Day Trip #4 (and Phantom! of the Opera...)

Tuesday 2/9 (Day Trip #4)
Today was pretty awesome. We visited Windsor Castle, Runnymede, and Stoke Poges.
Runnymede was first and beautiful but kind of random. It’s the site of the signing of the Magna Carta (some 800 years ago), and according to the politics teacher here, Americans care more about the site than the British do. We actually own the land there and put up the monument and all. There was also a JFK and WWII memorial nearby. Funny. It was alright but the best was being in the English countryside for sunrise!This picture (of Runnymede) reminds me of the last scene of Pride and Prejudice (Keira Knightly version)!

Windsor was fabulous. We toured Windsor Castle, which is a royal residence and especially famous for being the oldest and largest occupied castle in the world. It was massive!

There is a drawbridge, cathedral, courtyards, towers, buildings, and a medieval Round Tower surrounded by a moat, which is now filled with an exotic garden and fountain instead of water and alligators (bummer…).

We saw the State Apartments, including Queen Mary’s Dollhouse (old and cool), the Drawings Gallery (with Leonardo da Vinci’s sketches!), King Henry VIII gallery (his armor, treasure, and paintings), and the actual State Apartments. Lots of grand rooms with grand furniture and paintings and antique nice things. My FAVORITE was Queen Victoria’s treasure room!! It was full of beautiful gifts (and stolen loot) from all over the world! There were some amazing crowns presented to the Queen from royalty around the world, like Thailand, India, Central America, China, Africa, etc. I was really excited by all the worldly trinkets (if I was a millionaire I would just travel the world and collect things!) and eventually had to be dragged from the room. :) We also saw a mini changing of the guards on the castle grounds, St. George’s Chapel, and the great hall of the Knights of the Garter (the Queen’s exclusive knights).

Next we explored the town around Windsor; ended up at a Scottish kilt shop, souvenir shops and then McDonalds for hot chocolate (I felt like a frozen fishstick all day, it was SO cold). Unfortunately we didn’t have time to visit nearby Eton’s College (where the princes went to school!) and stalk cute wealthy British boys.                I was kind of nervous standing next to the guard. They really do not smile.

After Windsor we traveled to Stoke Poges (I love the British and their quaint names) and the churchyard where Thomas Gray wrote his famous poem “Elegy Written in a Churchyard.” It was pretty cool to read the poem there.

The churchyard was nice, but the massive garden near it was gorgeous! Lots of paths and fountains and small gardens and green pretty places etc. It’s nice to see pretty gardens in February (hard to find here because nothing’s bloomed yet). We were there for sunset so it got even prettier. It was a long, rather tiring day trip though (sunrise past sunset!), as always. I still love them.

Then, to make the day even better!! Soon after getting back to the Centre, Ali and I went to see Phantom of the Opera!! We bought the tickets last week (usually we get them the night of). I’ve seen the movie but never the show, and it was GREAT. To top it all off, we’d paid for the cheapest seats at £25 (third balcony up) but because there was extra seating we got a free upgrade to the stalls (level with the stage) 10 rows from the stage! Pretty much the best theatre seats of my life. I get really happy about things like this haha. Amazing view of an amazing show. It was very passionate and the music was great of course! I could tell because of all the chills I got. :)

So… fantastic day. Have I mentioned that I am also incredibly psyched that I will be in Venice in a day and a half? :) :)