Day 9

It has been a really long 48 hours!  I am so sorry for not emailing last night, but we literally only had a maximum of 4 hours to sleep.  So, I had to go to bed.  Anyhow....I am sending two separate emails tonight....one for Tuesday and one for today!  So here is Day 9....

We were able to sleep in again and start off with a good breakfast at the hotel!  We traveled by bus into town and split up in two different groups.

Some of us went to Harrod's...London's famous, old, and "posh" department store.  It was lovely and completely overpriced, but we can say we've experienced it!

The main part of the group took the Tube over to the River Thames and waited in line for the London Eye.  Unfortunately, the line was so long, they were not able to get on because we had to get to an appointment with a local guide!  The group was very disappointed, but they did get to see the area.

We all had lunch and then met up with our bus driver "just around the corner"!  That is not a literal term here -- or at least not with Satyen, our guide! :)  We have certainly gotten in plenty of steps!


We picked up our local guide and rode up to Windsor Castle.  He was full of all sorts of knowledge which he shared with us on our 45 minute trip to Windsor!  He told us all about the very important year of 1066 in which England was invaded for the last time by a foreign power - William, the Duke of Normandy (aka: William the Conqueror).

To prove his greatness, William the Conqueror began building castles all over England....over a thousand of them in his first 10 years!  One of them was the Tower of London.  The other was Windsor Castle, what the queen calls her actual residence since Buckingham Palace is "the office".  She usually spends the weekends at Windsor. So, to our disappointment she was not home when we arrived!  We missed her at both castles!


The bus dropped us off, and we walked the rest of the way up the "hill" into the city of Windsor - a very quaint town that we all wish we could have spent the day in!  Our guide stopped in a few places to tell us about the castle before releasing us for about an hour.  One impressive fact was that royalty has been living in Windsor since the 1100s!  That's a legacy!


He showed us the beautiful garden where a moat once surrounded the original castle.  It is usually off limits to the public except a few times a year when they open it up to raise money for charity.  It was so beautiful - partly because it was on so many different levels as it continued to rise up the hill to the castle!  He told us the only way they are able to mow the grass is to attach lawnmowers to ropes, lower them down, and then pull them back up as they cut the grass! I suggested goats might work, but I suppose they might also eat the pretty stuff!

Our guided tour of the castle was about 40 minutes, and it was absolutely breathtaking!  We started with Queen Mary's dollhouse which was given to her for her 60th birthday by her granddaughter.  It is on a scale of 1:12, and is extremely detailed...down to working plumbing and electricity!  We moved along through the state rooms and bed chambers.  Much of the castle is still used for dinners, meetings, etc.  It is also a place in which the Queen can host overnight guests from visiting countries!  Be sure to ask your students what their favorite room was just to get them to remember what all they saw and heard!

Once we completed that tour and spent some time in the official gift shops, we were able to spend just a few minutes in St. George's Chapel which is part of the castle.  Ten kings and queens are buried there including Queen Elizabeth's own parents and sister.  This chapel was another beautiful Anglican church to add to our list of ancient churches we have visited on this tour!

We left Windsor around 4:00 so we could get to dinner on time at 5:00, but that did not happen!  We went to the wrong location and had to traipse back to the tube where our tickets did not work!  It took us over 30 minutes just to get that sorted out and back on the tube.  By the time we arrived at the correct location, we were an hour and twenty minutes late!  Somehow, they were able to feed us quickly and get us out in time to make it to the theatre right on time!  The majority of us saw Wicked! and absolutely loved it.

Many of us had already seen (some multiple times) but we were not disappointed! It was a fabulous show.  When the show was over, we were exhausted and ready for bed.  After our 40 minute bus trip back to our hotel, we crawled into bed for just a few hours of sleep because we had to be on the bus at 4:45 this morning!!!!

to be continued.....