Day two of our England exploration saw us hopping the green 401 bus west to Windsor where we planned to visit the Windsor Castle. Additionally, my mother had fond memories of shopping in Windsor from when we lived in the UK years ago so she was looking forward to getting a chance to acclimate to the UK shopping climate.
As it turned out, we weren’t the only, nor the most important, people to have the same idea – the Queen herself was also in town staying at Windsor for the weekend and we arrived just in time to see the changing of the guard at Windsor Castle. Although we didn’t see her majesty we did see a lot of red coats and furry black hats.
After the guard had passed, we made our way into the Castle grounds and aimed straight for the royal apartments. Fortunately we’d arrived early enough to beat most of the crowd and enjoyed a morning of touring some of the inner chambers of the palace which have been either recreated or restored to give an idea of how the royal family used the space hundreds of years ago. Of course, the palace is still in use today and some of the rooms, including the dining and reception rooms, are used regularly for royal functions.
After our tour through the castle, which included a detour to the gorgeous St. George Chapel on the castle grounds, we made our way into the little town of Windsor for lunch and, most important of all, shopping.
The rest of the day passed quickly enough, with numerous shop stops, before we boarded the bus back to London. We were making our way back to the Top Floor Flat to meet Top Floor Flatmate Ann for dinner at our favourite local pub and a big plate of fish and chips for mom. The fish and chips were a huge hit – and she was immensely impressed (significantly moreso than I was) that I found bones in my plate of fish. Apparently fish and chips in the US bears a strong resemblance to processed fish fingers than anything that ever came from the sea.
It was another early night as the next morning was going to be an early one… we had a train to catch.
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Meaghan Fitzgerald is a marketer and entrepreneur building and growing consumer and gaming products and experiences. A Silicon Valley native, she started her first company, DormWise, in 2006 which she later sold in 2009. Meaghan spent 7 years in London in early stage consumer startups, two years at Xbox as a product marketer for Minecraft, and is currently the head of product marketing for VR experiences at Facebook and Oculus. Meaghan writes here about business, technology, gaming, and marketing. She has been named a top
We were in Windsor just this weekend! I couldn’t help but notice the lack of a tea shop inside the castle though. High tea in the state appartments (with Her Majesty, of course) would have added a cherry on top of an already rather regal cake 🙂
So very true about the fish fingers! Though, I must say, I do like American battered fish sticks. 🙂 Tasty.