Windsor Castle, Stonehenge & Oxford

---

Another sunny long weekend in London....what to do..... I really wanted to go away somewhere exotic for our May day long weekend, but the trouble is that all the airplane and accommodation prices increase! So I decided to stay home (in the UK) and explore more of the English countryside with one of my housemates.

Monday morning, bright and early, I boarded a coach at Victoria Street Tube station armed with our cameras and backpacks and set off for a full day adventure around England.

If was fun being a tourist for a day, and other people on the bus on holiday from USA and NZ were interested in talking to us about what it's like to live in London...

About an hour west of London is the largest inhabited castle in the world, Windsor Castle.

Of course, as you may have figured out, Windsor is famous for Windsor Castle (the Queens house). We spent some time exploring Windsor castle and the town. We saw the church where Prince Charles and Camilla were married as well as Elton John and his partner. We also got to see the famous dolls house, banquet hall and St George’s chapel where the Queen mum was buried.

We were even allowed into the Staterooms and into the Queen's dining rooms where they hold dinner parties for royalty! The front rooms are lined with antique armor, guns, and swords. The huge royal rooms are amazing but unfortunately no photography was allowed!

We watched the changing of the guards, enjoyed the music, and as we were leaving almost got knocked over by guards marching past us.

The flag flown from the castle tells you if the Queen is in residence. When we visited, the Royal Standard was flying, meaning the Queen was around!


A few hours later we arrived at Stonehenge. Well, Stonehenge looks just like a bunch of large rocks, and that's what it is. We spent about 45 minutes here, and much like the Tower of Pisa, you just see it and move on!

It is believed to have been built about 2000 BC. The exact purpose is unknown, but it appears to be some sort of calendar. The sun lines up with the stones in a different way depending on what month it is.

A decade or so ago you were allowed to go up and touch the stones, but now they are roped off to prevent people from chipping away pieces of stone.

Scattered throughout the surrounding paddocks are little mounds or hills, which are believed to have been old burial areas for the people that once lived in the times that Stonehenge was built. It is amazing that nobody has excavated the area and that it has been left untouched and undeveloped for all these years.

The final stop on our little day adventure was Oxford and Oxford University. Oxford University, despite what you may think, has no single university campus. The university is made up of dozens of colleges, some of which can be half a mile apart. The colleges are managed collectively by the Oxford University board.

One of the more famous buildings is called Radcliffe Camera, (It is the circular looking building). It was built as an extension to the Bodleian Library to give students more space to read through books. The library contains every book ever published in the UK, but you aren't allowed to take the books of the premises. Legend goes, even King Charles I was refused permission to borrow a book.

You may have heard of the Oxfam charity before, but did you know that the first ever Oxfam store was opened in Oxford!

We also went to check out Christ Church College where the dining hall in Harry Potter at Hogwarts is filmed. Unfortunately, they close the dining hall at 4.30pm as the students need it, so we just missed out on that!

We arrived back in London at about 7.30pm, extremely tired. Work tomorrow!!

---