Friday started the first of our ISA weekend excursions. There had been some rearranging because we could no longer go to Dorset. So our first excursion would be to Windsor Castle and Eton College.
Windsor castle is what the Queen considers her home and this is where she is on the weekends and holidays, I believe. There is the upper ward and the lower ward at Windsor and the upper is the area where the Queen is and the majority of the castle is located. There is the Round Tower, the State Apartments, The Drawings Gallery (there is an exhibition of photos of the Queen here...60 photographs I believe), and Queen Mary's Dolls' House. In the lower ward there is St. George's Chapel.
The doll house belonged to Queen Mary and it started with her fascination on making real life objects, that she adored, into miniatures because she loved small things. Everything in this doll house (which is huge) is completely functional. There are a few things I'm not sure of like there is electricity and a vacuum cleaner that looks like it's from the 60 or 70's and I know Queen Mary wasn't alive for those things to have been invented, so I'm not sure if this was a tradition that kept going or what. I'll have to look into that. The porcelain dolls that she had were huge. I can't imagine a Young girl playing with them because they would be as big as the child and probably weigh just as much! But the dresses for the dolls were gorgeous and had so much detail. By the way no photography was allowed in any of the indoor sections, so I will have nothing to show you.
In one of the rooms there were shields all over the walls and ceilings and these are the shields of knights. There are a few plaques that are blank and those are for the knights that committed a crime and instead of simply pretending that they never existed and stripping them of their honor, the keep them listed and represented with the blank plaque for embarrassment. It is so humiliate them for their disgrace and so that it will be remembered past their lifetime.
Of course like any other place that I have been to, you must look up at all of the ceilings and look at the walls and statues and cravings...the decoration is so extravagant and detailed. It is just indescribable unless you see it for yourself. You can only marvel at the craftsmanship and beauty. There were many music boxes and clocks as well that were extraordinary. One of which was probably 3 feet high and had a glass center in which it holds one of the oldest bibles.
In St. George's Chapel, Kings and Queens past rest in tombs and various side rooms and throughout the chapel. The top is a craved replica of them and once again quite detailed.
Throughout the Castle there are Beef Eaters and this is where I had a picture taken with one! You just have to do it once when you're here. I watched him elbow some tourists when they touched him (They are allowed to hurt you once you touch them) and I watched many people jump and get startled when he stomped and began to do his walk down the line.
After this Jourdan and I went to a place across the street for lunch and I ate the lamb curry with mashed potato and salad. It was delicious. Curry is their national dish here and it is done perfectly with the meals. I have never had it be overbearing; it's always just right.
Afterwards we met back up with our group and we went to Eton College. This is an all boys' school for the extremely wealthy. It costs about 31,000 pounds per year to attend (right now with our exchange that would be a little over $46,000 a year for boarding school). It started off as a small school with about 16 boys, I believe, and almost just as many ministers and some other religious figures because the King wanted to create a stairway to Heaven. So all of these people were praying for the King. It has changed over the years but the British like their traditions so it has remained an all boys' school (college here means high school in the US). Back in the day they brewed their own beer and that was served to the boys for free because that was the only thing sterile. They also were encouraged to smoke and could be punished if they didn't smoke enough because they believed that filling the room with smoke would prevent them from getting ill (there was something in particular that they were trying to prevent from breathing in but it's escaping me right now...too much info in my brain right now). Nowadays both are prohibited.
Upon graduation the boys are allowed to take their sharpening tool and find a place in the building to carve their name. So there are name EVERYWHERE. The poet Shelley went here, Hugh Laurie, Captain Hook and the Princes, William and Harry, are all among the famous people to attend, plus MANY more. The Princes' names are carved on the door between to old classroom and the chapel by themselves.
After we took the train back, Jourdan, Emily, and I went to the store and then met up with Sara at the National Gallery. I want to go back because I didn't see everything, but I did see Velazquez, Degas, Monet, and Van Gogh. I still want to see Bellini, Leonardo, Michelangelo, and Raphael for sure. Where's Donatello? I need all the TMNTs ;) I did get some postcards of my favorites which are: Monet's "The Thames below Westminster" and " The Water-Lily Pond", Pissarro's "The Boulevard Montmartre at Night", van Gogh's "Sunflowers", and Rosa's "Witches at their Incantations". I'm not a huge fan of all the portraits and whatnot, I can appreciate it but it just doesn't interest me too much. But I did like all the ones where there is death and heads on a plate that look like zombies haha. Pretty much anything that is weird or zombie related, I'm a fan. I don't know what that really says about me but these are all the ones that I was reading about and admiring.
Afterwards Emily, Sara, Jourdan, and I went to Garfunkel's and I had Beef and Ale pie with mashed potato and a pastry puff (basically a croissant) along with a Stella A-something beer (sorry I'm getting lazy on my details). It was all delicious. I'm trying to eat all of the British meals that I can and not just typical foods that I can get back home.
Well that was all for Friday. I will tell you about Saturday tomorrow =)
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