For our next day in the U.K., we'd signed up for a day tour that would take us outside the city of London, to points of interest that might have been complicated destinations if we'd attempted them on our own. From the page title, you've undoubtedly deduced that the first of these destinations was Windsor Castle, about which I'll have plenty to say below. We'd found and pre-paid for the tour on the Viator website. To join our tour, we needed to present ourselves at the Victoria Coach Station by 8:30 A.M. Being late would cause us to miss our tour and to lose the fee we'd already paid, so we were motivated to be on time. Fortunately this was not a problem, as the Victoria Coach Station was a short walk from the Victoria Station Underground station, and we left ourselves plenty of time to get there. The Coach Station surrounded a large parking area choked full of tour buses ("coaches" in the local dialect), and the waiting area in the station was choked full of tourists waiting to be assigned to the buses. Periodically a tour guide with a clipboard would announce a tour and read a list of names, and the enumerated tourists would march dutifully to the appointed bus, which would eventually find its way out of the station and disappear into the wilds of greater England. When our turn came, we boarded without incident and made our way in a generally westward direction toward London's outskirts, passing some interesting buildings along the way.


On one of the buildings we passed, we noticed a sort of a blue plaque announcing that the late film director Alfred Hitchcock had lived there for a number of years. London is full of history, and the management is not shy about calling attention to it – there are blue plaques all over town, identifying locations where historical incidents had occurred, or where famous people had lived while doing famous things.

Windsor Castle was established late in the 11th Century by William the Conqueror as one of several castles that were built around the outskirts of London. It was originally built of timber in a strategic location on the bank of the River Thames, a couple of miles upstream from a settlement called Windsor which had existed for about 300 years. In the 12th Century, the castle became a royal residence under Henry I, and a settlement started to grow around the castle which came to be called "New Windsor". Over time the newer settlement appropriated the Windsor name, probably when it wasn't so new anymore, and the older settlement came to be called "Old Windsor", a name it retains to the present day. Also over time, the castle transitioned from a timber fortification to one of stone, and new structures appeared within its walls, while old ones were replaced or improved upon. Today the castle is the longest-continually-occupied castle in Europe and is the place where Queen Elizabeth generally spends her weekends. It is also a magnet for curious tourists.

Like us, obviously. As we pulled into town, there was no mistaking the town's main tourist attraction.

Bus parking was down a hill from the Windsor train station, which wasn't that big from a railway point of view (I think there were only one or two platforms), but which offered many opportunities for visitors to buy souvenirs or fast food.

We followed our guide past all the shops and came out next to the castle. We followed the external wall eastward, passing an elaborate gate along the way. The gate was called the King Henry VIII Gate, because it was built under the command of King Henry VIII.

We paused for a while outside a ticket office while our guide did whatever he needed to do to make sure we could all get into the castle. Then we headed toward the entrance, which was farther to the east.

Windsor Castle is split into three main areas. There's the Upper Ward (B in the diagram below), which consists of a large, grassy courtyard, surrounded by rooms of state and of habitation. The inhabitants include the Queen and members of the royal family when they're in residence. Tourists aren't allowed into the courtyard or any of the rooms of habitation, though there was a gate through which we could see some of the courtyard. Then there's the Lower Ward (F in the diagram), which has a lesser elevation than the Upper Ward. This is largely another open area, which I'll discuss below. And finally, there's the Middle Ward (labelled M), which is aptly named, as it's between the Upper Ward and the Lower Ward. The Middle Ward is mostly notable for being the location of the Round Tower (A).


The Round Tower isn't quite exactly round, but is generally rounder than the castle's other towers. It's also taller, as it was designed partly as a lookout point (though it didn't reach its present height until the 19th Century, when 30 feet were added during a renovation ordered by George IV). It's built on top of a hill in the middle of the castle and was one of the castle's original structures, when it also functioned as the castle’s Keep (a defensible structure that everyone could run to when things got dangerous). There's a flagpole on top of the Round Tower, which normally flies either the Union Jack or a flag known as the Royal Standard. When the Royal Standard is flying, this means the country's monarch is in residence. During our visit, the Royal Standard was flying, but the Queen did not come out to hang with the tourists. She might've had some other things to do.


The entrance to the castle pointed us toward the impassable gate into the Upper Ward. Since the gate was impassable, we turned left and followed a walkway toward the Lower Ward. On the way, the walkway curved around the Middle Ward, and on reaching the Lower Ward, we could look back and see that the part of the Middle Ward not occupied by the Round Tower was nicely landscaped.


The Lower Ward is home to St. George's Chapel (a church that's been there since 1511) and a large open area. The open area was available for visitors to walk around in, and a whole lot of them were doing just that, or more specifically they were mostly attempting to get into suitable positions for viewing a ceremony that was going on. This was the Changing of the Guard, which takes place each day at 11 A.M. In the Changing of the Guard, a new group of guards starts marching from its Windsor barracks at 10:45 and arrives at the castle at 11 to begin the ceremony relieving the previous group of guards. When we showed up, there were two subgroups of guards arrayed in front of us. One wore red coats and tall furry black hats, and was armed with automatic weapons tipped with bayonets. The other group wore green jackets and kilts and was armed with bagpipes, with which they began to blow a catchy tune.


We didn't stay for the whole ceremony, as we'd only been given until noon to look around and get back to the bus, and there was still much to see. First we headed for St. George's Chapel, which was next to us. A chapel had been on the site since the 13th Century, but the present structure was built between 1475 (under Edward IV) and 1511 (under Henry VIII).

St. George's is a high-medieval Gothic church, and has been the site of many weddings, including those of the children of Queen Victoria, and more recently, that of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle (2018). Prince Charles and Camilla Parker Bowles received a blessing here from the Archbishop of Canterbury in 2005, after being married in a civil ceremony at the Windsor Guildhall. The chapel has also been the site of many burials. A partial list includes Edward IV (1483), Henry VIII (1547), Jane Seymour (1537), Charles I (1649), George III (1820), George IV (1830), George V (1936), George VI (1952) and Princess Margaret (2002). We weren't able to take pictures in the Chapel, as this was not allowed. But here are some pictures from the Internet:


From the chapel we headed back uphill toward the Upper Ward. While we couldn't enter the grassy courtyard or the residence rooms, some of the State Apartments (C in the diagram above) were open to visitors.

We joined a short line to get into the State Apartments and had a nice look around. The rooms were quite impressive. Again, photography was not allowed. And again, here are some photos from the Internet:


We emerged from the State Apartments and calculated that we'd better start back toward the bus to avoid being left behind. This took us back down to the Lower Ward, as the exit was at the Henry VIII Gate. This is also where we had to return the audioguides we'd picked up on the way in.

We returned to the bus the way we'd come, passing back through Windsor and its Central Station.


We made it back to the bus with a few minutes to spare, and after the rest of our group returned as well, the bus driver started up the bus, and we headed out for our next destination: the ancient city of Bath.