Another sunny day in London, and that made the whole day on a Golden Tour to Windsor Castle, the village of Eton, and Hampton Court Palace and Gardens an absolute delight! We had to get out the door at 7:00 a.m. and walk a distance to the Paddington Hilton where a bus picked us up to take to the Golden Tours Office where all tour go-ers are assembled, counted, and marched off to our coach for the day and to meet our pleasant and hilarious guides. We used Golden Tours last year--taking trips to Stonehenge and Bath and Warwick Castle and Stratford and Oxford and loved their format and expertise. Well, Windsor was huge! We got to see the changing of the guard at 11:00, the royal doll house (like Colleen Moore's at the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago, the queen's dog being walked in the courtyard, and the beautiful St. George's Chapel where royal weddings, baptisms, funerals, and the knights are seated who are members of the Royal Order of the Garter. We were disappointed that the State Apartments were closed, but the Queen was in residence and having an occasion called Ascot Day, and the apartments were used to house dignitaries. Of course, never having been there, we didn't quite know what it is that we missed, but we did here they were really cool. I loved sitting the Quire of the Chapel chatting with a gentleman who worked there and filled me in on the gaps of modern British monarchy I was a bit shakey on as well as having a spirited conversation regarding my friend's movie Soul of an Age, which will rock the world in its exposure of the man William Shakespeare as possibly NOT being the genius who authored the most famous 37 plays in the world. I love the controversy, and our conversation led to discussion of the 10 year anniversary of the death of Princess Diana and what it was like for him to see all the scores of flowers strewn at her palace--Kenisington--to many other ideas about the movie The Queen, which met with lots of discussion in London at its release. I was so entranced in the conversation that I left my backpack there when I left and raced around looking at it 10 minutes later. There is was--still right on the pew where I had left it. Whew! We thought is was so cool to see the graves of Henry VIII and his third wife Jane Seymour, who got the privelege over the 5 other wives to be buried with him since she was the only one that bore him a male child to succeed him once he died. Little did he know that the lad would only be about 10 when he died, and eventually Anne Boleyn's daughter Elizabeh got the throne and ruled for decades. Robby was especially interested in the history--such a soap opera really!
Carina and Robby liked taking pictures with the stoic guards and having a lovely Chinese lunch, which we all shared smorgasbord fashion, with our tour guide and a smaller group of other tourists on our tour who elected to do lunch. They were from Texas, Bolivia, London, and the east coast. We walked on cobblestone streets with our guide who used to be a radio and television newsman in England for ABC and had great stories as he pointed out intricacies of 15th century architecture such as half-timbered houses and how to date the age of buildings and other things that one would rarely know on one's own.
Eton is the village where the famous elite Eton College is where Princes Harry and William attended. The river winding through the town was breathtaking and just lovely with scores of swans swimming everywhere. 
We spent the afternoon at a much more interesting castle--that of Hampton Court (a residence of several kings--perhaps because there was nothing closed for viewing today and our tour guide walked around with us an pointed fun things out rather than having us use audiophones at Windsor to tell the stories.
This beautiful palace was owned by Cardinal Wolsey and later given to Henry VIII where he spent many a day. We saw so many cool things from the whole kitchen wing complete with sounds and SMELLS of the food of the times to a maze in the garden, secret doors, and even the King's royal toilet--also referred to by the tour guide as his most vulnerable "throne."
AFter the tour we went back to the hotel to relax and start thinking of packing for our flight to Paris tomorrow and change clothes for an evening at the Globe Theatre. Robby opted to stay back at the hotel while Carina and I took off for the theatre. I made sure that his cell phone worked to call me if needed, and he had a nice evening, too. Well, earlier I mentioned it was sunny today--well, that's mostly true. It was beautiful until Carina and I got inside the Yard (standing area only so you feel just like Shakepeare's groundlings who paid only a penny to get in the theatre (now it's 5 pounds or about $10 a ticket)--when it started drizzling tonight at the performance of Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice! Eventually drenched, we still waited it out, and were pleased to see a great performance in period costume! Carina and I had just seen it at the Guthrie on the river in Minneapolis a few short month ago, so it was fun to compare the two productions. Shylock was amazing!
Carina and I opted to walk back after the play to St. Paul's Cathedral and take the tube back to Paddington Station, where our hotel is. Fun but long day, and off to Paris tomorrow!
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