After my experience almost missing my walking tour the other day I was a bit paranoid a bit catching this one, especially since it departed at 8:30 in the morning and I was also checking out of my hostel, so there would be some overhead. To make things worse, apparently Sunday night is when the all older gentlemen of the neighborhood come to the hostel pub and get rowdy. It was an interesting evening as this room full of 60 year old+ men drank, sang (constantly and loudly), swore and danced while all us 20-somethings retreated away to the sleeping rooms early to chat quietly and get away from them. Ultimately I got up around 4:30am and used my computer for a bit (this is where I left my charger *sigh*) before checking out and heading to Victoria Station to catch my bus. The group was a pretty mixed-bag. Most people were in couples and families, and I am pretty sure I was the youngest of the non-families, but not by so much that I felt terribly out of place.
Once we got to Windsor we worked our way up the hill and after waiting in the queue for a bit got let into the walls. Because of the nature of bus tours we had designated times we had to meet back at, so there was unfortunately not much time to wander and explore, but that's the nature of bus tours. From the walls you have a nice view of the city down below, as well as the nearby Eton College, which is probably considered the most prestigious public school in the world.
The outside of the castle and the few gardens that were visible were pretty nice. Since it's the Queen's active home there is obviously a lot of security around and most of the grounds are off-limits.
The really interesting part of the castle is the state apartments, but unfortunately there's no photography allowed inside them. They are by a good margin the most lavishly decorated rooms I've seen. Highlights for me were Queen Mary's Doll's House and some of the rooms with elaborate weapons and armor displays. The Doll's House is impressive for the detail it contains. All objects in it are actual functioning miniature copies of real things. The silverware is real silver, the paintings are done in actual paint, the book's are bound with real paper and have actual stories written in them and the little miniature wine bottles contain real wine. There is even a set of crown jewels that are made as miniature copies of the real ones, using the same materials just to 1:12 scale.
Also on the grounds was St. George's Chapel, which again you couldn't take pictures in. It is filled with intricate hand-carved wood and stonework, and there is quite a lot of history in it. Since it is chapel to the Order of the Garter there were a fair number of displays relating to the order as well, and you could go into their main chamber and see all their heraldry.
We also happened to be there at the right time for the changing of the guards, which only happens every other day. Personally I don't happen to find it terribly exciting, and there were a lot of crowds around, so I just caught a few random bits as I wandered by.
After that is was back onto the bus to continue on to Bath.
2 comments:
The doll house sounds cool although lavish to excess. Were you able to interact with any of the tiny things?
Definitely not. Everything was behind glass, but considering the value of things involved I can understand it not being very hands on.
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