Expedition to Windsor

I've been thinking of visiting Windsor for a while now. Dick and I passed through there on two hikes with the Berkshire Ramblers and it looked like a fun place, the Castle, a theater and lots of boutiques and restaurant. It was summer when were last there. The place was buzzing and looked really pretty. Our stop was so short that I determined that Windsor deserved a second look.

We had nothing planned last weekend so...
We ascertained that the castle was open and booked tickets at the Theatre Royal for the BBC production, Dinner Ladies. I forgot to check the weather forecast. We planned an afternoon visit and luckily the rain stopped by the time we arrived.

We toured the castle. A benefit of a grey, dreary day is no lines. No Royals were in residence, which meant that we also toured the private apartments. 'Windsor is the oldest and largest inhabited castle in the world,' so says Wiki. I was very disappointed that photography was restricted to the grounds and building exteriors. Here is a shot, which I played with in PICNIK, a great new feature of Picasa.

While the State Apartments were resplendent with their Rococo, Gothic and Baroque furnishings, it was St. George's Hall that caught my attention. I liked too the foyer with the statue of Queen Victor surrounded by the plunder from The Empire. In other areas they have made beautiful art by the arrangement of old armaments. I did not purchase a guide book and so now cannot refer to the many interesting features. Guess you will have to go and see for yourself.

At Theater Royal, we only stayed 'til the intermission in the show as we could not understand the accents of the actors. No sense sitting through a comedy and missing the punch lines. This though gave us time to have dinner and retrieve our car before the car park closed at 8.00 p.m. Windsor is an affluent suburban town with some of the some expensive housing in the UK. It is picturesque, the cobbled side streets are lined by touristy shops and restaurants. Going by the crowded restaurants that evening, its residents are not feeling the economic pinch.