Day 5 – April 20 Wednesday

Today we were meeting up with Ron’s friend, Andrew Spence who lives in Eton right next to Windsor.  This morning we shared a table with 2 Aussie ladies going on a different Insight Musical Tour.  We took a walk along the rush hour streets to join the London Underground at Bond Street Station & the tube to Waterloo Station where we changed trains for the above ground trip to Windsor-Eton Riverside Station.  We saw a little bit of the English country site.  We arrived at 11.21pm in an old quaint small village, nestled under the imposing walls of Windsor Castle.  We met Andrew & his two gorgeous young daughters, Isabella & Sienna at the station.  We went for a short walk & a long coffee & a chat to catch up.  Andrew’s lovely wife, Soledad joined us after her routine CAT-SCAN check up on their expected baby.  It was great to catch up with Andrew & meet his beautiful family after all this time.  We walked back into Eton with them & said farewell then headed back to the castle & a quick lunch.

Windsor Castle is very large & imposing, it is the oldest & largest occupied castle in the world.  We had the pleasure of Her Majesty in residence today with her flag flying from the Round Tower.  We slipped on the free audio tour headsets & headed out on our self guided tour.  This set of buildings is fabulous, with the St George Chapel an impressive 15^th century church, very ornate & full of history (the Queens mother & her hubby, King George the V are interred in a simple tomb there)  Next we looked at Queen Mary’s dollhouse (on a grand scale) unbelievable how everything in there is so perfect & to scale. Then into the fabulous State Apartments, full of history, paintings by the masters, huge tapestries, elaborate decorated ceilings, stunning furniture & a huge display of bejewelled elaborate swords & weaponry from all over the world of the former British Empire.  Interestingly, on display as well was the bullet that killed Lord Nelson.  The history of this place is enormous & thought provoking.  To think that we have been in the rooms where Kings & State Heads are still at the present time received & entertained by the Queen (of course she missed a great opportunity by not coming out to meet us). This place is really WOW!!! The guards were closing the place up as we were leaving & we wandered back out into the sunshine & warmth for our train journey back to Marble Arch & another hot bath.  The poor old legs really complain about all the walking & stepping & standing they are doing lately & we haven’t got to the European tour yet.