Windsor Castle

Today is 24th Friday.
  We had bought tickets to visit Windsor Castle.  We had planned earlier and had the tickets ready with us .   We had to take a train from Paddington Station  to Windsor Castle.   We reached Paddington station from Glucestor  station  and bought an one way ticket (we had to buy ticket because the Castle was outside Zone 1 and 2)   to Windsor Castle, as we were going to Reading  to  hubby's nieces's son's house from Windsor.

We were at the Castle gates well before it opened.    We were looking at the Magnificent Castle  which was really out of this world.  This is one of the World's working Palaces, where the Queen lives in the week ends and we were told that it is her favourite Palace.

We had booked tickets for going up one of the tower of Windsor which is called   'Conquering the Tower of Windsor.'   We had booked for the first batch and promptly went and waited near the entrance.   We were taken on a guided tour up the Castle.  It was an easy winding way around  the tower which is squarish on one side.  We could see from the top the living quarters of the Royalty.

There is a flag post on top of the Tower.  There  will be a Great Britain flag on the days Queen  not staying there . Otherwise the other Gold Colour flag of the Monarchy.    Naturally the flag that day was Blue Stripes as they do not allow the climb on the days, when  Queen lives there.
Wonderful view from atop.  A big road  in the garden opens up to a Road lined with trees on both sides.  It is outside the Castle but belongs to the Royalty and public are allowed to go there  for walks.  We decided to take that walk after we  finish seeing the inside of the Castle.

View from the Top.

                                                                          Road partly visible.

Quadrangle where people waiting to watch the change of Guard .

Thames 

We went and saw the State Rooms which were  magnificent. 

We saw the World Famous Queen Mary's Doll House.   This is a miniature living quarters of the Royalty , which is  a replica made in 1922.  It is very cute and  there were electrical fittings inside the doll house which were on .  Even the tiny pipes  have running hot and cold water and  has a proper working plumbing system including the flush!  It is made to 12:1 scale to the original size.  It was truly amazing.

There was a Change of Guards at 11 a.m.(yes here also)  in the quadrangle  next to the Chapel which we saw from the Tower Top.  

 Here we could see the Change of Guards from Close quarters and it was real fun to watch them.  I (almost) laughed seeing the guards with covered head gears which covered their eyes and  when their leader shouted "eyes front" almost every body laughed.    I took pictures with the Guard. 

In the Chapel I saw where Henry VIII and his wife (one of his wives) Jane Seymour  laid to rest.  It was eerie  as I had seen the place where his other wife Anne Boleyn was executed just two days before in London Tower.

There is a Moat surrounding the Castle and it has been converted into a garden.   In a year it is open  to Public on just four Fridays and the day visited happened  to be one of them.  We were very lucky as we were able to go there just paying 50 s (half pound)  each (what a great advantage in becoming a senior citizen) (the money collected goes for some charity).  The garden was wonderful.

 We had our  packed food ( I had prepared the ready to eat item in the room and packed it ) in the Castle and came out at around 2 p.m. 

 There is  a market place  just outside the Castle and  lots of charming  shops are there. It was so nice to walk there and we had our Coffee there.  I saw some Begonia plants there.  I have never seen Begonias flowering so big and healthy.  In Kerala I had  tried growing lots of Begonia plants but the flowers used to be very tiny and some plants never flowered also.

We proceeded to the place where the Loong Road which we saw from the top of the tower starts just outside another gate of the  Castle.  We just walked some distance and sat in the beautiful  grass there for some time savouring the moment and trying to behold that specific time. 

We walked in leisurely pace to the Thames river Boat Ride.  We had some time till our nephew was to come and pick us up .  So we went on the boat ride  and watched  the  castle from the waters and wondering how it would have been in olden times when Royalty used to reach here by boat from London.

My Hubby's grand Nephew and his dad picked us up in his car and we reached his home in Reading   in an hour or so.  It was a 3 level house with kitchen and drawing room down stairs and bedrooms in the 2 upper floors.  His own house.  My husband's niece was visiting her son  who had just recently been blessed with a baby boy and we were happy to see the  baby there. 

  After a nice dinner we were dropped  in Reading Station.

 I was kind of upset that the station ticket counter person  did not recognize the Oyster card and charged us both for the full journey one way  which was exorbitant.  (Here one way ticket is costly and two way tickets are cheap and you just pay some few dollars more  for return ticket.)  I decided that I should do something about it the next day when we  go to Hampton court and while coming we are returning from different station as we were to meet some friends for dinner.

In all the  whole day trip was wonderful.

In and around London

Today was the day we had planned to see the places in and around the place in which we stayed.
First we went to Trafalfar Square.  Beautiful place.  I was very impressed.

The Changing  of Guards (Palace Guards)   happen on certain days of the week and that day ,  the changing  of guards were to take place  in front of the gates of Buckingham Palace.  Lots of people  had assembled there.  We climbed the steps of the Queen Victoria Statue in front of the Palace. (Deepa had told us it is the best place to watch).  We had to wait for half an hour in the hot Sun for the Guards to come.  The Guards  came from both sides of the Road in front of the Palace.  The March past was insipid and lacked energy.  The main gates were closed and we ccould see through the  bars of the gates,   the  Guards  going up and down and doing some rituals.   Band was playing Music and the gate opened and  some soldiers marched out. Already the other guards had gone inside.

    On close quarters the head gear looked quite ugly to say the least.  The day was hot and I was wondering how the Guards  would feel underneath the head gear.  All this took  about an hour or so to get over.   I felt this is very very over rated and  the  crowd which comes there is unbelievable.  (  May be because,  this one you can view without paying any money!!)

This picture got turned but this is a nice picture so I had to add it. 

We came back to room in the tube, ate the food I had already prepared and kept in the room.  We just walked to Victoria Albert Museum which was on the same road  in which we  were staying.  

It was Huge.   We spent about an hour there and saw the mechanical Tiger which Tipu Sultan had made and brought here by the British.   There are so many exhibits I think an exclusive day or more is required to see this. How nicely they maintain the things which are brought from all over the world.  I am happy that at least they are preserving all this  for the posterity.

I felt as if I did not see anything and decided I would try to pay one more visit to this lovely Museum.   We just took the train from South Kensington  Station which is just few steps underground from the Museum.  All these places of interest have stations very near by.  We got down at Baker Street.

  Just we stepped out and few steps away was the Madame Tussuad's Wax Museum.

There was very big discussion about this particular visit and my kids,   all the three of them warned me not to go there as it is not at all good. One more friend also told me that it is not good but said  just go and see if you really want to.  I was just curious,  as I had never been into any wax museums.  In LA and NY I had decided I will go to The Wax museum in London.

So on we marched only to find that there was a big queue consisting mostly of Indians!!  We had not bought tickets in advance and hence had to cool our heels for about one  and half hours there.  Luckily my niece had given me 2 for 1 offer coupon so we got some discount on the tickets. 

I felt all the statues of Indians in this Museum look very sad and not at all good.  I felt other country dignitaries were better.  Conversely,  may be we are so used to seeing our Stars, Cricketers so often (on TV  and Cinema, Media,   I mean)  that we know how they look and hence we feel it is bad.    I don't know if I was right about this. 

.  Totally it was bad but still I enjoyed clicking pictures next to lot of dignitaries.

There was a big queue to take pictures with the wax models of the Royal Family (Queen, Her Husband, Prince Williams and Kate)  It was exciting!!  Ha!!

Here is the Picture.

There was a kind of a Car ride which took us ,  to the scenes of  London from so many years ago.  It reminded me of the ride we took in Chocolate Factory in Hershey's in US where we took similar ride.  

This one was better.

This was included in the  ticket and there was a 4D show,  also included in which Super Men  were saving London  from bad guys.   They showed all important Land Marks of London.  It was nice.

From here we proceeded to Oxford Street by walk. 

I had heard a lot about Oxford Street and just wanted to see if I can do any shopping but I did not get anything of interest and so bought nothing and we returned to the room.  End of the day.

Palace Visit

Only very few days  in a year public are allowed inside the Buckingham Palace.  We had planned our trip at such a  time  when we could visit the Palace.
This was 22nd August and our first visit was to the Queens Gallery and we had  the booking for  9.30 a.m.  There are exhibitions held in this Gallery and when we went the Original Manuscript  of drawings (Anatomy) of Leonardo da  vinci.  The Anatomical drawings were very  amazing .  

As usual like any tourist place, there was a curio shop which was very cute at the same time very expensive.

We proceeded to Buckingham Palace and exchanged our Internet bookings for the tickets.    We had entry to Royal Suites, Ball Room,  State Rooms.   Many Paintings were on the hall.  There was a short Welcome speech by the Prince of Wales when we switched on the audio they had given us to explain the things in the Palace. 

 The Green Room, White Room (Suite!) were exquisite. We walked on Red Carpets.   The Big Quadrangle where the dignitaries including  High Commissioners, Ambassadors ,enter    the Palace, when they visit the Palace was huge.

These Halls and Suites are used by the Royalty and these are open to public when the Royalty spend their time in another palace.   We saw huge Dining Hall/ Banquet Hall where the Queen entertains the dignitaries.  We saw a concealed door behind an ornate mirror  from where the Queen enters the Hall from her  Private  Quarters.   

The year being the Diamond Jubilee year of the Queen's accession to the throne, there was an exhibition of Crown Jewels specifically the diamonds , The Tiara,(s), Necklace(s) and what not which are all being used by the Queen.

We saw the famous Culinan Diamonds a set of 7 Diamonds,  2 of which we had seen in the London Tower. Here we saw the  remaining 5 Culinan.  which  have such cut and dazzle.    I understood why Diamonds are considered as THE GEM.    I bought a book which was for sale which had the pictures of all the diamonds which were on exhibition.

We came out to the big Lawns where our tour ended.   There was a small cafeteria where we bought cheese cakes and  coffee prepared in the Palace Kitchens.  (That is what they said).  It was really tasty.  We missed out on the tour of Royal Gardens as we were not aware that there was a tour and had not bought tickets for that.  We should have done that earlier while getting inside the Palace at the ticket booth.

From here we proceeded to the Royal Mews.  This is where the Royal Coaches are being kept.  Since we had known about this,   we had the tickets bought in advance  and this is situated very near the Palace.  It was wonderful.  The Coaches used by Queen, the Coach in which Lady Diana  came for her Wedding and the ceremonial Golden Coach beautifully carved are all kept here .

We saw two of the Horses which were used to draw these Coaches. 

It was 2 p.m. when we were done with these visits.  We took the tube back to our room.   I made my ready to eat food in a jiffy and had it with yogurt.

Again we started back in the  tube and this time I wanted to see the  Hyde Park Corner where   people used to give  inspiring speeches.  I had imagined it to be a platform where any body can go up and talk about anything under the sun.  I was warned by my niece saying  that now there are no inspiring speeches, but only some uninspiring Religious propaganda.   This was just an  ordinary place near one of the gates and  the volunteer whom we met there  (there were many volunteers in London to help the tourist because of Olympics.  It was just weeks after the Olympics and Para Olympics were to be held the next week of our visit) also said that the speeches on Sundays are  not at all inspiring.   She only helped me in locating the place which was so insignificant.

We took a train to Waterloo and from there to Woking to Deepa's place for dinner and had a good time with her family.

We returned after dinner back to the Hotel.