Windsor and Wednesday

On Monday I had a royally fun day. Kinsey, Natalie, Jordan and I went to Windsor Castle, the official residence of the Queen. I really like castles, royalty and chivalry and so I was excited about being there, but I also learned a lot which was a pleasant surprise that actually added to the day.

We got to Paddington to catch our train, and found out that it was going to be a lot cheaper than we thought, which is always exciting. The train only took around 30 minutes, and we even had to change once. We got to the castle, bought our tickets, went through security, and grabbed our audio tour. We walked around the grounds for a bit, enjoying the fabulous weather and the beauty of the castle. Then we went inside and saw a really cool dollhouse thing, it actually has running water and electricity which is Craazy. Then we wandered through an exhibit on Henry VIII, who the more I learn about the more I love. Then we started our tour through the state apartments. They were so beautiful and ornate, and the audio tour gave us lots of fun facts about each room. It also talked about this really cool thing called the Royal Order of the Garter. Look it up, I'm now obsessed. After walking around the apartments we grabbed a quick lunch and then went back in to see St. George's chapel. It was really cool and related a lot to the Order of the Garter, and its also where Henry VIII is buried. It was so cool to see that, and Kinsey was really excited. Before heading back, we walked over to Eton College. I had never heard of this place, but it looks a lot like Elon, which made us all really happy. We found a big green field and some cool buildings but it wasn't as cool as our Elon.

Before going into St. George's we saw that the Queen's Standard flag was flying above Windsor, meaning she was in the castle. We also found out that she usually visits St. George's on Easter because it is where her parents are buried. It made me giddy to think about her being so close. I absolutely love the idea of royalty and chivalry and so being at Windsor Castle at the same time as the Queen was really cool.

Tuesday was just a day of class. Our sociology class is starting a project where we break up in pairs and study Burroughs so Zane and I are going to be hanging out in Camden for a bit, which I think will be fun. Our theater class also went to the Globe theater and we bought tickets to see Romeo and Juliet next week which will be really fun. Then today was Wednesday, the day of no class. I got up and did some work this morning but then Megan and I decided that we wanted to go somewhere this afternoon and since Zane needed his haircut he decided to come with us. We started out by riding a bus to Trafalgar Square, which took forever because of traffic but we were in giggly moods so it was fun. We then went to St. Martens in the Fields, a church off of Trafalgar. It reminded me of the Old North Church, but then when we went to find the Crypt we found a restaurant, on top of the graves! It was interesting, but I got to take the elevator up to the street that I see all the time so it was a successful trip. We then got Zane's hair cut at the same place I got mine done and our plan was to go to another cathedral, but Megan had a better idea, lets walk over Tower Bridge. It took us a bit to get there, a tube ride, some walking and a few buses (we were in fun moods so we didn't really pay much attention to where we were going), but we got there eventually. Going up and walking over this infamous symbol of London was actually really really cool now that I think about it. We got some cool views of the Thames and the surrounding sights, and learned a lot about the bridge itself. But what makes it even better is that now whenever I see pictures of the bridge I can say, "yeah, I've walked around up there."

Its been a really good past couple of days, but this weekend I'm going to visit my friend Michelle in prauge!! I can't wait to see her and hang out in Europe, its going to be awesome : )