Windsor, Westminster Abbey and Nopi

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We were up bright and early this morning, knowing that w were going to Windsor for most of the day. We didnt want to leave too early and be caught in the commutor rush, but we also needed to have time to explore Windsor , the town and the castle. We caught the Piccadilly line to Paddington (no bears visible) and then changed over to the national rail part of the station to get our tickets to Windsor. We count the train to Oxford, got off at Slough, then caught the train to Windsor. It was about 5 or 10 minutes only from Slough, and the trwin only had two carriages. The weather was sunny as we got out in Windsor, and although the wind was cool, it was quite pleasant. We had purchased the tickets to the castle on Sunday when we bought our Oyster cards, so all we had to do was walk in! An audio guide was part of the deal, so we collected our guides, turned them on and set out up the hill. We began with the state apartments. These are definitely English, but also quite reminiscent of the European castles, with the reception rooms for both the king and the queen in the public part of the castle. There are many paintings in the rooms and slow some beautiful furniture. The big halls that are used for banquets are enormous, and others we full of weaponry. Lots to see. Also on our audio guide was information about the restoration of the castle after the fire. It has been done really well and includes a few additions that make the castle more useful as well. After the castle we went down the hill a little to St George's chapel. This is a really magnificent building, lavish gothic architecture, lots of stained glass and gold leaf. The most lavish part is the commemorative annex that Queen Victoria built to her husband, Prince Albert.

This brought us to the end of our tour of the castle, and it was lunchtime too. We walked into the town of Windsor and found a Pret a Manger- an excellent sandwich chain. We had some delicious baguettes and some good coffee. We got the two o'clock train back to Slough and waited for our connection to London. It wasn't too far away. There were some announcements about signalling issues between Slough and Redding, so we held our breaths and hoped they wouldn't eventuate. Luckily they didn't seem to. We returned to Kensington, rested a bit and then dressed to go back to central London for evensong at Westminster Abbey. We felt we were leaving too early, but getting to the abbey around 4.30 saw lines already quite a distance.Along the street. Her was probably a couple of hundred people at the service. Great to hear the choir sing some beautiful music. It was too early to go on to our dinner booking, so back to Kensington for a while.Nopi was our destination for dinner , so we needed to go into Piccadilly Circus and walk a little.to get there. It was a delicious meal. We began with roasted aubergine with a tamarinod yoghurt dressing and courgette fritters. The main took a while to come, so we were offered some extra salads to try. We enjoyed some beans with aubergine and some baby lettuce with dressing. Our mains arrived - Peter had sea bass and I had a Berkshire pork chop. We also had crispy potatoes on the side. All were great. Finally we were offered dessert and coffee. Did we have room??? We decided yes. We shared caramel and peanut butter icecrea with a chocolate sauce and peanut brittle. My fresh mint tea to finish was lovely. Rain greeted us as we went outside. We had to hurry to the underground to stay dry. THe rain had eased by the time we got to Kensington, so the walk along Gloucester road was drier. Our time in London was at an end, but the next part of the journey starts tomorrow.

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Photos

Windsor castle
Courtyard outside the St George's Chapel

Westminster
Sun on the Big Ben, as the rain approaches

Sea Bass
Peter's main