Day 3 - Windsor

I thought I would re-post our day at Windsor since it is Harry and Meghan's wedding day.

I have added additional photos today.



May 2010 - Windsor England

Click here for more of our day.

The bus parks below the Castle and there are stairs (again) up to street level where the train station is.

It is a pretty town and well worth visiting again to have time to wander around. As always it is so easy to get around England using the trains. Steve spent some time giving us amusing instructions on how to find our way back to the bus.

I was surprised that there is a town right below the Castle. If the Queen ran out of stockings she could run right down and get them in Droopy's and Brown's. If she needed room spray from Crabtree and Evelyn (my favourite). She could grab a cup of tea with the other ladies at Cinnamon Cafe, however my choice would be Costa's.

A website has this photo of the Castle from the air.

No pictures can be taken inside. I saw several people get caught and the guards will make you delete every one of them as they watch.

From the official Castle website:
Windsor is the oldest and largest occupied castle in the world and the Official Residence of Her Majesty The Queen. Its rich history spans almost 1000 years. The Castle covers an area of about 5 hectares (13 acres) and contains magnificent State Apartments furnished with treasures from the Royal Collection, St George's Chapel (one of the most beautiful ecclesiastical buildings in England and the burial place of 10 monarchs), and Queen Mary's Dolls House, a masterpiece in miniature.

Some random shots...

The servants on their day off

The Doll's House was interesting, but very crowded. I found a picture of it online.

Steve was full of interesting facts about the Castle and Queen. The Queen was in residence while we were there, however would be leaving later that afternoon to go to Buckingham Palace (which she dislikes intensely and calls it the Office) for the Opening of Parliament the next day. According to Steve she can be seen heading down the motorway driving her own beat up Land Rover.
Her private rooms are in this building on the Castle grounds.

From the grounds you can see Eton College. Ascot is also very close by and the annual races would be taking place in mid June.



Prince Albert Victor, Duke of Clarence and Avondale is buried in St. George's Chapel. He was the grandson of Queen Victoria (who will be the subject of another post). There has always been speculation that he was Jack the Ripper. The chapel is absolutely magnificent and I truely wish we were allowed to take pictures inside. I was delighted to find this website that has virtual tours of the chapel and castle.

And I guess even the Queen sometimes needs to go in a hurry!

The Changing of the Guard took place while we were there. We didn't intend on seeing it as we had a limited amount of time to visit the Castle, but as we were leaving it was on and you couldn't leave the grounds until they had finished.

British Isles Friday - Windsor

Joy's Book Blog is hosting this weekly meme.

May 2010 - Windsor England

I am enjoying looking back at our photos of our Rose and Thistle Tour in 2010 with friends.

Click here for details of our trip to Windsor Castle.

School trip

Day 3 continued - Windsor Stonehenge Bath Randomness

May 2010 - England

We were picked up at our hotel to be taken to Victoria Station to join our tour bus. Traffic was horrendous as they were having a rehearsal for the Opening of Parliament the next day.

Once aboard our bus for Windsor, Stonehenge and Bath we met our guide, Steve.He was the most interesting, entertaining guide I have ever met. Here is a link to his website.

He kept up the pace from 9 am until 7 pm when we were dropped off. Never stopped!!

I am going to break this post down into the individual places we visited on this day.

Click the links below for the rest of our day 3 tours.
Windsor

Stonehenge

Bath

Some randomness we learned today.

White Horses - I had seen the movie Robin Hood just before our trip. In there someone says to Robin "meet you at the White Horse", and to me that meant a pub. No, not so, it was a hill figure.

The Westbury or Bratton White Horse is a hill figure on the escarpment of Salisbury Plain, approximately 2.5 km (1.6 mi) east of Westbury in England. Located on the edge of Bratton Downs and lying just below an Iron Age hill fort, it is the oldest of several white horses carved in Wiltshire. It was restored in 1778, an action which may have obliterated a previous horse which had occupied the same slope.

A new word for the day -Leucippotomy is the art of carving white horses in chalk upland areas, particularly as practiced in southern England. The practice is apparently of prehistoric origin; the Uffington White Horse has been dated to between 1400 and 600 BC.

This picture is courtesy of our guide Steve who has kindly allowed us to download any photos we'd like.
We saw the horse from the bus but the pictures we took didn't do it justice.

Steve told us about a town called Imber that is unoccupied but is used for military practice. In 1943 the village of Imber was evacuated to allow training for Operation Overlord to be conducted. The village has remained closed ever since.



 The area around Salisbury has several military bases. The army first conducted exercises on the plain in 1898. From that time, the Ministry of Defence bought up large areas of land until World War II. The MoD now own 150 square miles (390 km2) of land, making it the largest military training area in the United Kingdom. Of this, around 39 square miles (100 km2) are permanently closed to the public, and access is greatly restricted in other areas. As military use of the plain increased, new camps and barracks were constructed, including those at Larkhill, Bulford, Tidworth and Warminster. Several installations have been built and since removed, including a railway line and aerodrome that were constructed next to Stonehenge.

More trivial information gleaned from Steve.

Sainsbury has a Singles night where you could meet your future partner near the canned beans.

Pocahontas is buried at Gravesend outside London.

Back to London and time for dinner.

Happened upon The Green Door at 33 Cornhill and decided it matched everyone's tastes. It is quite upscale but casual. We were in this area as Steve decided it was the best place for us to grab the subway back to our hotel, little did we know actually how far we were from the hotel.

John started with the brie which we all shared along with some pate.

Then a steak for John.

I had to have the pork belly when I saw it on the menu. The waiter went to great lengths to explain it to me what it was and I explained that I ate pigs feet so I knew what I would be getting.

Karen and Blair opted for the steak and ale pie which had this crowning glory.