Like! Windsor’s claim to fame is the Windsor Castle, and what makes it different from the other castles across UK is that this is also a royal residence still very much in use! We took the train to Windsor a few days ago, nice and early in the morning, to catch the 11 o’clock guard changing ceremony, which we were told is something that should definitely not be missed. Now I’m not a morning person at all, so after whining about waking up early for 3 days prior to D-day, I finally resigned myself to my fate and got to the station in time. Now getting to Windsor is a fairly long drawn out procedure because the only train that travels to it is the one from Slough. So we went Newbury to Reading, Reading to Slough, and then Slough to Windsor, and got to the castle at 10:30; 10:36 to be precise! The fare was an £11 standard day-return, which wasn’t too bad. Entry to the castle, however, is £16, which I thought was quite a bit, until I learned that if I got my ticket stamped on the way out, I was granted free entry for a year!
The station at Windsor (the Windsor -Eton Central, not the Riverside station) is perhaps one of the cutest I’ve seen – it’s very touristy, with lots of restaurants and shops (not just any shops, mind you, but Royal Station Shops!) and a tourist information center right there for you to pick up pamphlets and brochures from. It’s also very pretty, with hanging lanterns and flower baskets and a high arched ceiling. You walk right out in front of the castle when you leave the station, and since there aren’t any signs telling you where the entrance is, we were a little lost. The crowds were being lined up on the pavement on both sides of the road when we reached because the guards were coming marching up the road, and since we wanted to be inside the castle when they reached, we ran about trying to find a spot to enter, which we finally did. The queues were really long and there is a security check complete with a handbag x-ray, so when we finally were allowed to enter, we realised we’d already missed the guards, and the changing ceremony, which was quite a pity.
But we managed to catch the band playing on the castle grounds through the bars of the big iron gate, and we headed out to explore the rest of the castle after that.
St George’s Chapel was a treat, to say the least. It was almost a surreal experience, walking down the altar gaping at the banners and the coat of arms of the Order of the Garter through the centuries. It was equally surreal walking past the spot where Henry VIII was buried with Jane Seymour. The hour we spent inside the chapel was for me a moment when history suddenly seemed so tangible and so real, and ceased to be just a bunch of names that went about doing things we’d be tested on in school exams.
And that feeling stayed with me through the rest of our exploration. Queen Mary’s Doll House was where we headed next. Now this is no ordinary doll house; gifted by her cousin, the doll house is a royal Victorian house in miniature! It has everything from a maid’s room to the King’s closet to manicured gardens, and every article in the doll house from the real silver crockery to the queen’s jewellery to the framed paintings on the wall to the ornate furniture and rich tapestry has been created by England’s master craftsmen and artists!! There is even a wine cellar filled with hundreds of miniature bottles! And everything from the lighting to the plumbing is fully functional! And it’s all of 3 feet high! Enough to make you feel like a giant peeping into the secret world of the royals!
Our next stop was the special drawings exhibition, and here we saw some of da Vinci’s original sketches and studies amongst the original works of many other artists including Hans Holbein, so famous for painting portraits of the royals in the time of Henry VIII.
After a quick tour of the royal porcelain crockery selection (which was also quite interesting actually, especially the Rockingham service which was fashioned on pineapples, sugar-cane, guavas, and shells!), we began the tour of the staterooms, and this was perhaps the most awe-inspiring section of the castle. The grand staircases and reception rooms and drawing and dining rooms and closet rooms and chambers with their embellished and gilded walls and ceilings painted with scenes of feasts and celebration, and gigantic framed portraits, and lavish furnishings and carved furniture were breath taking to say the least! And to think that some of these rooms are still used for state banquets and receptions!
We left the castle fairly bedazzled, and things got even more starry when we learned as we were leaving that the Queen was actually staying in the royal residences that very day!
Apart from the castle, Windsor is also popular for its amusement park, Legoland, which we didn’t find time to go to unfortunately. The famous Eton College is also across the Thames in Eton. You must go across to Eton, even if for nothing else but that walk across the foot bridge and maybe a boat trip down the Thames! We even managed to catch a Kollywood song sequence being shot on the bridge!!
You must also stop by this cute little cake shop in Windsor called Candy Cakes – it’s on the way to Eton – because it sells the most goodlooking and equally yummy cupcakes ever!! I had the double chocolate. Ooh yum. Still dreaming of it.
Woohoo for Windsor!
