Wednesday Part 1 - Windsor Tour

We had planned on getting up early in order to meet up with our tour but didn't need alarms. Bree woke up in the middle of the night and didn't get back to sleep til almost dawn. Both of us woke up with the sun at 5am. Our room at John & Maggie's faces east and this time of year the sun is up at 4am in London and doesn't set until 10pm. We read up on some sights and got ourselves settled with plenty of time for breakfast and heading to the bus station. We've borrowed John & Maggie's Oyster cards and added a few pounds to them before heading off. We took the 170 straight to the Victoria Coach station to meet our coach tour. Our reservations said the tour left at 8:45am and to arrive at least 10 minutes in advance to queue. But when we got there the queue didn't even start until almost 9am and we didn't leave for awhile after that.

Our tour guide was Trevor and he was filled with information! As we exited London he shared information about the different boroughs we passed through, which celebrity lived where and the history of how some of the neighborhoods came to be. We exited London and made our way to Windsor Castle down the M3 (Motorway 3). When we arrived at Windsor we were repeatedly told when and where to meet as we were on a tight schedule. Trevor would say, "I'll meet you here on the bus, ready to go, buckled in at 11:55. You're on bus #286 and if you get lost remember that I will be outside the bus with a worried look on my face starting at 20 til twelve and looking more and more worried until you are all in your seats at 5 to twelve." There were many tours at Windsor and each tour guide had some obvious visual clue to lead their group; such as a zebra print umbrella, a flag, and a pink hat. We headed through the small Windsor Train Station and through the town of Windsor past shops to the outer wall.

There was a very large queue for groups that day so despite his many speeches before Trevor made a second speech of equal length and repetitiveness with a new time of 20 past twelve. Trevor led us through the Middle Ward and around the Round Tower towards the State Apartments. The castle is massive and has been added on to in its years of continuous living since 1066 AD. The Round Tower is the castle keep and was the last stronghold of defense for the monarchy. From outside the State Apartments you can see the Upper Ward and look across to the Private Apartments where the Royal Family stays when they are in residence. We entered the State Apartments and proceeded through them on our own audio tour. The State Apartments were breathtaking!

We passed through the King's & Queen's old bedrooms, dressing rooms and presence chambers. There was a dining hall big enough to have housed our entire wedding at one table. There was a room devoted to the Order of the Garter, the most prestigious society of chivalry. There are only a certain number of members at any given time with the Sovereign as leader and another member of the Royal family as second. Prince William recently became the 1000th member of the Order. The Knights of the Order are involved in a large ceremony once a year and expected to attend church regularly. But since they are often important people with busy lives, there are lesser Military Knights whose job it is to live in Windsor Castle (ahh shucks!) and pray in a special ceremony for the actual Knights who are too busy.

Apparently there was a large fire in 1992 that damaged a large portion of the State Apartments. They have since been fully restored and you can't even tell. The Grand Reception room had to have the floors fixed which meant picking up each piece of wood, flipping it and replacing it. It is covered in gold filagree and is breathtaking.

After viewing the State Apartments we visited the Drawing Room and St. George's Chapel. The Drawing room cycles through its exhibits every 6 months so that it can display all of the country's treasures. From there we walked into the China room and just the small sampling of what was there was beautiful. The Chapel was beautiful and is the final resting place for several people including the current Queen's parents and grandparents. We ran through both and headed out the castle gates into town. We bought Cornish pasties for lunch and made a run for our bus.

We just made it in time, ate our lunch and Bree soon fell asleep on our way to Bath.