January 21, 2004

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  We interrupt this travelogue of England for cute-baby-panda-pictures (tm) from our trip to the zoo this last weekend.

  
  

  

  
  

  

  
  

  Ahhh!! How cute!! See, I told you he was rolly polly. And now we return you to the tour of England...

  
  

  Windsor Castle! An official residence for Her Majesty the Queen Elizabeth II and the largest occupied castle in the world! (Yeah, I stole that from their website, they said it better than I could). We drove out to Windsor, arriving around noon time and had lunch at a little place called The Royal Oak. Apparently this is a very popular name for pubs, inns and places to eat, as legend has it that a past king (Richard perhaps?) hid in an oak tree during an attack or revolt of some time in history past. Now everyone wants to claim they have that very royal oak on their property. Right! The good thing about The Royal Oak was they served chicken nuggets, so Megan would eat. The bad thing: my salad, once again, came without salad dressing and without an offering of such a condiment. Ick!

  
  

  After lunch we walked up to the castle along a curving road that seemed to be trying to stuff as many American food chains as possible into one space. Double Ick! We saw McDonalds, Starbucks, Pizza Hut, Haggan Das, Ben and Jerry's and a few others I don't even recall. In between were mega tacky souvenir shops. This stretch was my least favorite point of the trip. But right beyond this was the entrance to the Royal train station where the Queen disembarks from her private train when traveling to this residence. There is another train station about two blocks away, but that is for the common people. The building in this area where very attractive and Victorian in decor.

  
  

  Unfortunately, you are not allowed to take photos inside any of the rooms in Windsor, but trust me, it was beautiful and breathtaking. Even from the outside, you can get a feel for much of the grandeur.

  
  

  

  
  

  The first part we visited inside was the dollhouse that belonged to Queen Mary when she was a child. It was designed in 1924 and just is amazing. Each and every item in it is of the finest quality and detail. Everything works, down the plumbing, electrical, even the elevator and vacuum cleaner! The bottles of wine in the wine cellar have actual vintage wines in them! Well go to the link above, anything I say can't do justice to this beautiful dollhouse. From there we went on to tour the Semi State rooms, filled with amazing art, antiques and things befitting royalty. You may or may not recall there was a fire at Windsor some years back that destroyed a whole wing of the castle. We toured that area and the restoration was so amazing that you can not tell where the restoration began and ended.

  
  

  

  
  

  This is the oldest building of the castle, up high on a mound, such as the mound we saw at Warwick. It was very interesting to look at the stone work from the various eras and see how it changed and evolved over time. The hill this tower stands on has been landscaped with beautiful Victorian gardens and waterfalls. Apparently this is a favorite place for the Queen's dogs to play, when they are visiting.

  
  

  

  
  

  After several hours admiring the treasures in the State Apartments, we went over to St. George's chapel. Another place that cameras were not allowed in and another place "full of dead people" as Becca put it. Ten monarchs have been buried in this chapel, including the late Queen Mum. I liked this chapel more than Westminster Abbey because it felt more church-like and less like a tourist attraction.

  
  

  

  
  

  By this time it was dark and the kids were tired. We did see a guard standing perfectly still, as England is famous for. Apparently Megan thought it was a statue, because another guard walked over to speak to him and the first guard suddenly moved and marched off and Megan yelled, terrified, "HE MOVED!"

  
  

  Next blog, our second visit to London. (Well Gene's first, the second for the girls and me.)

  • 4:26 pm
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