Grandma and Grandpa B came for a visit in March, and at the end of their stay we all piled into the minivan (people carrier) and drove down to London. We actually found a hotel on the outskirts, near Heathrow, and took the tube in for a couple of days. It let us do a lot of London sightseeing in a short amount of time! But first we drove to Windsor and spent the day there visiting the castle and the local area. Here is the gang before going into the castle.
It was still a little chilly and rainy out, but we survived. We had good company that day... the Queen was home! The flag flying is the royal flag. It flies wherever the queen is. Apparently when she's in London, she stays at Buckingham Palace during the week, but likes to get away from the hustle and bustle and go out to Windsor for the weekend.
And who could blame her! She did not, however, seem to want to let us in... again, who could blame her? The area behind these gates are her personal apartments... we obviously didn't get to see those!
We did however, get to tour the grounds, and then the very formal state apartments. Very formal... like I probably shouldn't have my three year old in here please don't touch anything on this very long tour of rooms filled with very expensive, very breakable things. Thank goodness for the audio guides. The boys are still fascinated by them!
About halfway through the tour, e announces he needs to go potty. Great. "Um, excuse me Your Highness... I don't suppose we could use the loo?" Luckily Grandpa was on hand to hurry e through the rest of the tour and headed straight to the restrooms so the rest of us could continue the tour. Impressive doesn't even begin to describe it. My favorite parts were seeing the extensive China collection (you know how I love dishes), dining room, and the new St. George's Hall with a display of King Henry VIII's armor... let's just say it was obvious by looking at the side of the suit of armor that the man ate well!
In November 1992 there was a huge fire at the castle which caused wide spread damage to the state apartments, and may artifacts were lost. Obviously the cost to repair such major damage to such an ornate building would be high. To help pay for these costly repairs, the royal family opened the inside of Buckingham Palace to tourists for the first time. (We took advantage of this when we toured Buckingham two years ago.) I visited Windsor in the Spring of 1993, and we did not go into the castle, I'm sure now that was because the restoration was taking place and the castle was not open to the public yet! Here are the outside of the restored state apartments that we toured.
Yep, it was only a matter of time before we would need to break out the umbrellas.
The moat.
St. Georges's Chapel.
The Royal Gaurds. This was all the closer N was willing to get. I was surprised they would let me take a picture at all!
At the end of the day, the rain clouds finally started to break and I got a good photo opp! You have no idea how long I stood there waiting for all the people to move and the sun to be just in the right spot to get this shot...
The only problem with Windsor for me was that there is nowhere to sit down inside the castle grounds... no public cafe... which is an issue if you have a hungry baby to feed. Plenty of options right outside the castle walls, but to leave and come back in is a huge pain, you have to get your ticket punched, your hand stamped and go out the right gate... all really enjoyable with a screaming baby, two preschoolers following, and three other adults all with their own agenda. We figured it out, the baby stopped screaming and then we headed back to our hotel. It was a fun day!
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