Sneak Peek: Windsor Castle

Actual date of this event: 20 July

On Saturday morning, we woke up with every intention of driving to Bath with making a quick stop in Windsor to take a look at its massive castle. We all had quite a few drinks the night before, but since we are all fairly prompt people, we were out the door by 9:30am. Phew!

(See that town called Basildon way East of London?? Yes, that is the location of the closest Taco Bell to us.
I felt the need to let you all know that... maybe you feel sorry for us????? Maybe?)

After some super queasy moments in the vehicle (I swear I never experienced car sickness until the UK, it's either me getting older or I had too much to drink the night before or it's Luke's driving - I'm going to blame it on Luke), we arrived in Windsor with Google Maps taking us right to the castle. Unfortunately, this is the UK and they don't just have giant parking lots everywhere. We drove around for a few blocks and found a car park to "pay & display" for an hour. We walked through the little town, and up to the castle.

We noticed all of these people just standing around. They weren't in a line. They weren't watching a street performer. They weren't acting like typical tourists snapping pictures and actin' the fool. They were waiting for something. The trusty interwebs informed me that we had arrived just in time for the changing of the guards. Duh, I should have known that! The trusty interwebs also informed me that we would see the guards and band march by, and then they would go straight into the castle grounds never to be seen again. We waited and saw that "magical moment" which actually only took about 2 minutes. No big deal though... it was my sister and brother-in-laws first time to see the guards marching, and they were really excited.

Then moved on to taking pics of the castle from the outside, and its surrounding area. I can't really tell ya about the inside, but the place was huge and looked exactly like a castle from the outside.

We walked down a little street where there were gates to the front entrance (or what looked like the front entrance) with a long drive up to the doors. We snapped some photos and then we heard the band again! Aaaaahhhh!!! So they DO come back around! Anyway, our hour of paid parking was just four minutes away from expiring, so we all did a speed walk back through the town to our vehicle and carried on to Bath. 

Our quick stop turned into a place we wish we could have enjoyed a little bit longer. Maybe one day Luke and I can make a day trip back to tour the 11th century castle. It is after-all the longest occupied palace in Europe AND it is the preferred weekend home of Queen Elizabeth. It's gotta be a good one!