Spring Break in London (Part III)

We almost talked ourselves out of visiting Windsor Castle, thinking it was a little out of the way, as it's not located in London. What a mistake that would have been, as it turned out to be quite easy and relatively inexpensive to get there by train, and we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. In fact, I would venture to say that Windsor Castle was the highlight of our vacation, at least for my husband and me.

We'd just gotten off the train here and took a quick photo of the castle walls, which can be seen rising above the other buildings.


The train pulled up to this wonderful area full of shops and eateries. We stopped for cups of hot cocoa and coffee before heading to the castle.


We left the shopping area and began to walk outside toward the castle.


Wow! The castle walls were literally right there! It was amazing to think that we were about to visit the grounds of the place built by William the Conqueror over 1000 years ago.


The town of Windsor is quaint and quite appealing.


We were told Windsor Castle is the largest inhabited castle in the world, and also the oldest in continuous occupation. It's one of the principal official residences of the British Monarch.


This aerial view of Windsor Castle shows the awesome size. I've read that the castle's floor space measures 484,000 sq ft. Hmmm... I suppose I could fit my belongings in a castle that size, how about you?


The boys finish up their hot cocoa while waiting for Dad to come back with our tickets to tour the castle grounds.


This is one of the entrances to the castle grounds.


These crowns sit atop every lamp post surrounding the castle.


We arrived just in time to watch these gentlemen march by, looking all royal and official.


We decided to spring for the audio portion of the self-guided tour, and the boys, particularly M, thought it was very cool.


The boys were anxious for the tour to get underway.


The tour started and we headed toward the entrance (not the same one I mentioned earlier).


This is the Round Tower, which divides the castle into two distinct sections, the lower ward (home to St.George's Chapel), and the upper ward, where the Royal Apartments and more formal state rooms are located.


As I've mentioned in previous posts, it seems odd to see history mixing with the modern world. Here we were visiting this very old castle and yet there were cars parked within the walls. These are cars of the folks who work inside the castle.


We went inside the castle right about here and toured an art exhibit and several rooms, as well as Queen Mary's doll house, which is amazing. Photos were not permitted inside the castle.


These are the grounds outside the castle walls.


This is the upper ward where visitors are not allowed.


If you look closely, you can see an armed guard standing post near a doorway. We were told Her Royal Highness, The Queen was on the premises that day, so perhaps this guard was on duty as a result of her being there. It sounds like a plausible explanation, so I'm going with it.


Here's another one of those things that struck me as somehow odd. We were looking at the upper ward and taking photos of this beautiful historical structure, and at the same time, an airplane was flying in the distance. I couldn't help but wonder what former royal monarchs would have thought about airplanes.


I don't really know what part of the castle this is; I just thought it was a cool view.


I liked this view as it shows just how high the castle walls are.


The flag flying atop Round Tower is the royal flag, which is supposed to indicate the Queen is on the premises. We were told the British flag flies on days when the Queen is elsewhere. That somehow seems like a breach of safety, don't you think?


This is St. George's Chapel, where King Henry VIII and Jane Seymour, the king's favorite of his six wives, are entombed.


Of course this was a must-have photo while in England, right?

At the end of our tour we visited the gift shop and bought a couple of postcards and Christmas ornaments, something we like to do when we visit a new place. We walked around the little town of Windsor, had some fish & chips and then made our way back to the train station. What an awesome day!