Windsor Day 2

 May 13th.  A nearby clock has Westminster Chimes and woke me at 6am.  Cooler day and overcast.  Little Sister persuaded me I didn’t need a cardigan and … well I shouldn’t have listened to her!

We programmed Lady Satnav with the coordinates for King Edward VII car park and boldly set off.   She led us up the garden path - literally.  By the Windsor Farm Shop she demanded a right turn into the drive to Frogmore House which was firmly barred with a black iron gate.  In disgust we turned her off and I relied on memory of yesterday to return to Victoria Car Park in hope that it wouldn’t be full up.   It wasn’t.  We had almost the whole building to ourselves.  Why Lady Satnav went rogue I don’t know but I was trembling with anxiety by the time we arrived in Windsor Town and we returned to our little tea shop for a restorative cup of tea.

Then up to the castle gates, 

 a snap of the giant photo of the King and Queen then through security.  

We told them we had pacemakers so sidestepped the scanner machine and received instead a nominal pat down of pockets only.  I confessed to my mini Swiss Army Knife and the lady officer nonchalantly waved it by.  So onwards to the counter to collect our Multi Lingual Audio Visual Handset and Earphones.   [An aside here. - this self guiding audio commentary was par excellence.   Around 1 minute to 1.5 minute commentary at each spot with detailed pictures of items more distant on the walls of rooms.  Top marks to The Royal Collection for this.]

Then through the stone gate and there in resplendence was Andrew.  Every visitor seemed to want his photo, poor chap.  We of course followed suit.  

There in front of us, the towers, the battlements, the walls, the gates - the reality of my imaginings.   It may be a working castle but the embellishments were certainly Royal - even the little lamps had crowns on them.  

 Photos not allowed inside the buildings so the crowds, including us, were making up for it outside.   I was surprised  and a little envious that there were parties of school children. Had I had history on my doorstep like this I may have liked the subject rather than enduring the interminable lessons during High School.   

We followed the road around the North Ward to the door where the queues were waiting to enter.  Left Hand Side for Queen Mary’s Dolls House and the right hand side for The State Apartments.   As the queue was shorter we opted to do right hand side first and so up the stone steps and into the ornate entrance.  Lush green carpet with brass carpet rails, the audio told me Queen Victoria had redecorated this area to impress visitors to the Castle.   Very much a success I’d say and I was suitably impressed.   One room was full of the china used for state banquets , each cabinet more ornate than the last.  At the side of this room was a ‘shop’ doing a roaring trade in selling replicas of some pieces and also a variety of commemorative china ware.   Then into a room filled with swords and knightly regalia dating back into dim history.   Yet another room packed with pieces acquired by royals from various corners of the globe: feather capes from Hawaii, lacquer boxes from China, a silver gilt tiger from India were some of these treasures.   There was a Waterloo room with a huge portrait of the Duke of Wellington and smaller one of Napoleon.   I saw one portrait of the Grand Old Duke of York.   The King’s bedchamber had a very high four poster bed with elaborate curtains, embroidered bed coverings and feathers at the top of the posts.   The commentary told us how the king was always accompanied by at least one trusted courtier when he got out of bed, when he went to bed and even when he went to the toilet.  Not much privacy back in the day!

The Queens rooms seemed more ornate in colour but not in furnishings and paintings.   Although her rooms have ceilings painted in mythical style depicting Kings Queens cherubs chariots etc.  One  room in the Queen’s apartments had huge tapestries depicting the Biblical story of Esther.   The Queen also had a room where people would await her pleasure to receive them. 

Room after room of interesting history, the room in which investitures are held glistened with the ornate gold leafed ceiling.   Art by Reubens, Holbein, Van Dyck and walls filled floor to ceiling with portraits of past monarchs and nobility - it is impossible to retain all the information and I was in a state of sensory overload.   Exit through a shop of course, and out into natural light again.   

Round we went to queue for Queen a Mary’s Dolls House.  The tedium of the queue was relieved when one of the staff said, “please move in, the guards are coming” and four smart guards in their scarlet tunics and busbys marched past.   Moving neither to the right nor the left the crowds parted in front of them.  Up they went to the gates.  Two stayed outside, two marched in to the sentry box.  Click, clack and about turn.  One stayed, two marched out, joined the other two and marched smartly back from whence they’d come.   My little childhood soldier doll come to life.   Today’s bonus number one!

Today not only jets flying overhead but a helicopter also.  I laughingly told Little Sister, that will be Prince William off on a jaunt.  And… later on back came another helicopter.  We were standing near Mandy, a friendly staffer who told us that King Charles had just arrived and looking up she said “oh.  They’ve already got the Royal Standard up”   so of course we had to go off and see that flying in the wind.  

And into the castle again to see the Dolls House.   It is 100 years this year since it first went on display.  Depicting a house and life as it was at the time it was built, craftsmen from all over England created 1:12 working miniatures to furnish it.   The books open, the piano keys move, the garden originally had running water and it is all electrified.   In the nursery we noticed a model railway train set, there was linen room, and a room for storing the leather trunks used when travelling.   The garages contained at least five cars and one motorbike.   This is not a play item but a model house.

By this stage we were famished so decided on lunch at the Under Croft Restaurant.   Broccoli and Blue Stilton Quiche, Lemon and Elderflower Cake for me and Pear Hazelnut and Salted Caramel cake for Little Sister.  And of course, a pot of tea.

Suitably refreshed we went off towards St George’s Chapel.   A working church, independent of the Royal Family but the place where monarchs and family members are buried.   Henry VIII and his favourite wife Jane Seymour have a black stone in the floor stating that “ In a vault beneath this marble slab lie the bones of…”  King Charles I is buried here, Edward VII and his Queen Alexandra lie in effigy on the top of a sarcophagus as do George  V and Queen Mary.  At the crypt where King George VI, the Queen Mother, Princess Margaret, Prince Phillip and Queen Elizabeth II lie, there was a church warden standing repeating “please move on” but we managed to a good view of the ledger stone.

The obligatory shop at exit did provide a postcard purchase opportunity and then we returned the audiovisual equipment back to friendly Eleanor who pointed us in the direction of the Castle exit and The Long Walk.  The Walk is not actually within castle walls but is part of the Windsor Great Park.

Today is mostly Memories not Photographs but I am so pleased we came.  It was wonderful day far exceeding my expectations.  Castles are cold - “medieval air conditioning “ one staffer told us and the thick stone walls may be protective but don’t radiate heat.  Compared to a very 25 degrees yesterday, today has been a chilly 17.  So of course we needed another pot of tea at The Shambles Bar before returning to our accommodation.