After a great night's sleep in a bed instead of sitting upright on a plane like we did the night before, we had a wonderful breakfast in the hotel and set off for our tour. First stop: Windsor Castle.
Windsor Castle
Immediately upon our arrival in Windsor, we saw the original locomotive Queen Victoria used. It has the Queen's royal seal on it.
Our tour guide for the day. Before you actually get to the castle area, you go through the little town of Windsor.
This was formerly the Windsor Royal Station, but it is now the entrance to a shopping area.
Such a beautiful stately queen.
The guys loved finding a good bench once in awhile.
Windsor Castle is the largest and oldest occupied castle in the world with a history that spans 1,000 years!
It is not hard to see why this is the Queen's favorite weekend home.
Beautiful overlook. Actually the River Thames is down there somewhere.
Although you can't go into the actual current living quarters of the Queen, you can go into the State Apartments of former kings and queens. They wouldn't allow pictures inside, but you were able to see ornately decorated rooms with priceless paintings, and porcelain place settings of the royals dating back hundreds of years.
And, yes, there are Royal Guards here at this castle, too.
As we came driving up through the fields and rural areas, suddenly--there were the rocks known as Stonehenge! Although some might say, it is just a bunch of stones put together, it is a must-see!
We were told that although the original purpose is
unclear, some have speculated that it was a temple made for
the worship of ancient earth deities. It has been called an astronomical
observatory for marking significant events on the prehistoric calendar.
Others claim that it was a sacred site for the burial of high-ranking
citizens from the societies of long ago.
"While we can't say
with any degree of certainty what it was for, we can say that it wasn't
constructed for any casual purpose. Only something very important to the
ancients would have been worth the effort that it took to construct Stonehenge." Britannia History
The narrative guide they gave by way of these recording devices really helped us understand what we were looking at better.
Some of these stones weigh 40-50 tons! How did they do it?!
"The best guess seems to be that the Stonehenge site was begun by the people
of the late Neolithic period (around 3000 BC) and carried forward by people
from a new economy which was arising at this time. These 'new'
people, called Beaker Folk because of their use of pottery drinking vessels,
began to use metal implements and to live in a more communal fashion than
their ancestors." Britannia History
"The stones we see today represent Stonehenge in ruin. Many of the original
stones have fallen or been removed by previous generations for home construction
or road repair. There has been serious damage to some of the smaller bluestones
resulting from close visitor contact (prohibited since 1978) and the prehistoric
carvings on the larger sarsen stones show signs of significant wear." Britannia History
Suddenly the guys were all having a good laugh. I don't think it was from the narrative, that's for sure!
These mounds around the edge are actually burial mounds.
The "Heel Stone." One of many that are actually quite a ways from the main Stonehenge rocks. Again, only conjecture as to why.
Very clever picture taken by Joyce.
Yes, we definitely were glad to see this very unique structure and its setting. It will be wonderful some day to find out exactly the whole story behind it, won't it?!
Oxford
The bus ride to Oxford was through some beautiful country.
Oxford is the oldest university in the English speaking world. They duly note that they have "been educating world changing leaders for over 800 years." Some that we especially have heard of are C. S. Lewis, Pres. Bill Clinton, Nelson Mandella, and Margaret Thatcher.
It was interesting to know that there are actually 39 different colleges which make up Oxford University. Each has its own student body, dining hall, and sports teams.
One must apply to the college that you want to attend. If you want to just apply to get into any one of the 39 colleges, you may, but the chances of getting in aren't as great, since they would fill the spots with those specifically applying first.
Oxford is a city that lives and breathes education everywhere you look.
Students on the lawn studying.
If only we would have had time to go to the Christ's Church College which was used in the Harry Potter films, but we will have to save that for next time.
Doug instantly noticed this beautiful car (a Bentley, we believe), but he came back and told us it was only a reproduction. That still didn't diminish the fact of how really beautiful it was!
So much history and meaning to all of its buildings everywhere you went.
Seriously this is an amazing campus. Everywhere you looked, you felt like you were in Disney World!
I loved the ivy covered buildings.
There was a little cart where a man was making crepes. We had to try some.
This picture was taken for Ethan and Ella--my grandkids. This is the size of Nutella they need. They absolutely love this stuff!
A college bookstore. Don't you just love the bag that says, "Keep Calm and Study." I'll bet the "calmness" is very difficult when you are in a university like this where everyone is tops and the expectations are so great!
Walking back to our bus to go back to London . . . for about an hour bus ride . . .
and then walking back to our hotel. Walking a city gives you such a great feel for it!
This picture is for Lola--the royal guards and Big Ben made out of Hello Kitty items. So cute!
We saw a darling shop that had all things for the Royal Baby announcement. Unfortunately, it was closed for the day.
More Royal Baby items--I am sure the store keepers have already made a fortune on Baby George's birth.
Love the immaculate courtyards and beautiful shrubbery at the places we passed by on our walk.
And soon we were back to our hotel. What a great day!
Tomorrow: We head for the ship to begin our cruise.
3 comments:
That was such a full day, wasn't it? I'm so glad we got to see all of those places, along with seeing the beautiful countryside outside of London. Thanks for arranging the tour for us!!
I am so grateful we chose to have a little more time in London at the first of our trip. We certainly got in the grove of being tourists. London was one of the high lights and you have documented it well.
You are killing me!!! I love it all. Such a fantastic trip!
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