As we're rushing to cram in as much fun as we can before we leave, we had to make time to see
Windsor Castle: the oldest, largest continually inhabited castle in the world.
Luckily, our friends Steve and Lisa hadn't seen the Castle either, so we got to tag along with them for the day.
Windsor dates back to the time of William the Conqueror (around 1070) and is currently the favorite residence of Queen Elizabeth II and her family. Apparently, if we had been there about 1 hour earlier we would have seen the Queen walking down her driveway, on her way out for the afternoon. Bad luck!
We weren't allowed to take pictures inside, but the castle was full of beautiful furniture and tapestries, valuable artwork, impressive weaponry, and lots and lots of history. In the chapel a friendly warden gave us an up-close view of the plaques and personal choir seats of members of the
Order of the Garter, the British Sovereign's personal order of chivalry. We saw
Henry VIII's seat and I had a hard time imagining him squeezing his big body into that narrow choir seat! He must have encouraged very short meetings.
At the end of our beautiful afternoon at the palace we noticed some people playing the quintessential British lawn game:
Bowls. As far as I can tell, it's a mixture of shuffleboard, bocce, curling, and maybe some croquet. But the important thing is that it's a game you can play while dressed all in white, drinking tea, and saying things like "Smashing play, old chap."
I've also noticed that there seems to be a minimum age of about 65 at most matches, so one day when Rob and I retire to England we'll work on our posh accents and join in the fun!
Luckily, our friends Steve and Lisa hadn't seen the Castle either, so we got to tag along with them for the day. 
Windsor dates back to the time of William the Conqueror (around 1070) and is currently the favorite residence of Queen Elizabeth II and her family. Apparently, if we had been there about 1 hour earlier we would have seen the Queen walking down her driveway, on her way out for the afternoon. Bad luck!
We weren't allowed to take pictures inside, but the castle was full of beautiful furniture and tapestries, valuable artwork, impressive weaponry, and lots and lots of history. In the chapel a friendly warden gave us an up-close view of the plaques and personal choir seats of members of the Order of the Garter, the British Sovereign's personal order of chivalry. We saw Henry VIII's seat and I had a hard time imagining him squeezing his big body into that narrow choir seat! He must have encouraged very short meetings. 
At the end of our beautiful afternoon at the palace we noticed some people playing the quintessential British lawn game: Bowls. As far as I can tell, it's a mixture of shuffleboard, bocce, curling, and maybe some croquet. But the important thing is that it's a game you can play while dressed all in white, drinking tea, and saying things like "Smashing play, old chap." 
I've also noticed that there seems to be a minimum age of about 65 at most matches, so one day when Rob and I retire to England we'll work on our posh accents and join in the fun!
2 comments:
That's hilarious! I'm glad you had fun at Windsor...it looks super beautiful. PS--Can you please be my neighbor forever. I'm gonna miss you!
Great pics as usual! They really are serious about the no picture thing. My favorite part of that castle is the huge doll house and so Kev tried to sneak some video footage for me. They made him rewind and tape over it!!!! So I bought a book in the gift shop :)
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