Rainy Day at Windsor Castle
- Casey Tsou
- Jun 13, 2019
- 3 min read
Our day started pretty early to ensure we all had enough time to get there and spend the day exploring places aside from the castle. The train rides were quite long, but luckily, I was able to sleep quite a bit and I made a new friend named Sean. We were the only two rising sophomores in the entire program, so it was nice to talk to someone my age there. I'm used to feeling young because my birthday is in summer and I have just naturally become friends with people older than me, so this was really nice for a change.
As soon as we got off the train, there was a really special picture in front of us. What seemed like a pixelated image of Meghan Markle and Prince Harry was actually an image made completely of LEGO bricks!
It was a short walk getting out of the train station and up a short hill to Windsor Castle. However, the security line getting in was terribly long and we waited quite a bit. When I first went through the metal detector, I caused it to beep and was immediately embarrassed and worried. I knew I didn't have anything on me, but I was worried I would not be able to get in. After I went through a second time and it still beeped, the man asked me to take off my shoes. I was surprised, but did as told and proceeded to pass without a beep this time. He then let me know that it often happens due to the heel in a shoe, which first shocked me, but then made sense when I actually thought about it.
Once we got through, the castle was absolutely stunning. Given that it was raining quite a lot and it was hard to take pictures or even stand outside without being very uncomfortable, it was still a wonderful sight to take in. At least it wasn't very crowded, so we could see everything in a timely manner without a huge swarm of tourists.
There were a couple of buildings to enter that had hundreds of artifacts to gaze at from royal armor to fine platters and cutlery! It was nice to walk through all of the rooms and see all of the pieces on display, and even better that it gave us a chance to be indoors and safe from the rain for quite some time.
Just a small random tidbit, but at one point, I took a picture for a family with a man dressed in uniform named George. No clue who he was, but I felt pretty awesome taking a picture for a family that seemed to have at least one person of high status at Windsor Castle.
Next, we headed off to see a beefeater do his thing for the first time! It wasn't as exciting as we expected, but we did grow an appreciation for these guys. Can you imagine having to stand still for that long and repeat the same old routine with people filming you? I definitely can't! In case you haven't seen it before, here's a video!
Sean and I were starving, so we headed out to grab something to eat. First, we went inside a few little gift shops, but we ended up at an adorable looking place to eat. It was an interesting cute pink floral themed restaurant, and I was honestly a bit worried Sean would be embarrassed by it, but he didn't seem to care. I had the chance to try raclette for the first time, but not the way I imagined it. The cheese was given to my pre-sliced and I melted it myself on a cool little contraption over small pickles, pickled onions and tiny potatoes.
I think I got horrible food poisoning because my stomach hurt immensely just 15-20 minutes after eating and I felt incredibly nauseous on the train. I stayed at Paddington station for over an hour waiting for my stomach to finally settle. I thought about taking an Uber, but I couldn't bear to spend the money and I did eventually make it home alright.
Although the day was not the best for my health, I was given such a wonderful opportunity to experience such an astounding historical location and it was definitely worth all the trouble that came afterward. After this very packed and tiresome day, I can say that one of the best parts by far was this adorable cat roaming around! Here's a quick lil video of Sean and I with the smol one xx
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