We were all ready to head to Windsor Castle at 8:30! We took a couple of buses, and then an above-ground train to actually get to Windsor. It took about an hour to travel in all. Not too bad! Windsor Castle is one of the arranged trips we have to complement our academic program, in order to enhance our understanding of the issues that we're studying during class.
Windsor Castle is one of the Queen's three residences. Together with Buckingham Palace in London and Holyrood Palace in Edinburgh, it is one of the principal official residences of Queen Elizabeth II. The castle is in Windsor, which is in the English county of Berkshire. It is the largest inhabited castle in the world and, dating back to the time of William the Conqueror, is the oldest in continuous occupation (it's been 900 years!). The castle is huge too! The floor area is about 480,000 sq ft. Also, it is the Queen's favorite weekend residence... so it was cool to be there on a Saturday. Sadly though, she wasn't there this weekend, but rather she was in the U.S. :(
We were going to watch the infamous changing of the guards ceremony, but unfortunately it was canceled today! So we opted for one of those goofy pictures with a guard instead :)
Windsor Castle offers free equipment for audio tours, so we picked up our walkman-like device and headphones to start out our tour! It was really cool because whenever you saw a sign for a different part of the castle, there would be a number too... then all you have to do is enter in the number, press play, and get to hear so much more about the history and importance of whatever it is you're looking at. I really liked it because I don't think I would have got as much out of it otherwise.
The first thing we toured was the Queen Mary's Dolls' House, which is the most famous dolls' house in the world! It took three years to complete and involved 1,500 craftsmen, artists, and authors. The house has electric lighting, hot and cold running water, and even flushing toilets. Crazy, right?! It was a really neat exhibit.
After that, we visited the State Apartments, which are rooms throughout the castle that are lavishly furnished with treasures from the Royal Collection. The exhibits include masterpieces by Rubens, Holbein, and Van Dyck, alongside ornate English and French furniture, some of which are silver and/or porcelain. Very cool!
Then we got to see a special exhibition of royal portraits by Marcus Adams, who photographed four generations of the Royal Family between 1926 and 1956. The centerpiece of the exhibition is a group of photographs taken of the young Princesses Elizabeth and Margaret in the 1920s and 1930s. It was amazing to see such an important and rare piece of history!
Finally, we visited St. George's Chapel, which is within the castle grounds. It was so beautiful! But unfortunately, we couldn't take pictures inside. There are ten monarchs buried within the chapel, including Henry VIII and Charles I!
After Windsor Castle, we headed to a restaurant for some lunch! I got a chocolate Belgian waffle for dessert and it was amaaazing :)
For the rest of the afternoon, we were supposed to go to Runnymede and visit the site commemorating the signing of the Magna Carta in 1215 by King John and his barons. But, the buses didn't work out quite right, so we ended up heading back to Bede Hall instead for a free afternoon!
We were able to learn a bit more about the Magna Carta, though, which really interested me! We learned that although the Magna Carta wasn't intended as a bill of rights, it became seen in these terms whenever people's liberties were challenged. Soon after the American War of Independence against Britain, two clauses from the Magna Carta became the fifth and sixth amendments of the American Constitution! Whoa! It's so very cool to see all the different historical ties between the UK and America.
When we got back to Bede Hall, most of us were so exhausted from the lack of sleep catching up with us! So a majority of us took loooong 2.5-3 hour naps until dinnertime! It was nice to catch up on some sleep :)
For our free evenings, the boys decided to hang out in Putney for the evening and the girls decided to have a girls night in and we watched "He's Just Not That Into You" in Nadia's room. It was a great night!
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