Spent the day with the Queen!

So a few days ago I headed out to the town of Windsor to visit Windsor Castle with my friend Jess and her British friend Ruth. Funny enough, Jess has been in the UK for over a year and has never visited Windsor and Ruth, born in the UK, was embarrassed that she had never been there.

To get there, we took one of the amazingly clean trains to Windsor, which took about 50 minutes from London and cost $17 round trip. Windsor is a cute little town with a VERY big castle. The castle is situated on top of a hill overlooking the city. We decided to visit the castle first and then walk around the town.

Let's just say that the White House tour is a joke compared to the Windsor tour. In DC, it takes months to schedule a White House tour through a Representative or Senator. Then, you go to the White House all excited that you are going on a tour, and they only show you 4 rooms! On top of it, there are security guards in every room looking mean and unfriendly. My last White House tour took 20 minutes (yes...that was it) and I spent more time looking at photos of the White House pets then the actual rooms!

Windsor on the other hand makes the White House look like a doll house! It is the oldest and largest occupied castle in the world. It has been continuously lived in for 1,000 years!

It costs $29 to get in (I know....expensive), however, it is entry to the castle for 1 year. Once you enter, you are given a free audio tour headset to walk around the castle and hear about it's history.

Inside, you don't get to only visit 4 rooms....instead about 25! And they are covered with amazing artifacts from Rembrandt to Van Gogh and gifts to the Queens and Kings from all over the world for centuries.

Unfortunately, they do not let you take pictures inside, but let me tell you, the knighting room (where you become a knight) and armor was really cool. And they don't have mean security guards everywhere. Instead they have people every where in matching uniforms to HELP you with your questions. They even carry around books to identify artifacts in rooms. I over heard one women asking about a picture high up on a wall, and the uniformed helper whipped out her book and started to explain the background of the art. And they say that the British suck at customer service. I even asked one of them about becoming a knight. Unfortunately, until someone dies...I have no hope.

And to top off the visit, the Queen was there the entire time (the small flag is the royal flag)!

After spending about 2 hours at the castle (take that White House), we headed into town where we found a nice pub to sit outside and have lunch. We followed that up with a walk by the river and ice cream before heading back to London.