Monday, March 19, 2012

Dec 2011: Went to Windsor to visit the Queen #1

So the girls expressed a desire to go see Windsor so we popped over to see Windsor. This is our second visit, the first time was with Kannu, but this time he is too old to be with his parents (shock horror). This is the first of five photo essays and starts from the car park to the ticket office at Windsor Castle.

Photobucket

Nice merry go round. I wanted to go on it, but it was closed Sad smile

Photobucket

Hmmm, I dont think I will be a fence sitter or sit on the wall.

Photobucket  Photobucket

What? Nothing? crikey, its that bad? And the branches have been cut on this tree.

Photobucket

The garden is made to look like a little fort with a round tower.

Photobucket

There is the castle and my princess.

Photobucket Photobucket

We went there on 29th Dec, still there was a splash of colour..

Photobucket

We reach Old Man Thames.

Photobucket

Give us a good scratch.

Photobucket

Weir left.

Photobucket

A popular feeding place as it seems.

Photobucket

Having a meeting?

Photobucket

Popular meeting place for pigeons

Photobucket

Confusion Galore..

Photobucket

River Street but flowing ivy branches…

Photobucket

Instead of walking right, we turn left to find a good place to have lunch first.

Photobucket

This is a private entrance to the Castle.

Photobucket Photobucket

The King George V Memorial designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens. Yep, the same man who designed New Delhi, the new capital of India, the Jewel in the British Crown.


Photobucket

I noticed this little hidden plaque. These are the famous Windsor Martyrs. They were 16th Century English Protestants who were martyred in the reign of Henry VIII and were burnt to death for heresy. While I was standing there and ignoring the whining of the girls who were very hungry, I had an errant thought relating to the killings of Shia and Sunni’s in the Middle East. Nobody thinks about killing Catholics or Protestants (with the exception of in Northern Ireland) now, will this happen to the Shia and Sunni’s as well? 400 years into the future, somebody will stand in front of a plaque which will say, in 2012, a bus load of Shia pilgrims were dragged out and shot because they were Shia. And then somebody will shake their heads and say, you killed each other because of different rituals and theological differences? You frikking morons.

Photobucket

We walk on a bit and stop at the train station and then walk back.

Photobucket Photobucket

This is a statue of Prince Christian Victor, grandson of Queen Victoria. Curious factoid, he was the only member of the British Royal Family to have ever played in First Class Cricket level. He seems to be an active warrior, winning many medals, but he died during the Boer War aged just 33. A favourite grandson of Victoria, who knows what might have happened if he had lived.


Photobucket

Is this the entrance to the Dungeons? And you can see VR on the crest at the top, Victoria’s crest presumably.

Photobucket

See the GR on the post box? That shows that this box was installed in the reign of King George V.

Photobucket

After a good lunch of Thai food, we walk to the castle. Turning the corner. On the left is the Curfew Tower. This dates back to the 13th Century. It actually has a dungeon and has a sally port. The Castle bells are in here

Photobucket

A bust of Edward VII…hidden behind pigeon proof netting.

Photobucket

Another round tower.

Photobucket

Passing the shopping arcade.

Photobucket

A hole in the wall.

Photobucket

Reaching the other corner.

Photobucket

The grand old Queen Victoria.

Photobucket

This is the King Henry VIII Gate, the exit.

Photobucket

This is not his shield actually, this belongs to Catherine of Aragon, his first wife. She was a great believer in Women’s education. Very smart lady, too bad she couldn't produce a son and Henry went off to get new wives. She got divorced and then died very poignantly. This is the letter she wrote to that idiot Henry VIII when her death was near.

My most dear lord, King and husband,
The hour of my death now drawing on, the tender love I ouge [owe] thou forceth me, my case being such, to commend myselv to thou, and to put thou in remembrance with a few words of the healthe and safeguard of thine allm [soul] which thou ougte to preferce before all worldley matters, and before the care and pampering of thy body, for the which thoust have cast me into many calamities and thineselv into many troubles. For my part, I pardon thou everything, and I desire to devoutly pray God that He will pardon thou also. For the rest, I commend unto thou our doughtere Mary, beseeching thou to be a good father unto her, as I have heretofore desired. I entreat thou also, on behalve of my maides, to give them marriage portions, which is not much, they being but three. For all mine other servants I solicit the wages due them, and a year more, lest they be unprovided for. Lastly, I makest this vouge [vow], that mine eyes desire thou aboufe all things.
Katharine the Quene.

But she had her revenge after her daughter, Queen Mary I, declared that she was the original and only queen. Curiously, she was called as Bloody Mary because of her penchant for burning religious dissenters at the stake, but we are getting away from this.

Photobucket

Various shields line the top of the gate.

Photobucket

The lower ward.



PhotobucketPhotobucket

Some famous people living in front of the gate.

Photobucket

Some of lovely chimneys…

Photobucket

Did you see the beautiful lamps capped with a crown? Lovely.

Photobucket    PhotobucketPhotobucket    PhotobucketPhotobucket

I love these mason’s fanciful carvings. The stone masons would make these funny faces and mount them on the pillars and walls. Usually they are hidden out of sight way up in the heights, but for some reason, these were down on the first floor where you can see them.

Photobucket

We turn the corner into the ticket office.

Photobucket

Another view of the walls.

Photobucket

Its cold……

Photobucket

The flag is flying, which means that the Queen is in residence.

Photobucket

A plane taking off from Heathrow…

Photobucket

Its just past Christmas so the tree is still up.

Photobucket

An aerial photograph of the castle.

Photobucket

After some serious security checks which were like airport style checks, we get inside, collect the headsets and move off into the castle. Here is the slideshow if you wanted to see the full bunch of photographs.

No comments: