rooms, such as the King's Bedroom, the King's Dressing Room, the Queen's Drawing Room, the King's Dining Room, and so on and so forth. Each of the rooms were extraordinarily decorated, a bit over the top if you ask me, but I guess that's royalty. I wish we could have taken pictures, but unfortunately, this was not allowed. If you just Google "State Apartments Windsor Castle," you'll see some of what I saw today!

After exiting the State Apartments, Eric and I walked through the three gift shops and took some final pictures before we moved on to the town of Windsor:

First entering the castle earlier in the morning

Making my way through the castle!

In front of the Round Tower

Walking to the State Apartments from the outside

Engine Court

The Round Tower in all its glory!

Obligatory

After walking around town for a bit, we stopped for lunch at a restaurant called The Three Tuns. It was not the best meal I ever had, but it filled me up after a long few hours of walking. We wandered around town some more, stopping in shops along the way. I was really surprised by the number of different chains (both stores and restaurants) I saw, but I guess that is just the norm these days, unfortunately. 

A Dream

Oh yeah, that's my dopple-ganger, Kate Middleton

After stopping for some coffee and a snack (no dinner due to our late lunch), Eric and I caught a 7:00 train back to London. I'm completely exhausted from the past two days, but this really was a great weekend! It was wonderful to explore some new areas of England and see two really beautiful places. Tomorrow is the SUPERBOWL, and I am planning on watching it at a restaurant in Leicester Square. I'm not really rooting for anyone, so that makes camping out to get a table and staying out until the early hours of the morning less appealing, but I'm sure it will be an interesting experience! Yay football!