We drove up to Packet Boat marina early this morning and, despite the rush hour traffic, and a minor accident which held us up for 20 minutes, we got to ‘Chance’ at 11 o’ clock. With the stove lit, Taff rail and Dodger put on and water tank filled by lunch time, we decided to drive the twenty minutes to Windsor in the afternoon.
We’ve been hoping for the opportunity to see the Castle’s Semi State Apartments which are only open for a few weeks at this time of year. These apartments are used by the Queen to entertain her official guests and as we’d visited the castle less than a year ago we could use the same tickets to visit the castle again free of charge.
The moat surrounding the Round Tower (built by Henry II eight hundred years ago!) is beautifully presented these days as a garden.
“Engine Court” is dominated by scaffolding at the moment as the lead roofing is being replaced.
It was a gloomy and dank day today so the flash went off on this pic. (making the atmosphere look worse than it was).
From the castle’s terrace there’s a good view of Eton to be had – even on a gloomy day.
Looking down into the Lower Ward it was eerily quiet with very few visitors to the castle today. The planes, coming into Heathrow every 90 seconds, were flying right over the castle.
Down in Windsor town centre the Christmas decorations make it very obvious where we were!
We had a great afternoon visiting the Semi State Apartments but sadly, as is so often the case, we weren’t allowed to take photos. Most of the area was either badly damaged or totally destroyed by the fire of 1992 but, with the wonderful restoration and rebuilding, these rooms are exquisite and better than the State Apartments themselves. They’re well worth a visit.
As an American tourist was heard to say "Why did she build a castle under the flight path"
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