Day 3B Royal Wedding -- Windsor Castle

Took this photo as we left touring the State Apartments. Saw guards changing in this inner courtyard. Couldn't take photos inside but bought lots of postcards showing the rooms from this gift shop at the base of the round tower.

Laurie and I loved St. George's Hall, where the stand-up wedding breakfast took place. This long gallery featured the heraldry of every Knight of the Garter from Edward III's time and we found the places on the walls that listed each Knight and which monarch had appointed him or her. Prince William was number 1,000. Noted Latin motto translated as "Shame on he who thinks evil of it"

We talked to a warden who explained how seated dinners are held for up to 160 people in St. George's Hall. But since there are 600 wedding guests, the luncheon after Harry's wedding will be a stand-up affair with passed hors d'oeuvres. I saw photos of where the cake was served, near the fireplace across from which the monarch always sits at dinners like this.

State apartments on the left connected to private apartments straight back by the lantern lobby, which used to be a chapel and where the fire started. Invited wedding guests will be bussed from the Windsor Farm Store to the round tower, where they will walk down to St. George's Chapel via this same route Laurie and I are walking right now.

This flower banner was artificial but as we enter the door to the chapel, note the pots being readied for the beautiful real flower bower here on the day of the wedding.

 Inside this door we saw the services posted for the week, including the wedding on Saturday at noon. this door enters the nave. The chairs weren't set up yet and lots of construction going on. We couldn't ever get to the West Steps from the outside, just saw that door from the inside.

Thrilled to visit the Chapel so we were able to picture everything going on during the wedding. The Queen's parents are buried in a little side chapel on the left side between the nave and quire, along with Princess Margaret. I wondered if this is where Elizabeth and Philip wish to be buried?

Inside the quire, we walked up the aisle and stood exactly where the bride and groom would; she and Prince Charles walked right over the grave of Henry VIII and Jane Seymour. We sat where the Queen and Prince Philip would, Laurie noticing the people polishing the brass rails in front. 

We departed via the Galilee porch, which is where you saw the Queen and Meghan's mother enter during the wedding. Again, no photos but bought lots of postcards showing these things.

And here, stealthily snapped, this photo of the Queen and the next three in line for the throne -- Charles, William, and George.

To the left of where I'm standing here were lots of TV booths and the Horseshoe that led around to the West Steps. We never got near those but did leave the same way Harry and William did when they took their walkabout Friday afternoon after tea with Meghan, her mom, the Queen and Prince Philip.

One of the wedding day broadcasts took place right above the Guards Room.

Day 3A Royal Wedding Tues May 15

Finally we're here! It's a beautiful day, cool and sunny. There were bicycles at the hotel and a map for the 45-minute ride to Windsor but after seeing the hill the castle was on, we opted for a taxi. It was a pretty ride from the hotel to the town and we were glad we hadn't tried to walk or ride bikes. Here's a typical home along the route.

For 10 pounds, he took us right to the High Street, where we could see lots of television equipment getting loaded into places as they set booths up. 

See the round tower of the Castle at the top of the hill? We liked all the streamers: many places had both UK's Union Jack and USA's Stars and Stripes.  We were hungry and looking for some breakfast but there were all kinds of people crowding the street and excitement in the air. Turns out it was time for the daily changing of the guard. But there were people already camped out here (on Tuesday!) that you saw during the princes' walkabout on Friday and during the wedding.  I decided to buy one of these flags, which ended up making a good blanket to sit on Saturday.

Saw the guards change while grabbing a ham and cheese croissant in Lillibet's.

Then we walked up the hill and got into the queueing line to visit the castle.

 There were metal detectors and we met people from all over the world in line. Picked up the free audio guide, where Prince Charles welcomes you to the castle and started our way up the hill. This is a bad picture of Laurie but I loved the painting of the Queen with her great grandchildren on the wall where we waited in line. Now she has Louis and hopefully Harry and Meghan will add more someday.

Here are trucks and tents from television studios all over the world setting up. We saw one Brit (Sir David?) interviewing 2 Portuguese journalists and vice versa -- it was surreal. See the photo of all the cabling we saw on the castle walls as we walked up this hill? At the top was a barred gate where you could look across to the State, Private, and Guest apartments. That's where Meghan and Harry departed from on Saturday night in the vintage Jaguar convertible.

Here's a better picture of Laurie as we walked towards the State Apartments. This is near where we saw our first "stuffed corgi" displayed in somebody's window.

Note that the Queen's standard is not flying, so she is not there today -- believe she was in Buckingham Palace. This truly is a medieval castle: note the slits for firing arrows and the notches in the walls. You don't realize how thick those walls really are until you see the arrow windows from the inside. They're about 4 ft thick!

Here's something that intrigued me along the moat wall -- the spring in this beautifully planted garden would have been the water source that kept inhabitants alive during a siege.

It was too cool for ice cream but I was charmed by this.

Day 1 Royal Wedding Sun May 13

Our trip to Great Britain did not start auspiciously, as American Airlines delayed and then later cancelled our flight from Columbus, which caused us to miss our London connection. Rerouted through Chicago O'Hare and had to spend the night at a hotel in Mt. Prospect, my old stomping grounds from working at Compugraphic in Arlington Heights years ago. In fact, I think the hotel was right across the street from what would have been the old Snuggery Pub!

To add insult to injury, the handle on Laurie's rolling suitcase broke. So tired as we were, two blondes worked together to get that fixed (amazing!). Then got some sleep before catching the shuttle back to O'Hare at 5 am (ugh). Fortunately, Kathleen from American Airlines got us an empty middle seat in between on the 8 hour flight to London Monday, so we could stretch out.

Still don't really know what happened with the airline but they did give us vouchers for food, so we dined and breakfasted with Wolfgang Puck in the terminals in Columbus and Chicago. Don't want to dwell on missing most of Monday in Windsor, just want to get there now!

I haven't flown to Europe in more than 15 years and they've come a long way. Served decent food -- cheese omelet or apple pancakes for breakfast and a veggie stromboli for dinner. I slept most of the way but we had our choice of lots of movies and TV shows to watch on the screen in front of us. I slept through The Shape of Water (great soundtrack, like a lullaby) and had to watch it again. Laurie said she watched 2 or 3 movies she hadn't seen. I tuned into a travelogue about England and saw a show about swans and swan rescue which ended up being pretty relevant to our trip.

Saw many swans while there -- didn't know they were all owned by the Queen, or why that was. And noted some swan rescue people received Golden Ticket invitations to be inside Windsor Castle during the wedding. Our hotel, The Oakley Court, stated it had been visited by the Queen -- turned out that had to do with swans.

Day 2 Royal Wedding Mon May 14

Originally, we were to have arrived at 8:30 am but due to the flight delays, we didn't land at Heathrow until about 10:15p Monday night. Had we gotten there earlier that day, I'd have missed a breath-taking sight that I didn't take a picture of, except in my mind: my first sight of Windsor Castle, all lit up and high on a hill as our Uber driver drove us from the airport to the Oakley Court. Here is our arrival at the hotel.

We were so tired, it's a good thing our "butler," Kevin showed us to the room. Which was nice, thank goodness.

I decided to look around a bit before going to sleep. It's good to be here and I'm excited to visit Windsor Castle tomorrow, especially after seeing it all lit up on the hill like that.

I really wanted to see Windsor Castle and St. George's Chapel and had feared they might be closed by the time we got there. So I was thrilled when I saw online that they did not close until Thursday and I had purchased tickets for us to visit on Tuesday. They were expensive but well worth it! We got to see every part that you saw televised during the wedding!