It was Windsor Castle day today, Deb had booked our tickets months ago and the day was here. We woke to very wet streets and rain. The first rain on our holiday that might have actually affected what we did. But it didn’t!
Our plan was to walk to Bond St tube station. Get the Elizabeth line to Stough and then a bus to Windsor.
We got to the tube station at 8am, a little ahead of time. Our train is on the Elizabeth Line a new line with air-conditioned trains. We walked into what seemed like chaos on the trains today with a suspension of services between Abbey Wood and Paddington.(technical problems at Paddington Court Rd apparently). It was causing grief everywhere. But not for us, our train at 8:24am was unaffected.
We left a couple of minutes late, I think a re-routed train came a few minutes before ours. Our bus at Stough was due a little after 9am. We waited and waited then waited some more. The digital timetable sign on the bus shelter all of a sudden had our bus arriving much much later, so we got an Uber. And 10mins later we arrived in Windsor at 9:35am, dropped off 30m from the queue for the Castle.
We were directed to our queue, they organise everyone based on your ticket entry time. We were in the first group for the day. The queues for later times seemed to stretch a long way down the road. 
We started to move in through security etc at 9:50am and were in the grounds of the Castle by 9:55am.
We picked up our audio guide units and headsets and made our way in. (a quick reminder to myself here, always take my hearing aid telecoil when going touristing where you might need/get a headset.- this avoids a lot of frustration. 🙂 ).
Unfortunately all of the insides of the buildings in Windsor Castle have a ban on photography, so no pictures of the insides.
First on our agenda was St Georges Chapel. 
It’s a magnificent old building that was originally a Catholic Chapel, but Henry VIII changed that. It was built in the late medieval perpendicular Gothic style. It is Royal Peculiar and the Chapel of The Order of the Garter. It is the burial site of the late Queen Elizabeth II, where she is interred with her husband The Duke, and her mum and dad, and her sister Margaret’s Ashes are in there as well. There is also a black “Tombstone” in the floor for Henry VIII and Jane Seymour along with King Charles I and an infant child of Queen Ann, it lies in front of the alter in the Chapel. The roof structure and decorations in the chapel are breathtaking. So intricate yet flowing, reverent and very grand.
From there we made our way to see Queen Mary’s Dolls House, a 1:12 scale miniature royal palace that is in an adjoining building to The State Apartments. It took 3 years to build and was finished in 1924. The house has full electric services, hot and cold running water and a working lift. It is over 6 ft tall and encompasses life from those of service to the top of high society, with fully furnished rooms from a library, to a wine cellar, a saloon, dining room, bedrooms, gardens, etc. Nothing was overlooked and it took 1500 of the finest craftsmen to complete under the watchful eye of a leading architect, Sir Edwin Lutyens.
From there you flow on into the State Apartments. The State Apartments are now used as display areas for much of the royal art collection as well as being the rooms the King/Queen hosts official visits by Heads of State of other countries, and for the ceremonial bestowal of awards/investitures, to British men and women who are being recognised for their achievements. Every room is elaborate and striking. The dining room with a 175ft long table to sit 200 guests was crazy!
By the time we had seen everything we thought we would have another look through St George’s Chapel. We got in easy enough, but the queues inside were 6 abreast and maybe 30-40m long, so we sat in a quiet area where you would sit for a service. After a while we left via the front door.
When we got out of the chapel we started walking back up the hill when we heard military style music coming from the bottom of the hill from the Chapel. There was a changing of the guard ceremony taking place. We stood and watched, the British do ceremony like this better than anyone. 
After it finished we discovered that the exit from the Castle had been blocked off due to the changing of the guard, and was now open again and we could leave.
Once out of the Castle we walked into Windsor village, found a table at Clarence Brasserie and Tea Room and had a Duchess of Bedford Afternoon Tea each.
It seemed appropriate. Deb wanted to see “the Royal Walk ” / “Long Walk”, so we set out to find it. I initially took us in the wrong direction and we finished on a bridge over the Thames River, which wasn’t a bad thing. It was nice to see the upper reaches of the river, with working boats, leisure craft and tourist boats on It, as well as a good number of white swans.
We spent a little time there, then after rechecking google maps we set off in the opposite direction, back through the village. We stopped off at the Parish Church of St John the Baptist, inside was another painting of The Last Supper. This one was painted circa 1600 and was given to the church by King George III. There was also a Last Supper sculpture in the church. 
I think that makes 3 paintings of the Last Supper we have seen this holiday. Back on the street, we walked about 200m down the road through a gate and there it was Windsor Great Park and a very long path/road leading to the South Gate of Windsor Castle from deep within the Park. This was the Royal Walk/Long Walk.
We did what you would call a very, very short walk down the Long Walk, it was fun.
We then decided it was time to head home. We consulted our options and decided to bus it back! Yes, we got the 1:35pm number 702 from Windsor Village to Hyde Park Corner. An all stops green “red” double decker bus ride for 1hr 50 mins. 
It was an enjoyable ride back, we saw so many different parts of greater London.
We got off at the bottom SE corner of Hyde Park and walked up to the Rose Garden, a smallish circular hedged garden of roses. Most of the roses had finished, but Deb found lots to photograph. As we left there Deb saw a squirrel sitting up on its haunches in a garden bed, they are always so interesting to watch. Then we moved on up through the park, under Park Lane, through the western side of Mayfair and back to our flat. Wow, that was a day!!
