England Day 3 - Windsor Castle (!)

So, we did some great things today. Here's a little list:

• Visited a castle that actually still has the queen living in it (and she was actually there because the flag was up, which I didn't notice until Ari just told me).
• Saw the actual original painting of RIII (English advanced people, you know, the one that's on the front of the booklet, the famous one?) as well as his coat of arms on the ceiling of one of the reception halls. Amongst a hundred others. Make that a thousand. Believe me, if you've studied RIII for your HSC and still like it, that's pretty awesome.
  
• Stood on the spot where Henry VIII and his (3rd and favourite) wife Jane Seymour were buried in the chapel. Which was more like a massive cathedral. (I lit a candle for you, mum.)
• Went on a walk through the woods, which were all yellow and brown and red and pretty.
  
• Saw a million swords and suits of armour and things like that which I proceeded to get very excited about.

The castle is amazing, really really extravagant and ornate and very, very beautiful. And tacky in parts as well. But it's absolutely awesome, in the actual sense of the word. (As in, awe-inspiring.) People actually lived in those rooms and ate off that china (I'd be far too terrified to eat off it!) and jousted in that armour and slept in those beds and danced in those halls! And shot arrows out of those slits in the walls. I forget what they're called. I wasn't able to take photos in the rooms of the castle, but I have lots of photos from outside. So does Ariel. She actually has some with me in them as well. Like this one:

See? Prettiness. But honestly, there is so much history everywhere that it amazes you. Like all the kings and queens buried in the chapel, and the tapestries and the paintings and the furniture and the walls and the towers and everything else. It's so wonderful, absolutely fascinating. History history history!

Tomorrow we're heading into London city to explore there and probably Monday as well. I found a flight last night and booked it for Tuesday evening (to Bilbao in Spain) where we'll stay the night in a hostel, then take a bus to Pamplona and Roncesvalles the next day and walk the day after that. Stretches everything out a bit, but they were the cheapest could find. So we'll start walking on the 26th and finish up sometime in early January. Hopefully!

Be sure to check out the photos in the album, link is at the side of the page!