The next few days in England..

After our big day of shopping we went to see "Wicked". Here is a poor picture of the curtain that was down before the play started. It is a map of Oz. It had cute little green sparkle lights showing points of interest but the lights didn't show up in my photograph. We had 4th row seats for the play and it was as though they were putting the show on just for us. I've never had such nice seats for a play and it really changed my perspective of how I will see plays from now on! Tori and I both loved "Wicked" and unfortunately IMOM fell asleep about 3/4 of the way in to it.


The next morning, with no plans made in advance, truly flying by the seat of our pants...we went to the train station and got 2 round trip tickets to Windsor. It was a very nice train ride that lasted about 2 hours from London.

Here is a picture of Queen Victoria standing in front of the Windsor Castle.

Just over her right shoulder is a beautiful chapel. Tori and I went to an afternoon service in there. It was open to the public however there were only about 10 people in attendance including us. It was a very nice service and I felt very special getting to attend a church service in a castle.


This is a shot of the castle from the left side... The castle was very beautiful. There were flowers and trees and vines growing all over the place. (What used to be the moat is now a beautiful rose garden.) Inside the castle we got to see many beautiful works of art and centuries old furnishings.


After our castle tour and church service we took a ride on the double decker red tour bus and managed to cross the Seine several more times.



We saw beautiful fields of golden grass, small estates and beautiful forests.


We stopped off to meet up with our dates, Harry & William, only to discover that they both moved away from these parts long ago...


I took some time out to contemplate being stood up by the boys and rested for a while in this beautiful green English meadow that I later learned was a P.E. field for Eaton College.


After our castle tour and bus tour we ambled down a side street and discovered that our ladies in waiting were waiting for us with a large throne and a gaggle of crowns from which to pick...so that we could have our picture taken. (You can't really see that Tori is wearing a crown and I'm wearing a tiara.)


Walking down the side street Tori discovered a kitty. We both stopped to play with it and it was very cathartic and soothing. I really missed my kitties at home and I'm sure Tori missed her kitty, Anna.




We found a place to eat that had a nice crowd of people dining on the cobblestone walk way. We were wary of stopping anywhere that was empty because that never speaks well of the food. At first we were saddened that there weren't any places to sit out side so we could dine al fresco...but as soon as we got inside and placed our order...the skies opened up and it poured for about 15 minutes.

That's me peeking out of the window.


Mmmmm. Pesto & garlic bread....

This was a beautiful little side street in down town Windsor.



The next day we decided to walk around London again. We were hoping to go in to Westminster Abbey but after finding out they charged to get in we decided not to participate. I just found something un-nerving about having to pay to get in to see a church that is still functioning as a church. Yes, it's old and famous but it just didn't seem right to me. So we took off walking.

This is Tori standing in the rain with Big Ben coming out of her head.

We walked to Buckingham Palace and joined the 1,000 other people to watch the changing of the guard.


After waiting for over an hour we figured that there was not going to be a ceremony that day. We later found out that if there is any threat of inclimate weather they will not perform the changing of the guard ceremony.

We ran in to this guy and asked him what he was guarding but he was no help at all. Since Tori had been involved in drum corps before this whippersnapper was born she challenged him to a "drill down".


She won. He left.


Since the guards were no help in telling us what "Clarence House" was I found someone more helpful. Unfortunately I don't have a picture of him, but a very nice Bobby told us that this confined neighborhood was where the Queen Mum lived and it is also where Prince William and Prince Harry live when they are in England. This brick building is their home: (I took this picture so that when Rebek marries Prince William, Tori will know where she has to go to visit her royal grand child.)


That's all for today. Monday's post will cover our visit to the Tower of London and the Tower Bridge and our trip to Wales....