A Royal afternoon - Winsor Castle and our first day in London

It was our last day on the road so to speak. We were handing back the car, or Holly as well called it due to the sat nav voice. We named it Holly as it reminded us of Holly from Red Dwarf! We packed up our belongings, said goodbye to the lady at the hotel whom we had had a big chat with the day before, and headed off for Windsor Castle.


The plan was to drive the 1.5hr drive to the castle, explore around, drive to Heathrow airport and drop the car back then pick up our airport transfer that Tom was smart enough to book last night. As our hotel was in London city centre itself and Heathrow a ways out it would have cost anywhere from 40 to 80 pounds, this transfer we had booked was 18 pound each, I could live with that!


As we drove off leaving Salisbury and the country side behind we were ready for a new adventure in London. 30 minutes into our journey and many tummy rumbles later Tom found a servo for me to pick up my new favorite chocolaty snack - a traditional roadie breakfast that all would be proud of! To balance this out I bought an OJ as well!! As we had pulled over we decided to call home for Mother’s Day.


Back on the road we were amazed at some of the stupid drivers that seemed to grace the motorway that day. It is really bizarre how people in Britain overtake. Usually when you overtake a person (unless peed off ) you would leave at least a few car spaces before you return to the lane you had been in, well when people overtake here they overtake the car and zoom across nearly taking the vehicles nose off at the same time. It is so weird!


On the way to Windsor Castle we saw signs to Lego Land. Tom got a little excited until I said ‘no’…I draw the line at that!


Being the naïve tourists we find ourselves to be now and then when we arrived in Windsor we didn’t anticipate the parking situation. For some reason we both had an image in our minds of a castle off the ways with a big car park, not realising that it was smack bang in the middle of the city like we knew Buckingham Palace was.


We finally found a car park in a near shopping centre and hot footed it to the castle via one of the main shopping malls. It was full of brand name shops, people from all walks of life, many tourists and an assortment of dogs! We saw a man walking 3 sausage dogs, they were more like cocktail Frankfurt’s as their legs were so close to the ground!


It was along this walk that Tom had a grand tourist plan. He announced that there should be two categories of tourists and that each category have designated days to tour. Ones who and I quote Tom on this ‘walk around with their heads up their arses and those ‘who are considerate and polite’…we fall into the later of course!


It has gotten so bad that we are so sick of tourists. Again I know we are part of this species but a more hybrid form if you will. Some people have no idea - how they don’t watch what they are doing or where they are walking, stopping in front of you when they can plainly see you are taking a photo, walking into you or forgetting they are caring big bags and backpacks and swing them into you, oh and Tom’s favorite talking really loudly either to others or on a mobile phone - that really gives you the right amount of ambiance to complement some of the beautiful things you are seeing! Nothing says what a grand castle this is like a bunch of Asian women (who looked more like drag queens on a day out) talking aloud and calling out to each other and unfortunately that language does not flow off the ear as would, let’s say French or Italian would). There I think I have managed to insult a few countries and nationalities in one paragraph!


We made our way to the ticket booth and were met with our first line up. We have been lucky so far into our trip to have missed all the lines into attractions thus far.


We walked around the castle grounds taking in the gorgeous old castle, the grounds and gardens are as you would imagine - perfectly manicured. One thing that surprised us was the amount of planes flying overhead on their way to Heathrow. It reminded me of the Aussie movie “The Castle’ with the planes overhead. The brilliant blue sky was filled with white crosses from the jet streams like a huge game of aero naughts and crosses. The day had gone from cool (in the country) to a typical warm spring day.


We went in and checked out the Queen’s Doll House, now this is a little out there. It was a gift but get this, everything inside it is a complete miniature replica! All the books are actual books, the paintings mini versions of originals and it has working water and electricity! Gee I was jibbed with my plastic Barbie doll and accessories!


We continued on to the State Apartments, now you know you are in the company of wealth when the fire extinguishers are not the usual red but silver! Once again I had sensory overload with all the artworks, murals, tapestries and furniture, oh and don’t forget the medium size arsenal of weaponry that adorned the walls.


As we walked from room to room it was like each room was trying to outdo the other! In the Queen’s quarters you could fit 2 of our houses in it! Reflecting back on all the cute little country cottages and townhouses we have seen over the days, I observed that they were the same size as the Queen’s dressing room! Sheesh to be rich!!


Walking through the large stately room, King Georges Hall I think, I was admiring each painting as we walked down and I swear some of the eyes were following me. It was here I got the giggles and a little silly as I was remembering all those bad movies with kings and queens and the painting with the eyes cut out and people standing behind the painting to use as a spy point!


Further along we were in the Queen’s china room where all the elaborate china and various diner sets, candle sticks, vases, ECT are on display. All I could think of was our friend Pete as we walked through as there were many spittoons (as he would call them) on display.
In the lantern room there were numerous tankards and drinking cups on show, some of these were massive, I whispered to Tom for him to imagine the size of the coaster that you would need for that size cup! Ahh yes I am so classy!!


Out in the grounds once again we witnessed a number of soldiers and guards marching around. I went up and had the obligatory photo with one of the guards; of course he didn’t flinch or move. I kind of felt sorry for him as everyone was getting photos with him. I wondered what he would do if he had an itchy nose??


As we left we made our way back down the mall area and were greeted by a melodic sound. There was a man playing a type of pipe, unfortunately all it looked more like a fancy bong! Once again the lady in me was MIA as I joked about what was before me. As Tom would say…you can’t take me anywhere!


We drove to Heathrow and said goodbye to Holly and dropped off at terminal one to get our transfer to our London hotel. There were Tom and I and one other couple in the van and guess which nationality there were? Yup you guess it Aussie!


Driving through the city was pretty cool and catching glimpses of all the famous landmarks for the first time was another fun experience we had. Seeing all the beautiful townhouses as we drove through Redcliff and Chelsea was great. The traffic was pretty bad and Tom thanked his foresight of not driving through the city.


When we pulled up outside our hotel the excited feeling was in full force. Our hotel is right next to the London Eye, this will be our home for the next 7 days.


We decided to stay at the Premier Inn. Firstly we have stayed at 3 already as they were so cheap (no we are not tight arses but prefer to spend out money on other things!). Spending 50 pounds on a room compared to what we have spent in other places was a welcome relief for our wallets - it meant more money for shopping! We took the chance in Carlisle and hadn’t looked back. It is sort of like our Best Weston, I personally think it is way better. It is a budget chain but it doesn’t feel that way. The rooms are large; you have a bath and shower (your feet do thank you), a comfy bed and very friendly staff. As long as a place is clean I don’t mind. So we decided to book this hotel in London and we are SO glad we did. For 7 nights, 10 steps from the London Eye right in the city we paid 700 pounds! A bargain!!


We booked in, have been given an end corner room which is massive with a view over Jubilee Park. Out our window we have the park and Eye right outside. The view of a day outside our room window was beautiful but just gorgeous of a night with all the city lights! If you open the window the sounds of bands playing, the carousel and general chatter of people going past make their way into our room, window closed and silence! So I am sitting on my bed typing this looking out at the beautiful twinkling night view of London with the sound of the city wafting up into our room, what a sight!


After we booked in we went for a walk to check out what was around our hotel. In the same complex as our hotel we have the Salvador Dali (my favorite artist) museum and café (Yay, what a fab surprise!). Copies of his artwork dot the wharf sidewalk, the Movisuem which Tom is salivating about as it has all memorabilia from movies like Star Wars, Dr Who, Batman, James Bond ect, basically all the movies he loves, an arcade, bowling alley, various nightclubs, restaurants, wax museum, underwater world, of course the London Eye and we are just a walk over the bridge (Thames) to Big Ben, Westminster Abby and the rest of London.


We walked over the Westminster Bridge, past Big Ben and along the River Thames and over the Waterloo bridge, watched a mime and a band, hung out over the dock checking out the view before we turned blue and decided to finally get something to eat, our first meal today, and call it a night…but not before Tom pays a visit to the Ben & Jerry’s ice cream vending machine in the lobby downstairs!!

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Part of trip: Living The Dream

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