Day 24 - Walking in Windsor, Strolling the Strand

The changing of the guard happens every second day in August at Buckingham Palace, and on the alternate day at Windsor Castle. Today being Tuesday it was at Windsor Castle, and so off we went.
We walked from our hotel towards Paddington station. A quick breakfast at the Scottish restaurant and then onto our train to Slough (pronounced Sl-auww – not Slow or Sloth). The train was travelling fast, or so we thought, until mainline trains started zipping past us – whoosh! At Slough we changed trains to join the branch line that runs into the train station at Windsor built for Queen Victoria so she did not have to walk far.

We arrived a few minutes before admission time, and amused ourselves by watching the bollards go down and up on the entrance road into the castle. The gargoyles on the walls are very amusing. Then in with quick access thanks to our London Pass card. An audio guide is included with the entry fee, and the assistant asked what language we wanted. Liz said Australian. The other assistant said “that’s the one that’s upside down”. He he.

There be squirrels in the grounds of Windsor Castle. And a nice attendant who agreed to take our photo as long as no one else saw him doing it. Hooray! Proof that we were actually on this holiday together. We strolled up to the inner keep, saw the moat garden, and were welcomed by Charlie himself (on the audio guide).

A quick look in the middle keep shop and Chris just had to buy a postcard of Charles and Camilla – not sure why, but we have it. We wanted to be down at the lower keep for the changing of the guard, so we decided to look through St George’s chapel. This is the chapel you see the Queen processing into with the knights of the Order of the Garter. It is true gothic inside. The most recent kings and queens are buried here with marble memorials. By contrast, Henry VIII is interred in the crypt below the aisle in the choir stalls, with a simple inscription on the floor. He shares the burial place with Jane Seymour and Charles I who lost his head.. quite esteemed company.

In the middle of the cloister at the back of the chapel is a statue of St George slaying the dragon. Very apt. On the wall just near the exit is the original entry to the chapel, built some time in the early 1200’s. On the wall they have discovered a small fresco of the face of Henry II, painted in 1239. Amazing

It was now 10:45, so we strolled down to the main gate. Surprisingly, there were few people about. We got a good pozy just in time to see the new guard march in with drums and fifes. Both old and new guards were from the Welsh Guards. You can tell them from other guards because they have two sets of four buttons down their coat fronts and a green and white feather on their big black fluffy hats.

The ceremony takes about 20 minutes, with guards marched to their posts and the band playing a few airs. Being Britain we had a heavy rain shower in the middle of the ceremony and everyone got drowned. The advantage, of course, was that most people went scurrying for cover, giving us an even better view when the rain stopped. Finally the old guard marched out, the new guard marched into the guardhouse and we marched up the hill to the state apartments.

The castle apartments have three main areas – the galleries, the state apartments and the Queen’s private apartments. We started in Queen Mary’s dolls, not made for children but made as a gift for Queen Mary, Elizabeth’s grandmother. It even has a working vacuum cleaner and a strongroom full of miniature crown jewels.

The next gallery contained drawings and photos from the royal collection – Leonardo de Vinci amongst others. There was also a display of photos of the young Elizabeth from about two up to fourteen. The first photo of the royal family after Elizabeth’s father became King was such a poignant statement on that part of post depression history, as it was designed to inspire hope in a country that was really struggling. The final gallery contained a selection of some of the dinner settings – you have to have a lot of plates to feed a royal banquet, but we’ll pass on the fruit bowls with the fetching pineapples as the stand! Money does not guarantee taste you know.

Then it was upstairs to tour the state apartments. Famous rooms, paintings, busts, furniture, suits of armour and weaponry everywhere. We stood in St George’s Hall where the banquets are held – the crests of the knights of the Order of the Garter are on the ceiling. And they get painted white if they have been naughty but left there to remind others to behave. We saw where the fire started – the restoration has been fantastic. The hexagonal space had been a private chapel, but Prince Charles suggested that it be turned into a vestibule connecting the state and private apartments. It now contains a memorial about the fire and those who contained it. There is also displays of gilt-worked items such as the coronation chalice on display here.

The King’s bedroom, built for King Charles II was never slept in by the king, but used by Napoleon III when he visited. The bed is still draped in curtains bearing his colours. The audio guide was very informative.

More stairs to get out (a constant theme) then into the sunshine and wind – could this be Sydney in August? Chris had a lovely royal chocolate ice cream bucket, and then we left the palace and had lunch in an English pub so aptly named the Fox and Hound. Very generous servings.

A bit of shopping then we caught the train back to London. Just over an hour later we were standing in front of St Paul’s Cathedral – Christopher Wren’s masterpiece. Once again our London Pass got us in quickly, to stand in awe. We sat and gazed up at the ceiling and dome, covered in mosaics and richly painted. We could see people walking the whispering gallery which is up just before the dome starts – not for us today (too many steps). There are memorials to Wellington, Nelson, John Donne the poet who was Dean of St Paul’s for over 10 years and other famous persons in the aisles in the body of the cathedral. We also heard the guest choir practicing their parts for tonight’s evening prayer – very moving.

Next we went down into the Crypt. There are more memorials down here, the OBE Chapel that includes modern glass screens containing etchings representing the members of the Commonwealth of Nations. Australia is represented by a kangaroo. Further along in the centre of the crypt are Wellington’s and Nelson’s tombs. There was also a display about the history of the cathedral, including what the view is like from the golden gallery at the very top of the dome. There is also restrooms (thank heavens), and there is also a coffee shop sitting in the middle of the crypt… and we struggle to understand how you can have coffee and party and kids running everywhere in the crypt and yet refuse to allow the taking of photos in a sacred place… go figure?

Another tube ride beckoned and this time we managed the Central line from St Paul’s back to Oxford Circus and then Bakerloo back to the hotel for a quick rest and change into some fancy clobber, because tonight we were off to the theatre. We had tickets to the new Andrew Lloyd Weber musical Love Never Dies which is on at the Adelphi on The Strand. How exciting! Picked up the tickets and then grabbed a bite to eat at Garfunkel’s almost next door to the theatre and then off to the show. Our seats were prefect, right on the centre aisle about half was back in the stalls and there was stacks of leg room and the seats were very comfortable. It is a spectacular musical… quite black in many ways, but the music is vintage Lloyd Weber and the leads were amazing, especially the phantom character. We won’t give away the story… that would not be fair, but when it comes to Oz it is certainly worth a look. We treated ourselves to a copy of the CD as a souvenir of yet another fantastic theatrical experience! Back on the underground and home to blog and bed…