Windsor!

A few of the girls and I took a day trip to Windsor on Saturday, October 7. We had to take the tube to the train, and then the train there, but the trip actually went really quickly!

Windsor Castle is the largest inhabited castle in the world. The Queen lives here for a few months out of the year, and then goes back to Buckingham Palace for the other months. She is back in Buckingham Palace now, but when we got to London she actually was still in Windsor. Since she is not there, we got to see a few extra rooms that they re-open when the Queen is not inhabiting the castle.

All of the rooms were exquisite and incredibly designed. My absolute favorite part of them were the ceilings. Each ceiling was so different, but really amazing in it's own right. I wish we could have elaborate ceilings like that in every building I go into. It would be amazing.

On to other things - we saw many guards outside of the castle - and the first picture is of two who walked by while we were standing in line to see Queen Mary's Dollhouse.

A little snapshot of one of the towers as we were doing our audio tour. They just love those things in Europe.

Here we all are, looking a little chilly! Me, Veronica, Erica, Mary Kate and Andrea, and Windsor Castle. The castle is SO big, this is maybe showing about 1/15 of it?

See the opening behind me? There are a ton of these all along the outskirts of the castle. They were made so guards could shoot bows and arrows through them, but also be protected. They were made large enough so they could shoot the arrows up, increasing the longevity of them.

The grounds are all kept up really beautifully.

St. George's Chapel! This is one of the most beautiful churches I have ever been in. The entire inside is SO intricate, I can't even describe it. If you haven't been and are near London, though, you should definitely check it out. You will not be disappointed. (I would have taken pictures but they were not allowed!)

Messing with the guards is NOT allowed. Mary Kate and I thought this was pretty funny since right before we took our picture, Erica was yelling at the guard "HEY! You blinked! Can you blink? I don't think you are supposed to blink...you moved your eyes!!!"

A courtyard. We watched the guard on the left stroll all the way to us and back before we finished our self-guided tour.
And Erica and I in front of the gate, keeping us out of the courtyard and away from the guard!

That is it! I swear it is even more beautiful that pictures can show - it was quite a cloudy/gloomy day, and started raining and getting really windy just as we were finishing, (notice Erica and my hair in the last picture)so we were all happy to get back on the train to go home.