We left London from Paddington Station, who also has a very famous and iconic inhabitant. A small, fuzzy, primary colored one. Paddington Bear!
We got off the train in Windsor, and the castle was immediately obvious. So I don't quite know why this sign was necessary... but it did make me laugh.
Given the size of the two palaces that I have really visited here in England, Westminster Palace and Buckingham Palace, I assumed that it would be the same. Quickly, I learned that a castle is much larger and more ornate. This one, too, is quite old. It was built by William the Conqueror, the Norman King who conquered the Anglo-Saxons in 1066 at the Battle of Hastings. Parts of the castle date back to that time, evident from the small archer windows and the very old Roman or Norman style architecture. However, other parts have been added on since then as styles changed, from Gothic, Elizabethan, to Neogothic Victorian. Those were the most prominent styles that I noticed. The grounds were beautiful- strange plant life dotted the manmade hills surrounding the main section of the castle. We toured the inside as well. The only place that I had ever seen that kind of opulence before was the Palace at Versailles. Marble House in Newport, Rhode Island came close, but was a much smaller building. Plus, it didn't have an armory room with like two hundred and fifty swords. I kid you not, they were everywhere. Seven hundred year old weapons were scattered around the walls in elaborate designs, as if each one wasn't probably worth about five million dollars. The opulence was a little bit more tasteful and subdued, though, than Versailles. This may be because a large portion of the indoors of Windsor Castle burnt down in 1992 when a fire started in a small atrium filled with gas lamps. It was refurbished by 1997, but some things were toned down. Anyways, photographs were not allowed indoors, but I got some nice ones of the outside of the castle.
The surrounding town of Windsor was adorable too. The streets were tiny and almost none of them allowed cars. Pedestrians were swarming everywhere. Right near the castle, all of the buildings were very old, and all of the establishments looked as if they had been there for centuries. A few dated back to the 1500's.
While in this section of town, which was decidedly my favourite, we went to a pub for a late lunch. I finally had a proper English pie. Twas mushroom, and twas fantastic.
The rest of town was more like an outlet center- except they weren't outlets. Every major English (and American) chain store was in Windsor. Topshop, H&M, Gap... the list goes on. The buildings were old and fascinating, but the stores were way too familiar to interest me into them. The carousel was interesting enough, but by the time I had seriously considered going for a ride, it closed for the day.
No comments:
Post a Comment