We were inspired to do a little in-country travel today, so we took the train out to Windsor to visit Windosr Castle. The Castle is the largest (484000 sq ft) inhabited castle in the world, and the oldest in continuous occupation (over 900 years).

Windsor itself was very picturesque – it is a quaint little town with tons of little old houses and pubs. The great thing about Windsor is that usually when we visit an historic site it involves a long trek up a mountainside, but this time the train dropped us off at the doorstep of the castle.

Since we got a bit of a late start, we got inside 5 minutes before they closed St. George’s Chapel at 1pm. I am really glad we did because it was the highlight of the visit, The chapel is the home of the Royal Order of the Garter, which is an order of chivalry (knighthood). If you really want to know all about the order, I’m sure you can look it up on Wikipedia. The chapel itself was Gothic in style – it reminded me a little of the Sagrada Familia in Barcelona because of the soaring beams inside that were designed to look like they were growing from the ground to the roof. The floor of the building is scattered with the tombs of the royal family, dating back to the 1400s. Unfortunately, no photos allowed in the chapel, so you will just have to use your imagination.

After the Chapel we visited Queen Mary’s Dollhouse. The house was built in 1924 as a birthday gift from the Princess to the Queen. The whole thing is an amazing 12:1 replication of a working manor house. Everything within the house is not only miniature, but it is all “real,” meaning it has electricity, running water, the little books in the library are all real books, the grandfather clock actually chimes on the hour, and the paintings are original miniatures painted by the original artists just for this purpose. The even had little chamber pots under the beds!Check out this website if you want to see photos from inside the dollhouse.

http://www.victorianstation.com/interior.html

Then it was on the state apartments, which have about 18 dining rooms. Seriously… these people must do a lot of entertaining. I think the best part of the day was when we were viewing an enormous collection of the royal porcelain, which included all these different sets of dishes, and Michael proclaimed that he has seen stuff just like this at the Dollar Store in Phoenix, and he couldn’t tell the difference.