British Isles

5:00 pm Arrive at the Harte and Garter Hotel in Windsor, stow our bags and immediately begin the tour of Windsor Castle. Overwhelmingly magnificent. We stay for Evensong in St. George Chapel, where we are seated right above the graves of Jane Seymour, Henry VIII, Edward and George III. A lovely buffet dinner back at the hotel was the tastiest dinner we have had on this whole trip. I chose not to eat a potato. I enjoyed it with a Cabernet made in Argentina. Our room is magnificent. It has a huge canopy bed, a lovely carved armoire, and a spacious bathroom. After supper we took a walking tour of Windsor with guide Amanda. She was voted the best city guide for Windsor last year, and it is clear why she won this award. She was cheerful and enthusiastic. First we saw the Public Records Office where Prince Charles married Camilla Parker-Bowles, and where Elton John married his male partner. We go Down Park Lane to see the formal entrance to Windsor Castle. Queen Elizabeth can often be seen driving her Jaguar with one bodyguard down the lane to the family cemetery, the home of her son William, or to the Royal Ascot horse track. Amanda says the Queen drives "like a bat out of hell." This week she became the longest reigning British monarch, passing Queen Victoria's record at about 5:00 pm on Tuesday. The wealthiest neighbor of the Queen is now the rock singer Sir Elton John, who owns a 75-acre tract adjacent to the Castle grounds. She mentioned that, unlike the formal rooms of state, the Queen's private residence is rather modest, but quite comfortable. Windsor Castle belongs to the state. The Queen has two private residences which she owns in her own right: Balmoral in Scotland and Sanderingham. For the last two years the Irish regiment has provided the military guard for the Queen. They erected a statue of a modern soldier made of bronze from the statue of Saddam Hussein, which was pulled down when the allies took Baghdad in the Iraq War. The large boulder on which the Irish statue sits came from Helman Province in Afghanistan. We saw the stables. Prince Phillip emerges every day driving a carriage with at least two horses, driving down Park Lane to the Royal road. We saw the King's Head Tavern. Over the door is a facsimile of the warrant for the arrest and execution of King Charles I. The fourth signature on it is that of Oliver Cromwell. We saw a building, formerly a tea house but now up for sale, that was made of unseasoned oak. The wood bent and warped, and now the house leans precariously, and there is not a square corner in it. We came back to the room, got our luggage ready, and prepared for an early departure tomorrow morning at 7:30 am.

11:45 pm There is a celebration for an Indian wedding going on in the dining room adjacent to our quarters. Two Indian children, little girls, are running up and down the hall, making a racket that woke up both Glenda and me. She stood outside the door and gave her English-teacher routine. Then things got noisy again, and I stood outside the room glaring at the girls until a hotel employee came by and asked what was the matter. I told him that the children were running and making too much noise. I don't know if he said anything to the partners, but the revelry broke up shortly afterwards.Read more