Windsor Castle

Just by pure luck I got the chance to accompany Yr 5s on their trip to Windsor Castle. I had never been there so I was looking forward to go. It is actually not that far away (about 30 min by coach) and I don't know why I never got round to go there.

The weather was absolutely gorgeous - sunny and quite hot. The Queen was unfortunately not there. First we had a talk about the Tudor time by one of the guides of Windsor. They also showed us one of the flags that used to be lifted when the Queen is actually around. It was a bit "tattered" because when the current flag gets damaged in any way they just cut out pieces from the old one to repair it. Do you know which "parts" of the country are represented in the flag and why one is not represented at all?

Then we had a tour around the castle and St. Georges Chapel which I found both most impressive. Windsor Castle is an official residence of The Queen and the largest occupied castle in the world. A Royal home and fortress for over 900 years, the Castle remains a working palace today.

Visitors can walk around the State Apartments, extensive suites of rooms at the heart of the working palace. For part of the year visitors can also see the Semi State rooms, which are some of the most splendid interiors in the castle. They are furnished with 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 there are many additional attractions, including the Drawings Gallery, Queen Mary's dolls' house (which the girls of course liked best!), and the fourteenth-century St. George's Chapel, the burial place of ten sovereigns and setting for many Royal weddings.

I loved it and the kids seemed to love it as well. We were also able to watch the change of the guards in the castle grounds. It was definitely one of the best trips I had! And aren't they cute in their nice little uniforms? There were some French and German pupils obviously on a school trip and they were really staring after them and the girls just could not understand why they were taking pictures of them. They were most surprised to hear that in other countries pupils do not wear school uniforms!