Today I had my excursion trip to Windsor Castle, Stonehenge and Bath. We had to meet at 8:30 outside of ISH, so needless to say, it was a dreadful morning. Kidding.
Our tour guide/driver was Tony, who was originally Irish but had lived in Connecticut and San Diego for most of his childhood. He was great, because he both had experience and knowledge of the US, but still was much more of an insider than we were. He also mentioned that he had his Masters in History, and he clearly knew his stuff.
Our first stop was at Windsor Castle, arriving precisely when it opened to the public at 9:45am (random time, right?). The Queen was residence, which could be seen by the Royal Standard being flown. Windsor Castle is her "weekend" home, and she stays in her private quarters while tourists wander throughout the more public exhibits. Any attempt to describe this place would fall short, but I'll try anyway.
I had been to Windsor when I was much younger, so I recognized the layout of the keep and where the guardhouse was. However, the most impressive part were the State Apartments. Aka, the extravagant places that the King and Queen would host banquets, dinners, and other fancy soirees. There were rooms decorated in homage to the "art of war", with busts of famous generals (the Duke of Wellington, Winston Churchill and his predecessor John Churchill, etc.) and were covered in weapons taken from rulers the British Empire had conquered.
There were rooms for the Queen to grant audiences to people who would petition for her help, and the rooms were completely gilded in gold and paintings. The dining room had paintings on the ceiling and a frieze depicting Greek Gods surrounded by food. Every piece of furniture was either commissioned by master artisans of the time period, or were historical in another context. Every single room had a different theme and purpose, and it was incredible to realize that almost any object you saw was among the most valuable things in the world.
After walking through the State Apartments, we luckily caught the Changing of the Guard. The guards marched in while playing drums and flutes, and was very serious business. Although I have to add, the guard playing the bugle wasn't very good. Alas.
Right before we left to catch the bus away from Windsor, we popped into St. George's Chapel. It was also heavily ornate with high arched ceilings. The seats were roped off in most sections, which indicated how prestigious the people who were allowed to sit there must have been. Around the chapel were tombs to previous Kings and Queens. I also noticed that there were some markers on the walls and floor that were to commemorate people who were "benevolent and dutiful" to the monarchy in some way or another. As we entered the more private-looking sanctum in the front of the church, I remarked that I wondered where King Henry VII was buried. Without moving my feet, I looked down and realized that I was standing over him. The marker was part of the floor, like other "lesser" nobles had been. His grave/tomb/burial site also contained the remains of his wife Jane Seymour and Charles I. How interested that someone as famous and notoriously egotistical wound up being buried in a (relatively, of course, it was still in a chapel inside of a castle) such non-descriptive way, and not even with his most recent wife. There's definitely some good back story that I haven't heard yet that may explain this.
More on the rest of my trip later!
