London/Paris 2011 trip report–part 9

Our destination today was Windsor Castle.  It takes another train ride of about an hour to get there.  Let me say that the British trains are very good.  They are smooth and quiet.  The seats are a bit narrow, but aside from that, they are a great way to travel.  The trains are so quiet that people talk to one another (of course, no eye contact or conversations with strangers!) in subdued tones.  As we did on our way to the Cotswolds we rode in a “quiet car” – no cell phones or music.  It was a restful, interesting ride out to and back from Windsor.

From either of the Windsor train stations it’s a short walk up to the castle.  It’s an amazing place to visit.  The castle has been there for centuries, but the walls are like new.  The Queen doesn’t allow pictures to be taken inside of any building, so I snapped away while outside, but put the camera away as we viewed the Queen’s dollhouse (filled with miniatures – it even has a working plumbing system).  If you’ve never heard of it, google it – it’s really neat.  Then we took a long and interesting walk through the royal apartments.  Every room has portraits of famous members of the royal families painted by famous artists.  The ceilings are works of art, the furniture pieces are all works of art; there’s gold and silver, weapon displays, banners, and lots of other impressive stuff.  Some of the rooms are basically part of a museum (“Napoleon slept here”), while others are actually used for state activities.  Right now the Queen isn’t in residence there, but will be shortly.  That’s actually a good thing because we were able to view some rooms that won’t be available to the public once she arrives.

On the property is another 1000 year old church, St. George’s Chapel.  Again, no photos, but it’s quite a place to visit.  Lots of kings and queens and other royals are buried in the church, and the Quire (I’d call it the “sanctuary”) has seats for the “Knights of Windsor.”  There are shields for all the knights over their seats, and then, there’s an impressive sword and shield for the current knight who claims his place at the church.

We stayed for the Evensong service and just happened to be there for a special memorial service for one of the Windsor Knights who recently passed away.  We heard another all male choir (the boy sopranos in particular were impressive).  However, the most interesting thing was the processional of around twelve Knights of Windsor.  These are all older men, mostly heroes from WWII.  They were dressed in what reminded me of Admiral outfits: red coats with tails, feathered hats, etc.  These men have all had distinguished military careers now and serve St. Georges.  There was lots of scripture and singing (obviously, quite “high church”) and a sort of memorial sermon by the man’s son.  We would have felt like intruders except for the fact that we, once again, found ourselves sitting in the Nave rather than in the Quire.  We could see through the opening into the service and hear everything quite well, but were actually sitting outside the service.  As I understand it, normally visitors are invited into the main sanctuary for the daily Evensong service but since there were many dignitaries there those seats were reserved for them.  To tell you the truth, I don’t think Jackie or I would have wanted to be inside anyway, we were way underdressed for the occasion as I left my Admiral suit home on this trip.

And yes – we got the obligatory photo with the guard.  He wasn’t very polite.  I said “thanks” and he didn’t even blink an eye!  If you ever come to London – don’t miss Windsor – it’s a “must see.”