Aug 29-30 We’ve Arrived in England🇬🇧

August 31, 2024

Went to visit the King on this day. Either he wasn’t home, or he peaked through the curtains, saw who it was, and refused to acknowledge us.

Our new travel companions are our Surrey BC friends, Don & Bev. They’ve been touring Scotland, and we managed to successfully connect at the car rental agency at Heathrow. As we experienced in Ireland, Enterprise came up with a vehicle upgrade that totally suited our needs. I’ve traditionally had terrible service from rental companies, but now my faith’s been restored.

We settled into the Park Farm B & B, which was a one mile walk from Windsor Castle, and directly beneath one of Heathrow Airport’s very popular flight paths, which did cause us some concern. Fortunately, we found that British Airways pilots tend to have an early bedtime, so the planes caused us no sleep issues.

We dutifully trundled down the road to the castle, a task that should have been easily manageable. Alas, what actually happened is that my travel companions got a harsh lesson on what it’s like to have a sickly and crabby old coot along on the adventure. Because of severe coughing fits in Ireland, I knocked a bunch of stuff out of alignment and caused a severe sciatica attack. It was almost impossible to put one foot in front of the other.

Still, we managed to hike our way down to the Castle, do the 2 1/2 hour self guided tour, then cross the Thames for a brief visit to Eton. I was pretty sure I would need an Uber or cab to rescue me but somehow I made it back. I have no idea how much time it took.

We had been alerted to expect protests at Windsor for the day of our scheduled visit. The police presence was significant. We had visions of English football hooligans throwing rocks and beer cans, but in the end we just met a sweet little lady with a pencil and a form to fill out about climate change.

One of the highlights of the tour itself was Queen Anne’s Doll House, an unbelievably ambitious project that is a reproduction of an actual lavish house, all done on a one-twelfth scale. It features electricity, running water, handmade porcelain dishes and tapestries, hand-carved furniture and much more.
There were books no more than an inch square, but they are professionally bound and you can actually read them. There was also a tiny phonograph, complete with records that would actually play on it.

We even managed to scope out the Crooked House of Windsor. It truly is crooked but you can buy a glass of wine there and presumably the building would look straighter?

Tomorrow’s agenda is for me to be less grumpy, and to relocate to our next location in Bath, pausing en route to take in the little Cotswold town of Castle Combe. I’m hoping my legs cooperate.