Windsor Castle

Windsor Castle is an official residence of The Queen and the largest occupied castle in the world with over 1,000 rooms. A royal palace and fortress for over 900 years–William the Conqueror first ordered a castle built on the site–the Castle remains a working palace today. Visitors are given a brief introductory tour and then are left to wander around the State Apartments, the extensive suites of rooms at the heart of the working palace. Throughout one catches glimpses of treasures from the Royal Collection including paintings by Holbein, Rubens, Van Dyck and Lawrence, fine tapestries and porcelain, sculpture and armour.

Within the Castle complex is Queen Mary's Doll's House, a miniature mansion built to perfection, which we skipped, as the queue was long and our time short. However, we did manage a visit to the fourteenth-century St. George's Chapel, the burial place of ten sovereigns, home of the Order of the Garter, and the setting for many Royal weddings.

We visited on a weekday, when the Queen is not usually in attendance–she tends to use Windsor Castle as her weekend retreat–so once again Kassie was unable to fulfill her dream of meeting the Queen of England. Still, she enjoyed her visit and remained quiet and attentive during the guided portion of the tour.

Date of Our Last Visit: July 2005