Birthday - The halfway point

Birthday morning started very early, at 5:30 with cards and gifts in bed. I got a coffee maker :) I had a slight accident setting it up and made 10 cups instead of two. I must learn to read the instructions first. Ali told me the plan for the day, a trip to Windsor Castle and afternoon tea. I feel like a royal stalker, Holyrood on Tuesday, Windsor on Saturday. Ali lit the candles of my cake, a gorgeous coffee and walnut cake and I made a wish.

Of we went to Windsor Castle. It's a lot bigger than I thought, in fact, it's huge. I'm a regular at these now, I even know what the audio guides will be like, so I took my headphones. Yep, I'm a stalker. We walked to the Round Tower, visited Queen Mary's dolls house which was absolutely amazing. It has running water and electricty. The detail is astonishing. We continued through to the state appartments. Windsor Castle is incredibly different to any other, you can imagine living there. I love listening to the audio guide and intrigued why the King had a bedroom to meet people in.

We walked through to the St Georges Hall, oh my gosh, it was amazing. I loved the sheilds on the ceiling, especially the white covered shields for naughty knights. The Queen hosts banquets in the hall. Sadly, it was destroyed in the fire. We saw the room where the fire started, it has the armour of Henry the 8th. Sadly, the fire damaged order of the garter throne room. It was interesting that the floor was scored, so they turned it over.

We saw an exhibition on drawings and when we walked in, we weren't sure it was for us. We were really surprised, it contained diary entries and letters from significant events, such as letters from Victoria to Albert, sketches of the zulu war, paper dolls decorated by Victoria. The arms, guns, spears and armoud on the entrance hall is quite intimidating.

We continued to St Georges Chapel and again, it really surprised us. We saw a memorial to Robert Burns, ironically I went to Bridge of Allan last week and went to his house in Ayreshire. We saw the grave of Henry the 8th, in the Quire. It wasn't meant to be that way, he planned a grand tomb, but his children didn't enact his wishes. Poor Knights still live at the castle. We saw the chapel for the Queen Mum, George and Margaret. The Royal Family visits the chapel at various times of the year.

On our way out, we saw a soldier in the red jacket and bear skin. Strangely, three young men tried to grab his gun. He started by stamping his foot on the floor to intimidate them, it scared me. Then they grabbed it and he had to defend himself. A guy them walked up to him and turned his amunition over. It was really bizarre.

We then moved to afternoon tea in the Mercure across the road, including sandwiches without the crusts nd warm scones with clotted cream. What a fantastic visit, I'm definitly a royal stalker now.