A trip to Windsor Castle, 14 October 2009

Windsor. A beautiful picturesque town. No wonder Windsor Castle is Queen Elizabeth’s favorite castle. Glenn and I are duly impressed. But we are mostly impressed with Galahad, the trusty scooter. It seems to have good power, great handling, and Glenn can’t get over how easily it disassembles. We putter down High Street, which leads directly to a statue of Queen Victoria and the visitor’s entrance to Windsor.

Breakfast is the fist item on the agenda. This army definitely travels on its stomach. I sit at the café table on the sidewalk and Glenn orders breakfast. The price is a little high - but we chalk it up to eating within hailing distance of the castle moat. Little do we know that this is just the first salvo.

We reach Queen Victoria and it’s Mom’s big moment. “Wait a minute, Glenn, there’s one more person for the photo.” And he’s tickled pink as Mom arrives, straight out of 1954 and looking great!

Standing outside Windsor’s entrance, We hesitate at the price - $15.50 each. We’re both wavering. At our artificially agreed-upon exchange rate, that’s $62 to look at the British version of the Vanderbilt house in Newport, Rhode Island. You know, the one with a $10,000 bathtub in 1920’s dollars, with hot and cold running fresh water and sea water! Then emotion takes over - or maybe it’s Mom who got taken out of the box for her first photo opportunity. We decide to take the plunge.

At the ticket window I utilize the Rick Steves “Always Ask” philosophy. I say, “And my companion” meaning Glenn as my travel assistant, bootman, valet and all-around Sancho Panza. And it works! Glenn gets in for free! We enter and we walk up “the long and winding road” to the castle gate. You marvel at the sense of a massive 13th century edifice that is occupied by 120 people. It’s not just the Queen and Philip in the empty nest. They have ladies-in-waiting and valets and bootmen and Sancho Panzas stacked up like cordwood. What do they all do all day? Not half as much as my dear brother, who makes this all worth while and possible.

Still, they do a whole lot, let me tell you. This place is just huge with every kind of specialty room you can imagine. There’s the China room. As in place settings. Entire walls of floor-to-ceiling cabinets with lighted shelves of every place service they have received or commissioned since the 16th century. Every service beautifully displayed and not a speck of dust, not a fingerprint in sight! I particularly liked a dessert service that was a gift to the Prince of Wales and his wife, Princess Alexandra on the occasion of their marriage. In 1863.

This was a magical experience for someone who has always read about the lives of the Royal Family since the time of Queen Victoria. Just to see their dishes was to bring them to life as flesh-and-blood people, not as characters in a multi-volume fiction. And every room of the tour is like that. If you can ever go there, don’t miss it!