On Wednesday for our day trip we went to Windsor, which is right outside of East London. Windsor is where the Queen lives most of the time in Windsor Castle. We met with our program at Paddington Train Station at 9 to take the train to Windsor. When we first arrived we were dropped off right by the castle. We were able to see a lot of stuff at the castle! Unfortunately the Queen was not at the castle when we were. Windsor Castle along with most other castle in England was built by the Normans when they invaded England. They build castle all around the outside of London that were one days march from each other. They did this so that they could escape if under attack. The first thing I saw was Saint George's Chapel. The chapel was very beautiful. A lot of Kings and Queens were buried here including Henry VIII, the Queens Mother and Father, Queen Victoria and her husband Prince Albert, and many more. From the Chapel we went to see Queen Mary's Doll House. This is a replica of the Castle that is 1/12 the size of Windsor. It was given to Queen Mary as a gift. The toilets in the castle flush and the miniature Rolls Royce work as well. From there we went to view the State rooms in the Castle. This included seeing a royal table that could seat about 162 people! All made of mahogany wood! Under the table is the biggest piece of carpet in the world. Philippa said told us that if there is a fire alarm that the workers in the castle are trained to have enough people come and roll up the carpet to take out of the Castle. Crazy! This part of the Castle is not usually used by the Royal family unless it is for a significant occasion or needed for entertaining. The rest of the time this part of the Castle is open up to the public to view. The part of the Castle where the Queen lives is a lot more modern and less elaborate than what I was seeing. The stuff I was seeing were mostly extravagant furniture, gifts, paintings, and armor that were hundreds of years old. Unfortunatly you are not allowed to take pictures inside any of the places I went. I pulled some photos from the inside of the castle from the internet so that everyone can see though!
After we went to Windsor I stopped and got some lunch at a small cafe in the town surrounding the Castle. The village surrounding the Castle was very cute! After lunch some of the people met up with Philippa early to go on a walk. There is a path leading up to the castle that the Queen usually uses when she is driving somewhere. We walked along this path. The path is about 3 miles long and leads you up a hill where there is some statues of stuff and is where a lot of land is, which is usually used to charity events or polo matches. We didn't make it all the way up but we went about half way and turned around so that we could meet up with the rest of the group. It was very pretty!
From town we went to Eton College, which is right by Windsor. Eton college is an elite boarding school for boys ages 13-18. This is where Prince William and Harry went. Philippa has a friend who teaches English and drama there, so he took us on a little tour and showed us the place! It costs about 30,000 pounds to go to school there for a year! There are about 1300 boys who go there and they all live there and all have their own rooms! The boys and the teachers all wear uniforms. Below is a picture of the boys in their uniforms that I pulled from the internet too! It was very interesting to learn about some of the schooling systems in the UK and compare it to the US. To get into Eton you have to be able to speak Latin and another language besides English. I found it very interesting that in the UK they give out scholarships but almost never do they give out full ride scholarships, because they don't want students to lost their motivation. At most they usually give out 80% scholarships. 19 Prime Ministers attended Eton! It was a very cold and long day so by the time we were done at Eton I was ready to get on the train!
Straight from our train ride back to London we had to go downtown to Picadilly to go to a improv comedy show! It was pretty good! I was so tired by the second half though that I was almost falling asleep!
Today I am going to try and get some half priced theatre tickets and see Chicago or some other show! This weekend I will be going to Geneva, Switzerland! I probably won't be able to post for awhile, but I will write right when I get back from my trip!
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