Windsor Castle

Monday, 23 June 2008

Windsor Castle

Today we checked out of RAF Fairford and drove the hour east towards Windsor Castle. I’ve always had fond memories of visiting this castle years ago when I lived here in England. Other than THE Tower of London, Windsor is my favorite. The Queen also fancies Windsor as well. She frequents it on the weekends and calls it “home”. We started the day out eating lunch outside the castle walls because, for some reason, we weren’t invited to eat inside. We weren’t on “The List”. Also, I didn’t have enough females with me and I guess we didn’t have “The Look”. The Queen has 60 place settings at her table. You’d think she could spare a couple places for us? Oh well. After that nasty business, we had to pay to get in. I guess now we’re good enough.

At Windsor they had the same telephone looking tour guides there you punched in a code and they’ll tell you about the area you’re walking through. These are the best invention since sliced bread. We didn’t waste any time going straight to Queen Mary’s Dollhouse. Malinda remembers reading about it in National Geographic back when she was 7 and has been wanting to see it ever since. For some reason, I never got to see it when I went to Windsor, so I was also interested. Everything in it actually works, electricity, plumbing, vacuum, etc. It turned out to be really cool, but it doesn’t leave much room for the imagination for a girl who likes to play with dollhouses. After that we toured the Royal Apartments. The area we saw would be the area that you would be allowed to enter, IF you were invited to a State Dinner. The main vestibule was chock full of guns, swords, and amour, along with all the gifts that the British monarch at the time received or stole from other countries, including a solid gold tigers head with solid crystal eyes and teeth. The tour continued into a huge dining room, then another huge hall that has all the crests of every night ever knighted, then a couple bedrooms, drawing rooms, closets, dressing rooms, and libraries. After all that, we then went down to St. George’s Chapel, which is still a very active church. Several important people are buried there. I would list them, but that would be silly. The Queen’s father is buried there, among many other Britain rulers. In the choir, all the names and crests of all the knights are again displayed. It is something that you would have to see in person to really get the whole picture.

After Windsor we headed off to meet up with John and Judy. They are dear long time friends of Malinda’s parents. They were gracious enough to let us stay in their apartment, or flat. We were greeted with big smiles and some comfortable chairs. We had such a good time talking to them and getting the real inside scoop on Great Britain. After several hours of chatting, we went to bed for what turned out to be our best night of sleep in 10 days. We both finally were comfortable enough to dream. So that’s what happened today.