The journey to Windsor

Our new "ticket" given to us by the nice customer service man at Heathrow

Over the weekend, Emily and I decided to go to Windsor Castle, the official residence of the Queen. We booked our train tickets and were good to go... so we thought...

To avoid the rush to the station like last weekend's trip to Bath, we left in plenty of time. However, the journey really began when we were unsure which platform to go on. A man at information gave us the platform and train time, so we hopped on a train....

Not exactly on the way, but we made it work!

... that took us to Heathrow airport terminals!! It wasn't quite where we wanted to be, and the wide eyed look of disbelief that everyone was giving us when we asked for help wasn't making us feel any better about our situation!

Luckily, we found a nice guy to help and he gave us good (written) directions. Finally, after a 2 hour journey instead of the 45 minutes it would supposed to be, we made it to Windsor.

The bustling city of Windsor

Windsor

Windsor was much busier than I had expected, but it was the castle estate that really stole the stage. I was absolutely amazed to see a true castle up close. Windsor Castle is the Queen's home, and she spends most weekends there. As a whole, the castle is home to about 150 people! It is open for touring and used for special Queenly ceremonies such as new knights to the Order of the Garter or diplomatic dinners.

Emily at the beginning of our Windsor Castle audio tour

The entrance of the Queen and where she must stay when the Castle is open and she is here (the only part we weren't shown through!)

The interior was incredible! Think of the most ornate room you have ever seen, multiply that by 100, and then clone the room to form a castle... and that's Windsor!

Special feature: Queen Mary's doll house, which has to be the coolest dollhouse I have ever seen. Everything was so precise and detailed... the doll wine cellar (no joke) was stocked with little wine bottles, and the doll Crown Jewels (!) were exact minis of the real things.

It doesn't get much more "castle-y" than this!

I am a Queen groupie... her banner is flying so she was home!

And we made it back to our flats, safe in sound, in a very swift 45 minutes.