Windsor today!!!!

Was really tired when I woke up but I had to get up and get going so I could get back and get to bed at a reasonable hour (my train for Paris departs at 5:30 in the morning).
Regent's Park underground station was closed and there was no replacement bus service like there normally is. So I had to wait around a while for a regular bus to come to take me to Paddington Station. From there I took a train to Windsor (about 1 hour with an easy change towards the end). You get a nice view of the castle as you're coming into the station in Windsor.

Windsor Castle is beautiful. It is up on a hill, although no nearly as high up as Dover Castle was. It is really old (900+ years) yet still fully functional. It is all gothic - very solid and beautiful. It isn't symmetrical at all, which makes it that much better. It has a round tower, surrounded by a waterless moat (it's actually a garden), a chapel, some private homes (I don't really know what that is about), private and state rooms and a beautiful quadrangle. It is much better and much more exciting than Buckingham Palace. You got to see more state rooms than Buckingham, which are just as grand and more divers. You also get to see the Queen Mary's Doll House. This is an incredibly intricate and detailed to-scale model of a royal residence (no specific one in particular). of course since it was made for a member of the Royal family, all the stuff in it is real, i.e. pewter plates, crystal chandeliers etc. It's too bad you couldn't take pictures, and it was too dark for me to attempt it with my iphone.

After leaving the state rooms I wandered around the grounds a bit then made my way through town. I stopped at some souvenir stores, mainly looking for castles, for some little blondie, but no luck. I have very high standards in my castle hunting. Then I walked across the river to walk around Eton a little bit. There's not much to it, 1 main street and Eton College (which I was too tired to look around).

Then I went back to the station and made it back to London around 5 and got all of my stuff together for Paris and went to bed somewhat early, I have to leave the flat at 4:15 to get to St. Pancras for my 5:25 Eurostar Paris!!!!