Windsor Castle, a little Londontown, and Tooting

This weekend we decided to stay in London. On Friday night, we laid low, going into town to a pub for some shandy, cheese fries, and WiFi. Saturday morning, we headed to Windsor Castle, which is apparently the Queen’s favorite residence. We had planned it so that we could arrive at Windsor in time for the changing of the guard. Well, we were there on time, but they did not have the ceremony that day! We still don’t know why not. The castle is huge and imposing. Made of gray stones and set high on a rocky hillside overlooking the city below. We saw Queen Mary’s doll house, which is a miniature version of a castle complete with gardens, a garage, nursery, man’s room, etc even down to the closets. It is extremely detailed and fragile. We were also able to visit the state rooms, which includes bedrooms, banqueting hall, dining rooms, and the china room. One of the most magnificent rooms was the Lantern Room, which is an octagon with beautiful wood and gold plated items lining the walls. The banqueting hall, which is long and filled with shields of family crests. After seeing all there was to see at the castle, and hearing more about the monarchy than we wished to know, we left the castle in search of food. We found a quaint restaurant called the Crooked House, which is just as it says, crooked. This was a little disorienting, especially when climbing the stairs or looking at pictures on the wall.

Once back in London, we headed for the Borough market, a famous food market. They had all nature of goodies, but we arrived only about 45 minutes before closing time. We had a few free samples, but did not eat a meal there. Everything smelled delicious and was so fresh. They had fruits, vegetables, meats, all nature of prepared foods, baked goods, just about everything. We were standing next to a baked good stand when they announced a 2 for 1 sale. Since it was closing time, they were trying to get rid of their goods. This was a deal we could not pass up, so we purchased delicious scones for just 60p. We left the market and headed towards the Tower of London. We did not go in, but took pictures of the Tower Bridge and walked along the river Thames. We crossed the Millennium Bridge, where you could catch a glimpse of St. Paul’s Cathedral and went into the Tate Modern, a museum of modern art. Since neither of us are much on modern art, we just walked around a bit. After we saw the Monet painting, we decided it was time to leave.

As we were making our way to the tube station, these people rode by playing loud music. The odd thing about this was that they rode a mobile bar with pedals. There were about 4 people pedaling on each side facing each other with a bar in between. Then there were also a few people just sitting on there. They were enjoying drinks and appeared to be having a grand time. This was quite strange and random. Earlier whilst complaining about the lack of cereal selection here, we had heard of a supermarket near the South Kensington station that sold American cereal. We went there to check it out. They carried many American foods such as Goldfish, Rotel, and Kraft Mac & Cheese. But everything was outrageously expensive! The cereal was £7! That is about $11. Outrageous! Needless to say, we did not buy anything there. For dinner, we decided it was time for Indian food again, and went back to Tooting. Here we ordered the dosa, which are like large flat (and when we say flat, think paper thin and crunchy) pancakes that you can dip in sauces. We have been informed that they are eaten for breakfast in India.

On Sunday, we decided to take a personal day and it was awesome.

Word of the Blog:

Dodgy = shady, sketchy
Wonky = crooked, cockeyed

While we thought it was dodgy that there was no changing of the guards, we enjoyed eating at our wonky café.