Windsor Castle

Kelly, Liam and Jonathan, along with Kate took a day trip out to Windsor Castle. The castle is in the town of Windsor, not too far west of London. Windsor is set on the southern side of the River Thames, and across on the north of the river is Eton - the one with that famous college.

The castle is the largest and oldest occupied fortress in the world. As you walk through the town up to the castle it is not hard to appreciate that. The grounds and buildings would have been an ominous site as they were approached from below. These days the castle is the Queen's main residence and it is her most favoured.

We each got an audio guide and did the tour through Queen Mary's doll's house and the State Apartments. The apartments are the public third of the castle, and they have halls, bedrooms and functions rooms such as St George's Hall. Most of these rooms are still in use. The rest of the castle is the Queen's private residence. We didn't get to see St George's Chapel as it is shut on a Sunday.

One of the rooms in the State Apartments was the Queen's private chapel which was destroyed by the 1992 fires. We managed to get through the tour of the state apartments, but just as we were leaving the fire alarms went off. The apartments were evacuated and fire engines could be heard climbing up through the town and into the grounds. We were quickly ushered out of the grounds and back down into the town.

Jonathan, Kelly and I went down to the River Thames to have a look around. The area of the river around Windsor is teeming with birdlife. Mostly there are swans and pelicans, fed by the amply supply of tourist's bread and food pellets. We took a river boat tour up the Thames, which gave a different view of the castle and showed just how prominent and dominating it is over the area.


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Windsor Castle

Jul 2, 2006 - 13 Photos