Baby's Day Out

The start

The last few weekends have been wet and the Easter weekend was cold (freezing in fact!) so when the first May Bank Holiday weekend showed a little more promise, everybody decided to go for it. The whole world had left us home but we were not to be left behind - off to Windsor Castle!

The journey

The journey took us through Paddington via Slough to Windsor Central Railway Station. With fast connections reaching was no drama. But then we had to wait for an hour in line just to get entry tickets!

The Chapel

As soon as we got our tickets, off we went to see the St. George's Chapel. The artwork inside is really intricate and we had only 15 minutes to appreciate the grandeur and opulence of the chapel as it was due to close down by 1 pm.
The State Apartments

Anyway, off we went to the State Apartments past the round tower and spent the next 90 minutes listing down which states of India the "Raj" had plundered to "acquire" the thrones and crowns and swords and guns. The state rooms were nicely decorated and even on such a busy day the crowd was manageable.

Mary and her Doll House

Soon after this lunch seemed unavoidable as it was getting late afternoon and we had no intention of dying of starvation. Post lunch we decided to go for the "Queen Mary's Doll's House" something that attracted huge following, and we had to wait to wait about 20 - 25 minutes to get entrance (much less than pre-lunch when the average waiting time is 1 hour). It was a total let down. It was a big doll house, intricately decorated, but no reason to spend 1 hour for it.

And the rest of it

After this we roamed around rest of the Castle finally deciding to see the Thames River at about 5 pm. A very nice day finally coming to an end. By the way, my wife was enjoying the delights of a Bengali marriage ceremony in India - I missed her, and hope to come back here with her some time.

Things you should remember - you need to go through an X-ray security scan to gain entrance, you can go out and come back in again on the same day provided you get your "bracelet", and for £14.80 (adult single ticket) you can visit unlimited number of times in a year (wonder how many ever will).
See all the pictures here