Day 20 Windsor & London

We got up early the next morning because the four of us were very excited about going into London. Once again we thought we were staying in the city, but found out the hotel was actually in Windsor. I immediately began researching Windsor and found that this was the castle that the queen considered her home. She resided during the week at Buckingham Palace, her place of work, but retired to Windsor on the weekends. Since we were coming in on Thursday I was sure the queen would be in the castle the next day.

We got into Windsor at eleven and were stopped by a back up in traffic right at the castle of Windsor. I volunteered to check out the issue and jumped out of the car to join the crowd that was forming along the bottom of the castle. I was quite glad I did this because the back up was due to the changing of the guards.

I stayed and watched the new guard and the band march down High Street and up Castle Hill. It was very exciting, and I got a little teary eyed that I was actually here. After it was over (the actual changing is done in the castle and requires tickets), I climbed back into the car and showed everyone my video. Our hotel was across the street from the castle, and once again I jumped out and went inside.

The reservation woman gave me directions to the car garage and called down to reserve two nights parking. I went back out and directed Tom. We unloaded and went into the hotel to check in. For the first time on this trip we encountered reservation issues. The hotel could not find our reservations and when they finally did they had us down for only two rooms instead of three and neither of the two rooms were ready. We left them to sort out the issue and left our luggage piled high on a cart for them to take to our rooms when they were ready. Off we went to get into London.

Driving into London is mostly discouraged because of congestion. For that purpose all vehicles that are planning to drive in London must pay a congestion charge and it must be paid in advance. I had read this in our tour book and we had discussed this with John. We knew we didn't want to drive into London and planned on using trains and the underground. Unfortunately for us, that day the tube workers were striking and all of the tubes were closed and locked up. We took a train, at a discount price that also included any buses in London, from Windsor into London.

 

We had to get off and change trains at one of the stations, but it was a quick trip into London as it was later in the day and no one was on it. The train was clean and reminded us of the trams in Disney World, quiet, sleek, and speedy. We arrived and left the train station, walking up stairs into the streets of London.

We came up out of the train station and it was utter chaos. It was like what I imagined Punxsutawney Phil must experience when he comes out of his hole on Groundhog Day to see all of the camera crews and people crowded around him. We were surrounded by people and it was literally wall to wall, shoulder to shoulder. We walked up the sidewalk to the corner where the picketers were marching with flags and signs across the street and the camera crews were setting up to film them. We stood there with our mouths open. I've been to New York City and New Orleans and was expecting crowds, but this was five times that. All of the cabs were packed with people. All of the buses were loaded. We spent considerable time walking in circles and trying to find our way to the British Museum, our first place of interest.

As we walked up and down the streets we were jostled by people walking with us and against us. It was like rushing to a major ride at Disney World with five times the amount of people. I have never been surrounded by so many people. Traffic was crazy with cars, buses, motor scooters, bicycles, and taxis. It was standstill with lots of loud honking and near accidents as cars would try to pull into different lanes. I thought I would go crazy from all of the noise and confusion.

We eventually hailed a cab and spent forty five minutes trying to get to the British Museum in the traffic, a car ride that should have taken five minutes. We were relieved when we finally got there. We had mapped out our day to get the most of it and this was number one on Madison's list of things to do in London. We got there at 3 o'clock and stayed until it closed at 5:30 pm.

The British Museum is a free museum that opened in 1759. It houses the largest collection of history and art from all over the world telling the story of the beginning of human existence to present day. The place was so big and so confusing and full of so many people that I ended up walking around in circles. We ate lunch in one of the cafes and then split up to go our separate ways. Madison was very excited to see the collection from Egypt. It is one of the largest collections in the world spanning from 10,000 BC to 12th century AD. She took off first and the rest of us made a bet to see who could find Madison first and spy on her.

The museum was interesting. I would have enjoyed it more had it been air conditioned and empty of all of the people. As it was I kept going in circles ending up where I had started no matter what room I entered and exited. Somehow in the course of finding a restroom I ended up in Rome. It was the largest arena I had ever entered in my life and it looked exactly like Rome. It was incredible. The amount of collections in this museum, over 8 million pieces, were from all eras and ages from the Bronze Ages to the start of Christianity. It was very overwhelming and not something that anyone could see in two and a half hours.

At one point in my wanderings Madison tapped me on the shoulder. She led me to the Rosetta Stone, a point of interest for me since both my kids had done projects on it in middle school. She disappeared again, and I eventually gave up from heat exhaustion and sore, tired legs. I went outside and sat down on a stone bench where I was eventually joined by Tom, Grandma, and eventually Darcy. Grandma had been the only one who had spied on Madison and she had come upon her by accident so we declared her the winner of the bet.

Madison joined us at the closing of the museum and we spent several minutes trying to hail a cab. This one took us to Darcy's place of interest which was Kings Cross Underground Station and Platform 9 3/4. I hesitated to go there as I knew both girls wanted to leave us to travel to Hogswart, but I couldn't fault them for that. I would have gone myself had I been allowed.

From there we walked to the bus line and waited. And waited. And waited. Every bus that came by had to pass us because they were jammed so tightly that people's faces were pressed up against the windows. Several buses had people standing on the stairs, faces pressed against the doors to the buses. Those buses that could stop were quickly filled up with just six or seven entrants. We waited almost an hour and then Madison saw an empty cab and hailed it. It took us an hour in that to get to the train station. From there it took us another hour and a change of trains to get us back to Windsor. It was after eleven by then and we were all tired and a tad grumpy.

We went to the registration desk to check in and discovered we still only had two rooms. They felt they had solved our problem by bringing in a cot for Grandma to sleep on into one of the rooms. Tom dealt with that while the rest of us went upstairs to the two rooms we did have. Our luggage was all in one room and so we had to move some of those around to the other room. Eventually Tom came back up with another room and he and I retired to that one.

The plan was to rise early and go back to London, but by now I was tired of the city. I suggested we stay and explore Windsor dreading the thought of all of those people again, but my kids insisted that I had to go back to London. It has been on my bucket list for so many years that they knew I would regret it. I agreed and immediately fell asleep.