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London and Windsor Castle...

Rhonda and I spent a full day Friday in London, we were lucky enough to have a man I work with take us on a guided walking tour. He'd lived in London for over three years and knew quite a lot about the city. It was thrilling and exhausting, three hours guided and another 5 on our own.
Rhonda got her picture taken with on of the horseguardsmen, just minutes before the changing of the guard. These chaps are guarding what used to be the main entrance to the mall that leads to Buckingham Palace. They are still an officially active unit that participates in various royal and military ceremonies.
We saw a statue of Abe Lincoln, a block over from Westminster Abbey. We walked past the war planning bunker and Downing Street where the PM lives. We saw the portion of the original Windsor palace that remains, where Charles I was removed from and executed in the street below. We walked through the mall and gardens outside Buckingham Palace, and up Pall Mall, and on and on. Too much really to put in this blogpage.


This is one of the fountains at Trafalgar Square, named after a famous sea battle in which the British defeated the French. We happened to have a beautiful day to tour London, between rainy days which have dominated the past several weeks. Behind me, as I face this fountain, is a tall pillar with a statue of Lord Admiral Nelson atop, commander of the british fleet at Trafalgar. This year is the 200th anniversary of this battle, and there will be a lot of special events throughout the country in celebration of this important victory.

We spent the night at RAF Uxbridge and the next day, Saturday, went to Windsor Castle and took in the tour. Windsor Castle is the most incredible castle I've ever seen. We only had to wait about 30 min to get tickets and spent 3 hours walking about the castle wardrooms. There are no photos allowed inside, and I left my camera in the car, so I suppose you'll have to visit us here and let us take you there to see it. It was almost like a museum, only infinitely better. Not only was this a personal collection, it was the royal collection, which had much historical significance. There were many paintings and tapestries, sculptures and furnitures, all in rooms which are still in use... they'd hosted a ball in one of the rooms the night before! The queen was actually at Windsor that day, her marker was flying over the castle ( when she's away, the union jack is flown), but unfortunately we did not see her. We didn't make it into St. George's before it closed at 4pm, missed it by 6 minutes, but it looks really grand from the exterior and we will make sure we see it the next time we visit Windsor Castle... it's worth seeing again!

Posted by phanvey at May 2, 2005 10:01 PM