Wonderful Windsor

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Wonderful Windsor
- Piprey on wheels

'Costa del London' as the temperature in London was higher than Ibiza @ 22 degree Celsius). Easter holidays- I took the bite to promote domestic tourism and spend a day outdoors.

I prepared fresh cucumber sandwiches with carrot finger food.Train from Hayes and Harlington to Windsor and Eton via Slough for 6.20 GBP return. By the way, there was no ticket checking at Windsor and Eton train platform. A short walk through the lovely railway station and was at the castle visitor center. Since I had a year pass, I imagined it would be an immediate but they issued a fresh ticket for 3pm entry. A stroll by the Thames to admire the swans, the row of neat houses, the crowd and watch the boats sail by.

There were three men who got into the train from Slough. One even released wind while walking on the platform. At Windsor, I observed them sitting at strategic locations as homeless people.

A great atmosphere, buzzing with bees and people.

The river cruises and all the chairs by the river were occupied. Long queues to catch the short boat rides at exorbitant prices. A single scoop of ice cream ranged from 1.95 GBP to 3.40 GBP in the span of 500 ms. I walked to the Alexandra Park and enjoyed my picnic lunch in the relative quiet. It was mostly non-English having fun in Windsor.

Lots of goodies to commemorate platinum jubilee celebrations of the queen and London touristy T-shirts on sale. At the castle, it was a tortoise like check in like going through an airport security. Finally walked around the covered moat to the staterooms after queuing again to enter the same.

The delightful 20^th house English miniature house called Doll's house was open to public display. It was created by Edwin Lutyens.

It was lovely to see the tiny exquisite beds, bedcovers, paintings, carpets, porcelain, vases, table/chairs in the size ratio of 1:12 to the original house with servant quarters and cars. It was old fashioned furniture and not Ikea ones. It was not one of the doll houses to play! If we do get tiny aliens, I am sure they will be delighted with our arrangements to host them as it has electricity and running water too!

The staterooms were all gold and velvet with massive portraits of royalty and proud military commanders. I admired the paintings by Reubens.

The wall hanging tapestry, mostly made in St Gobain, France were hung from the walls to prevent draft. They had biblical stories of Esther, a Jewish queen who saved her kind from the Persians at great risk to her life. Somehow Jews seem to have been prosecuted all the time. (However, yesterday I heard that Jews were planning to convert the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem into National Park against the wishes of Palestine Christians?)

The ball room was nice and chandeliers beautiful. Of course, it cannot be compared to the Papal palace in Venice or Versailles which were far more gorgeous, big and spectacular. The audio guide kept explaining the maintenance and conservation with odd covid social distancing guidance. Hardly any stories on the castle itself. I remember even the guide at the Paris cemetery had more stories to offer. Photography of the state rooms were not permitted to preserve the
"mystery" of the "history" .

The queen's platinum jubilee is planned to be celebrated in June 2022. I was afraid of picking up knick knacks only to realise that they were made in dear old China 😊

Saint George's chapel was closed as the royalty were offering their Easter prayers of continuity of their royal privileges and estate. The smiling priests were richly dressed in golden flowing dresses and were standing at the chapel gates.

After much deliberation, I entered a Thai buffet joint and picked up a Green papaya salad. Unfortunately, it smelled too much of fish and I had to throw it away. Turned around the corner to the 4kms path from Windsor Castle gates to the Horse statue on Snow hill. Up the walk, we enter a deer park. I enquired from an Indian couple if there were any deer. They said, "No chance". It was all grass with lined up trees. Once upon a time, it used to be hunting grounds of the British monarchy.

Indeed, it was a much better show at Windsor Castle from my last visit in July 2021 as the exhibitions of Phillip (Queen Elizabeth's late husband) was removed, Renaissance painting restored and exhibited, barricades for crowd management removed and more rooms opened to the public. Ticket prices increased from 23.50GBP to 28 GBP. The clever scheme is asking the public to treat these tickets as a donation so that it is probably not taxed. In return you can come back multiple times in a year hopefully with new person to add to the donation 😊

Since most people were foreign tourists, they are unlikely to come again.

It is the ordinary people, the skilled craftspeople, artists, scientists who are being celebrated to add zest to our boring lives.

This trip left me thinking of British Monarchy. With the 92 year old queen leading a homely life in the wonderful Windsor castle, can I expect an invitation to afternoon tea?

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Photos

Famous view of the Windsor castle
The road in front is the long walk ( about 4 kms) and was built by King Charles inspired from the french kings. King Charles had long curly hairs.

Miniature house
All the tiny furnitures! Dusting them might be done by nanorobots :)

Gates to enter
These were much smaller than the ones in India where elephants needed to be accommodated.