Mark's mom, grandmother and I decided to take the tour through Windsor castle. I'm usually not one for super touristy activities like this, but I'm glad we went. The photo's we took cannot convey just how enormous this castle is, and also, there was no photography allowed inside the castle, so all the photos are of the exterior anyway.
Before we moved to the U.K. there was a show on in heavy rotation on the PBS HD channel:
Windsor: A Royal Year that highlighted some of the goings-on of the castle. Why is this relevant to this post? One of the episodes follows the preparations for a banquet in St. George's Hall with the French prime minister as the guest of honor (out of the 160 so guests). What is interesting, is that the tour took us through this hall and other portions of the castle that are used on a regular basis.
You see, from what I can tell from the few castle tours we have been on, you are generally funneled through a cordoned off section with rooms that are more a museum. Where you admire carefully placed and labeled items behind glass or ropes. At Windsor Castle, it didn't feel like a museum. Yes, there were ropes and some rooms carefully arranged with historic personal items of prior royals. But you got the sense of walking through someone's really majestic and well appointed home.
It was also handy that there was a guided tour that we glommed on to outside the castle. The guide was more engaging and entertaining than the portable personal tour we listened to on little phone like devices, punching in codes that matched locations on the grounds and inside the castle. Though we still listened to these descriptions inside the castle.
We capped off the day, joining Mark at a local pub directly across from the castle, enjoying "cream tea" or tea served with cream, two scones with clotted cream and jam.