Windsor Castle

I really have to begin by saying that since I wasn't allowed to take pictures inside the castle, there's no way I could really capture the pure opulence of the place. It's the largest castle still being lived in today, and the inside of every bit of it was designed for no other purpose than to make your jaw hit the floor. I'll have to find a book on the treasures that are inside, because there are many and some of them defy belief.

Of the things we did see, we arrived in just enough time to catch a glimpse of the changing of the guards, which is actually done in parade formation with a marching band right on the streets of Windsor; they do it every day, so every day they stop traffic on a couple of streets for this procession.

The guys in the overcoats with the instruments are in traditional Blues & Royals uniform, but the guards at Windsor don't look like this; they're the guys in the back with the more subtle dress uniforms. And fully functional Lee-Enfield L85 rifles, bayonets fixed.
You've probably been hearing a fair amount about these guys, what with Prince Harry being called back from Afghanistan. A lot of people my age here view the royals as money-sucking sponges with no purpose, but Harry has been given a lot of respect lately.

The streets of Windsor themselves are very quaint; they're exactly what people think when they think about an English city, so long as they don't think about London. It's very pretty, even with the amount of tourists present.

Security here was tight, with an x-ray machine and metal detector. Fortunately, you were free to roam once you were checked in. This was likely the first thing you saw after grabbing your audio-tourguide.


The round tower in the back with the flag flying from it is, predictably, known as The Round Tower. The flag flying from it signals that a member of the royal family is in residence, but which one is debatable because we never saw them.

There are signs everywhere telling you to keep off the grass, probably because it looks as green as it does in the picture for a reason; and that reason is not allowing tourists to tromp all over the Queen's lawn. The garden on the hill of the Round Tower is a good example of what happens when kids aren't allowed to stomp on vegetation.

Aside from being just plain dazzling, the castle is also very heavily fortified; it's been built and rebuilt over the course of roughly eight hundred years, always with the notion that it may well have to defend the Monarch at some point. Which is why passages like this exist here.


The passage empties out at the top of a very big yard that's mostly paved by now, but from there one can see the Round Tower gardens again, St. George's Chapel, and head one of two ways further to see the interior of the castle, after a bit of a walk. And while you're in this courtyard, you'll see the guards again.

Amateurs. We got ours to laugh; they're not supposed to but we're talented like that.

As I said, St. George's Chapel is here too. It's being renovated so the inside isn't much to look at. But the outside is impressive.


This is where Henry VIII is buried, but he's a butthead of epic proportions so we won't talk about him and instead we'll look at the heraldic animal sculptures on the roof.

I apologize for the blur; it's a 12x zoom lens and it was after my coffee break. Hopefully, you can clearly see the ferocious goat, duck, and lion each holding a shield with a knight's heraldry on it. I personally thought this was cool, and now I'd like my business cards to be held by a mean-looking duck.

here's St. George's from another perspective, further down in the courtyard.


Every one of those spires along the top is a different animal holding a spear, and no two of them look to be the same.

On the other side of the castle, there's this; a massive internal courtyard that is iconic of Windsor, so I had to take a picture. With my new touring partner, Captain Ed, in the shot.


You'll be seeing more of the Captain.

There are dozens more pictures of this place but if I posted them all it would take forever. And that doesn't include the pictures I wasn't allowed to take.

Pictures of things like:
- Gilded cielings
- Rembrandt paintings of nearly everyone
- Henry VIII's field armor
- A jade vase taller than I am
- Medieval armor and armaments basically everywhere
- A flintlock rifle with a heart-shaped barrel
- About a dozen other flintlocks that must be priceless
- Captured treasures from all over the British Empire

Its worth a side note to say that any items that have been captured are noted that way; this isn't like a museum where they're concerned with it's nature as an artifact and will negotiate it's return to its homeland. Sorry, if the Queen wants to keep it, even if you lost it two hundred years ago in battle, you're out of luck.

Our next trip is to London again, for the Tower and the Globe Theater. I'll have more then.