Windsor Castle and The Crown

Today was misty, snowy, icy and fun! What a quirky introduction you're probably thinking...At least I hope you're thinking that and not "wow Phoebe has gone barmy". Anyway today included Runnymede, Staines, Eton and Windsor. We started off having a buffet breakfast of traditional english food - Miranda had Coco Pops and I had Cornflakes. We got on our lovely warm coach and watched the white blanketed fields whizz by until we reached one particular field in Runnymede. What could possibly be special about an old field you ask? Well Britain has so much history that any old field, such as this, had the Magna Carta signed there. I kid you not. Britain has history coming out the whazoo. After we saw the monument we then went driving through Staines and stopped at Eton.

Eton is a little town which consists of one street of various shops and then a high school. Now don't go thinking this is any small town run-of-the-mill school because Eton is prestigious. It was founded ages ago and has become a host for upcoming young boys to aspire to go to. One such pair was Prince Harry and William - woopee. The main interesting point about this school is their uniforms! They only JUST stopped wearing top hats - to school. Top hats people! They wear long pinstriped trousers (you can't say pants because the British call underwear pants so that's wrong) with a vest and these long black coats with tails! Fancy stuff and we were all gawking at these boys so they must have felt pretty out of place especially when we started to spot the prefects who wore grey trousers and a special type of vest. Very lovely town nonetheless. Afterwards we toddled over to the town of Winsdor and the temperature dropped another million degrees it felt like...

Windsor is a lovely town which has more shops than Egham (which isn't saying much) so we got to see the castle and then go shopping. So the castle of Windsor was built by William the Conqueror and then updated and beautified by Charles II who had a sweetheart named Nell Gywn (drama people should know who I'm talking about in great detail) so there was a pub across the road called the Nell Gywn. There you go. So we went into the castle and lo and behold one of fountains was frozen - are you getting an idea of the weather yet?

We started off in the chapel - St John's (?) - and saw its beautiful architecture. It was amazing inside with a huge ceiling, way up high, ornately decorated with various symbols. We saw the tombs of Henry VIII, Jane Seymour, the Queen Mother and her husband and the most incredible memorial that Queen Victoria built for her husband Albert. Now looking at the memorial you could tell she missed the man because it was jaw-droppingly lovely. We weren't supposed to take photos but Miranda may or may not have sneaked one in so that is shown.

After the chapel we got to peruse the state apartments and, no the queen wasn't home today. So we saw all the various fancy rooms of the castle which included an amazing doll's house that Queen Mary I commissioned. It had real wine in the little bottles in the cellar and real books in the library! Very cute. The castle also contained the bullet which killed Lord Nelson (guy who did great military work - Battle of Trafalgar) and a gorgeous Grand Ballroom with huge mirrors, glittering chandeliers and gold dripping from every surface. It was in this room that Miranda sneezed. Of course, we made a big deal about saying "Oh my gosh Miranda you just sneezed in the Queen's Grand Ballroom - it will have to be destroyed" and so on factoring girlish laughter throughout.

We also saw the guards which protect the Queen - the ones with the fuzzy hats (this is a long blog but a lot of stuff happened). We got a photo with one of them who looked about 17. There were a group of four which seemed to be chasing us around because they turned up where ever we did! There was one guard who must have thought no one was watching and he SCRATCHED HIS NOSE. They are not supposed to move! Treachery in the ranks! Alert! After that (Miranda and I were the last in the castle, I think everyone else was more concerned with shopping) we went into the shops and then back on the bus. We got back to the uni and found out that we had to fend for ourselves for dinner so we all trooped down to Egham to go to "The Crown" pub and were called "great" by some local guy in the pub. He assumed we were all American (I was the only not American) and was like "that's so great. I love listening to you guys talk. Happy Days!". Happy days indeed kind sir! Tomorrow I'm off to London, once more, to see Mum. Toodles!