28.3.08
Windsor
Windsor Castle is conveniently close to London, and apparently such a draw that there are two separate rail lines terminating there. Choosing the option that avoided going through Slough, which is distressingly close, we headed to Windsor along the southern route, passing through Kew instead. Windsor's also really quite close to Heathrow, and I'd think you could see the castle pretty clearly from the left windows of a plane taking off- it can only be a couple of miles. Despite all that, Windsor is a pretty small and quiet sort of place, still totally dominated by the castle. It rises considerably above the river, and sits beside the 650 acre Home Park and the 5000 acre Great Park, which includes the castle's 3 mile driveway.
The castle's divided into lower and upper wards, and is probably close to a mile long in total. At the dead centre is a circular tower on a mount (right in the picture above), a development of the original fort built by William the Conquerer. The Lower Ward, closer to the town, contains St George's Chapel,
the home of the Knights of the Garter, and probably one of the best late-medieval churches I've ever seen. The carving and vaulting are of the flashiest possible sort, and the tombs and statuary from both monarchs and famous knights are fantastic. There's also a collection of Tudor cottages for some of the staff, and a circular group of houses for the choir of the Chapel.
The Upper Ward, nearer the Park, is the bit you can't visit directly. The state apartments, dining rooms and exhibitions are all here, but so are the actual Royal Residences. This bit most clearly shows that most of the castle has been rebuilt in the 17th and 19th Centuries to a sort of story-book ideal. The exhibition of drawings we caught included Michaelangelo, da Vinci, Reubens sketches, and that was a tiny bit of the whole collection. There is also the tour through the great dining halls and so forth, which are impressive, but I liked the drawing
rooms and breakfast areas, with their views over Eton (and, alas, Slough) for absolutely miles.
After all that, a tour through the old streets of Windsor was a nice change, as was the trip down to and over the river to Eton, and the famous school there. We didn't see much of that, but it did blend into the town at the edges, with some very old shops and houses turning out to belong to the school, and several more catering pretty directly to the student population. Even from there, you can see back to the castle from almost anywhere in the area.// posted by Jameso @ 1:49 PM 
