4/16 RANDY! (Plus Oakley Court and Windsor Castle)

4/15 – Finally my wish came true, and I met Randy at airport - so glad to see him again!!! Randy had booked a room for us at Oakley Court so we took a taxi there, dropped off the luggage, and took another taxi to Windsor Castle. 

We took a tour of the castle, with no photography allowed inside.

They have guards here, but not the big regiments that you see at Buckingham, and the Changing of the Guard, which is done in front of the castle, is modest. At each of the gates, just one soldier stood guard.

The castle is surrounded by a moat, which is no longer filled with water. It's a lovely garden area now.

On the what I would call the back side of the castle is the Long Walk. It's over 2½ miles long

leading up to one of the beautiful entrances.

St. George's Chapel is also on the castle grounds. 

No photography inside, of course, but it is quite beautiful. There are several plaques on the floor identifying the royal vaults that lie below; King Henry VIII is buried here, with one of his Queens, Jane Seymour. And inside the Chapel is one of the most beautiful memorial statues I've ever seen. Princess Charlotte of Wales was the only child of George IV, much beloved by everyone, and when she died in childbirth the whole nation mourned. I thought the drapery on the mourners who were leaning against the bier was amazing. They don't let you take pictures inside the Chapel, so I just bought a postcard.

Somewhere around here we found the "Empire and Majesty" waxworks. It's rare to see waxworks of horses, but they did a good job.

Then, at the end of the day, we got a taxi to take us back to Oakley Court. It's a gothic Victorian country house, built around 1859. It's gone through a few hands and is currently a very fine hotel.

It has been used in a lot of films. It was in several of the Hammer Horror films in the 1960s, as well as The Rocky Horror Picture Show. It's such a beautiful building. The back is just as lovely as the front,

with manicured lawns and formal arrangements,

and it backs up to the River Thames (for some reason they call it the River Thames, instead of the Thames River).

And Tea, of course, is served every day between 3:30 and 5:30.

It was time for dinner when we finished unpacking, so we went into the restaurant. I didn't know how upscale Oakley Court was so I hadn't packed anything dressy to wear to dinner; I just had casual sight-seeing clothes. Randy always dresses better than me so he had something nice to wear, and I borrowed his best pair of jeans. The maître d' was a nice lady who informed me that I could not be seated in the restaurant while wearing jeans. I explained that I didn't have anything else. She took pity on me and said she would seat us in a discreet corner. So we had dinner at a corner table, along the back wall. It didn't matter to me; during the meal I just keep staring across the table at my husband, so happy to be with him again!  After dinner we had tea in the library - what a lovely way to dine!