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Published: November 3rd 2007
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We were up today at the crack of dawn, well, nine to head off to Windsor castle. It was much closer than I thought it would be. It was half an hour away by bus giving no time to catch up on some sleep. We went on an audio tour of the castle which took about two hours.
William Conqueror chose the site for the castle nearly 1000 years ago. Everythin is exactly how it was when it was built in 1070 but some things have been rebuilt to make it sturdier and because of fires. We saw the room where they decide who becomes a knight and where the Queen continues to have dinner parties for special guests (my goal is to be invited there ) We saw where Henry VIII was buried and the Queen Mother and King George VI. There were a lot of paintings in the quarters we went though. That was such a big thing back then. In todays time if you loaded up your wall with 6 footers it would be over doing it. Not to mention we don't have 50 foot ceilings like in there, but you get the drift.
In Saint
George's Hall, the ceiling was done over as if it were done in I believe Renaissance time. Attached to the ceiling are different coats of arms. There were a lot of plain white ones and those are for knights who did wrong and were stipped of their standing...and it was to remind everyone of their mistakes pretty much. Nothing like not being able to live something down...here we are hundreds of years later saying "hey, remember that time you screwed up?" But then again, I like that they take things like that seriously here. If you make a mistake you aren't going to slip out scott free...even if you are a knight. Saint Georges Castle on the grounds is the resting place of ten monarchs: Edward IV, Henry VI, Henry VIII, Charles I, George III, George IV, William IV, Edward VII, George V and George VI.
The waterloo chamber was ineresting. It showed how stronly England fought against Napoleon. It was created in the 1820s to show portraits (commissioned from Sir Thomas Lawrence )to commemorate the defeat of Napoleon at the battle of Waterloo in 1815. There were portraits upup and down the entire lenght of hte oom. And
it was a huge room.
My favorite room was the one where all the weapons were hung in a decorative mannor on the walls. They were intended not for use, but to remind visitors how securley surveilled the castle was. It's like the head on a stick outside your house to say 'hey dont' mess with us.' The best part of the room though were the busts. THey put busts of some of the best military leaders in the room. And they weren't just from England. I thought that was cool.
In November of 1992 there was this huge fire that spread like crazy damaging a lot of the rooms and paintins and the original decour. Painings and tables had replicas made. There was a chandelear that was found in the ruins and was restored and hangs again now. I think they said it devistated one-fifth of the castle. It took five years to finish it and was done in time for their anniversary.
This is the fourth castle on my list. It's listed at third out of fourth. I mean granted it is the Queen's official residence, but it was like a self sufficient little town
in there and I don't know...i just didn't get that "im an old castle' feeling to it. We went on the long walk (well the short version of it) after seeing the castle and we also walked around town. It was such a cute little town. Lauren and I really wanted to walk through the gardens becuase they were so beautiful, but that wasn't allowed. Although I didn't take a coat with me today and i was freezing (not my hands thanks to lauren and her purple mittens) it was a good day. There is nothing like taking a little weekend trip to see a castle :D It's just too bad I didn't run into any princes 😉
P.S. I relooked up a lot of this information online beucase I couldn't remember all of it that I wanted to.
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