WiNdSoR CaStLe

Saturday, November 15th

Today, I went to Windsor Castle, just about a ½ hour train ride outside of London. Definitely the most impressive Castle I have seen so far, and I hear it is the most impressive in all of England. It started off as a military castle, and is now one of the Queen’s many residences. She was actually here today while we were visiting… didn’t see her though.

The fortress walls were really impressive, and intimidating, overlooking vast fields and the rest of the city. The sides of the walls were pretty cool, with slits up and down for shooting arrows. We walked along the outdoor portion of the fortress for a while, and then went inside for a look at the state rooms.

The first stop was Queen Mary’s Dollhouse. Sounds cheesy, but it was so cool. It was basically a smaller model of the entire palace, complete with real silver dinnerware and miniature paintings from the real artists. Even the plumbing in the dollhouse was fully functional.

I moved on next to the a room full of a collection of photographs and drawings. The room help preliminary drawings by Da Vinci, Rubens and Holbein. Incredible.

The state apartments were very elegant and impressive as well. No pictures were allowed, which made me sad. Some of the rooms held paintings by Rubens, Rembrandt, Van Dyck, and Jan Steen. I decided I need to buy a few books on these guys when I get home because now that I have been able to study their work further, I have a lot to learn from their portraiture. Other rooms held busts of poets, war heroes, and musicians such as Handel. Partially fan vaulted ceilings, red fabric walls, golden decoration and molding everywhere- this place was gorgeous.

A vast hall called St. George’s Hall leads the viewer through the history of knighthood, with wooden vaulting and partial buttress décor, with crests of hundreds of knights throughout the ceiling and walls. Suits of armor, swords, and statues line the entire wall. The hall was designed to hold a huge dinner table for hundreds of guests. The room was massive.

Part of the castle is remodeled a bit due to a fire from 1992. St. Georges Hall was one of these rooms, in addition to a few of the final state rooms we went through. I also enjoyed going through another room that had the armor of Henry VIII. When you look at it from the front it looks normal, but from the side, it allows room for a huge pot belly. Haha.

We looked through the rest of the castle, including St. Georges Chapel, which was gorgeous. Again, this chapel held fan vaulted ceilings, stained glass, and all kinds of beautiful statues. This one was a bit different than many of the others in the fact that it has crests for knights all over the place, with armor hanging by the altar as well.

We cruised through the gift shops and left back to the train station for the day, and then relaxed in our rooms for the rest of the evening.


Views of the Castle