Oct 27 - Windsor Castle

 Hi.

Before I start, a bit more to add to yesterday:  I heard on the BBC that the "living wage" in London is 14.80 GBP.   Comparitively, I think the (barely) living wage in BC is $15 / hour.  So, you might conclude that prices in London should be about double ours, ie. what we buy for a dollar costs a pound over here.  In a lot of my shopping, that seems to be not a bad comparison.  

That comparison starts to break down when I saw an ad on the way to Windsor (out of 'town') advertising 1,2 or 3 bedroom apartments starting at 415,000 GBP.

Anyway, on to today's trip to Windsor Castle:

Using Google Maps Trip Planner, I chose a two transfer trip to Windsor, starting at the Euston Tube Station.  Ooops - didn't read the fine print in the instructions.  The Starting Point was Euston SQUARE, not Euston.   I wandered around Euston for a few minutes before I asked and found out that Euston Square was down the street.  No problem - I lost 5 minutes.

So, here is my trip:
-Walk to Euston Square
-Hop on the Cenral Tube Line for Paddington Station
-At Paddington, walk from the Tube to the above ground railway
-Purchase a Great Western Railway (GWR) ticket to Windsor
-Get on the GWR train to Slough (ryhymes with plough)
-At Slough, change platforms and get the train to Windsor

Easy once you know how.  Here's a picture of the Paddington Station Ticket Hall.  There are 14 platforms (tracks)

An hour and a bit later, the first view of Windsor Castle (sorry about my finger)

Up the hill and through the airline style security.  My knee will always trip the magnetometer

The Round Tower from just outside the gate

Just before we go through the wall:

Here's the layout of the castle, courtesy of the guide book 

I added some large print titles.  "RT" refers to the round Tower and "W" is where visitors walk through the castle wall.

Another view of the Round Tower, with the garden in front

And the Edward III towers to the right 

I head for St. George's Chapel

Inside, here is the Nave

And I'm afraid that's where the pictures end.  No photography allowed (in fact, I might have gone by the first sign).

Here are a few photographs from the guidebook.

The Quire.  The woodwork in here was phenomenal

Queen Elizabeth's coffin at the Commital Service

There are 11 monarchs buried at St. George's.  The exact total of prople buried is unknown.

Instead of me trying to take pictures of the Guide Book, here's a website that does a much better job  St. George's Chapel

The website has a 360 degree tour feature, which you can select.  It requires the Adobe Flash Plugin for that.  I got it working (maybe not perfectly).  I'm not sure of the details, so you may have to fumble about (I did)

After St. George's I headed for the State apartments.  Same rule - no photos.

Three from the guide Book

The King's Drawing Room

The Waterloo Chamber

The Crimson Drawing Room

Here's a link to virtual tours of some rooms.  State Apartments Virtual Tour

It keeps crashing on me with a 'Rate Limited' error message.  I don't know if that's me, my computer, or the WiFi where I'm staying.  If it works for you, tell me.

Another link, with some virtual tours  Highlights of windsor Castle

What the heck - you guys can search for good websites as well or better than I can.  If you find some good ones, tell me and I'll update the blog.

That's it for the State Apartments, and Queen Mary's Dolls House.

Consolation Prize - you get to see what I had for lunch

8 GBP is a little steep, but it's typical for this trip.  The smoked salmon over here is pretty good.  I've had it a few times.  It has  strong taste - like Portugese Joe's in Courtenay (unfortunately, he's no longer in business).

After lunch - continuing with the tour.  This is the Quadrangle, also referred to as 'The Upper Ward.'  In olden days it used to host jousting tournaments.  A special event this year:  Quadrangle Events

Last photo, as I'm leaving the Castle

Heading to downtown Windsor, the local statue of Queen Victoria

I walked down to the Thames

Feeding the geese and swans.  

The little fellow was having a great time

Time to head back to the railroad station.  I am right there.  

Ooops!  Something doesn't look right.  This isn't the station I came in.  Checking at the ticket counter - this (little) town has two railroad stations!  I'm at Windsor & Eton Riverside; my ticket is for Windsor & Eton Central.  So, I pop up there and am back to Paddington on the next train.

The day is over.  Tomorrow is laundry Tuesday (I thought I just did laundry last week!).  I'll figure out what to do after that.

Greg 

PS Oct 28, morning:  My laundry is in, so I'm playing around with video links to 3 videos I made while at Windsor.

Give the links a try and tell me how you do.  I think you might need a Google account to access them.  Laura, try from your Laptop and see if they come through.

 

1. Windsor video link test

Windsor Video

2. Quadrangle video link test (from subfolder)

Quadrangle

3. St. George's Chapel video link test

St. George's

4. MyDrive photo link test

Russell Photo