Trip to Windsor Castle

13 March 2010

A typical Saturday morning with a loaded breakfast of cheese and olives.

Then I hit the road for a historic location, Windsor Castle.

As it has been a while since I haven't seen a similar structure, the last one being Rumeli Hisari, I was quite excited, especially a chain of train trips were awaiting me. That said, I have to emphasize that I take great pleasure from train travel. The trip was simple: Guildford -> Weybridge -> Staines -> Windsor.

The castle is built on a fairly tall hill, but not noticeably tall as the surrounding area is already a "hills region". Anyways, a lovely town surrounds the castle with lots of pubs, restaurants, cafes and the like... I got a nice portion of fish'n chips and headed to the castle standing right at the other side of the main street. The place is also the home of the British Queen, that's why there was a security check. After getting my ticket, I also got an audio assistance kit, to guide me through the old walls.

First, you see the high keep with a flag on top, designating the Queen's presence. You can observe the narrow holes inside the castle outer walls, high enough to make long range shots and a large base where the marksmen can comfortably shoot their enemies :))

A narrow road climbs all the way up to the castle grounds where you see a small village. This place is where the staff lives. Right beside it is a medium sized cathedral. Inside the cathedral, there are statues of old kings. The keep is in the middle of the castle grounds and has a roundish shape. To the left, there is an archway leading to the inner area surrounded by the castle palace. That area is restricted and I could only get some photos from the outside. There were huge trees, probably very old ones, apart from the rectangular grass area, and the guards standing motionless in their gray coats. There is also a museum inside, and possibly the most interesting place in Windsor for me: The Royal riches and some belongings are presented. This place was called castle apartments, an odd name for a building full of precious things. There was even a miniature palace with so little and highly detailed models, specially made for a royal family member. There were also some paintings, mostly from the early English history , Henry VIII and so on. Just outside, guards in uniforms were marching either or demonstration, or for formality, or because they were cold and they had to move to warm up, I don't know why, but it was interesting to see their mechanical movement. A couple of old naval weapons were in the courtyard right beside the castle's inner walls. Of those, I saw even Chinese ones.

Nice place to see, couple of hours of travel. That was the summary of this Saturday. Again, I got loads of photos... And back to Guildford.