Windsor Castle-Day 6

This is the last day of fun for England. The day after this we flew home and honestly after first class...it wasn't that eventful. This was by far my favorite of all of the castles. Windsor castle is so beautiful.

We were in the LONG line to get in when the changing of the guard too place. I have no idea why this day was so popular to get in. I think it also didn't help we were there first thing in the morning. We did however get to talk to a family from Manchester while in line and it was fun to get to listen to them talk.

This was the highest point in the castle.

We were lucky with the weather all week. We had a taste of English rain on this final day and it POURED! I was so grateful Josh packed the umbrella because it was pretty soggy. Even with the umbrella our pants were soaked.

I loved this little pond in the garden that was once a moat. I loved the lily pads in it. This is where I would hang if I were the queen of this castle. Can't you just picture a frog prince hanging out here as well?

The garden went all the way up the hill.

the gardeners leaving for the day.

This is the courtyard in the middle of the castle.

Thank goodness for all of the audio guides they had everywhere. I learned so much about England as well as the places that we visited. It is my dream now to take my kids back here some day.

A mini changing of the guard...or something.

St. George's Chapel. This is where Henry VIII is buried with his wife Jane Seymore (the only one that gave him a son, so I guess she won the prize). An interesting tidbit about dear Henry. He was supposed to have some great and grand burial shrine. It was to be so elaborate with oriental stones, white pillars, 4 life size images of Henry and Lady Jane, a life size sculpture of Henry on a horse under a triumphal arch, 134 figurines including John the Baptiste etc, etc. Cardinal Wolsey died and was buried in part of the tomb that was completed so Henry VIII redesigned and had work start on it. He died before it was completed and nobody ever finished it. Finally the metal work was sold off to pay for some work being done to Windsor castle and he was buried in the bottom of the church.

This is the only memorial he got... (got this off the internet). It is on the floor inside the chapel.

St. George's Chapel.

I just couldn't stop feeling sorry for these guys.

After Windsor Castle we headed to a pub to eat. I was pretty excited to eat at one of these. I read "The Pickwick Papers," by Charles Dickens a few years ago and these pubs totally reminded me of that book. The pubs are everywhere and they all look the same and have similar names. This one was the "Royal Oak."

I think they are so cute.

Josh and I had our first "pint". It was sparkling water with lemonade flavoring in it. But it still was a pint.

I had to try Sausages and Mash while we were in England. Apparently these are actually called "Bangers and Mash", but on "Bedknobs and Broomsticks" she calls it Sausages and Mash so we are going to go with that one. It was really good (although I was half way through it when I remembered to take a picture). Their sausages are packed a little looser than ours here, which wasn't my favorite, but it was still really good. Josh had a good old American BLT.

English Money. Queen Elizabeth's face is on all of it. It would be weird to buy something with one picture of her, only to get one back. Here we exchange picture ya know. I always felt like I was getting my money back.

Later that night Josh and I went off just the two of us to find the Peter Pan statue in Kennsington Gardens. We stopped at a Starbucks and got a strawberry cupcake and white hot chocolate. It was actually pretty cold on this day. We shared the hot chocolate while walking through the gardens. Good memories.

The park isn't like our parks. At least not when we were there. It was pretty wild looking. I liked that about it. We were told this is usually very green and beautiful. I still thought it was beautiful.

We found our statue. I LOVE Peter Pan. I have read it about 10 times. I love reading it with my boys and I had promised them to take a picture of this statue.

This cute Polish guy asked me to take his picture with the statue and then he took ours. He was the friendliest person I met in England, and that is saying something because I thought the people were great. I just didn't expect that from someone from Poland, not their typical stereotype ya know?

I love this statue and got a little choked up being around it. It symbolizes childhood and wonderful memories to me.

This is on the cover of one of my versions of Peter Pan.

There were some beautiful fountains that we ducked into during another rain storm.

The rain while Josh and I were in the park wasn't heavy like it had been previously. We had the most beautiful walk and the air smelled so clean. We looked up to see this.

We didn't have time to see Kensington Palace. Josh and I just walked around the outside of it. To be honest, they probably wouldn't have let me take pictures of the inside anyway right? I still would like to see it one day. The gardens were spectacular.

This is where Princess Diana lived when she was alive.

This was a little restaurant called "The Orangerie". They were closed when we got there.

It was the most quiet beautiful evening. Mostly everywhere we went in England had a million people, but this night there wasn't anyone around us as we walked through these beautiful gardens. It was so peaceful.

As we walked back into Hyde Park we saw a little pond full of swans.

We ended our little evening back where we began at the Albert Memorial. The sky was so beautiful!

England was such a life changing experience for me. I loved every second of it. I have missed it since we have been home and I have come home with a greater appreciation for the United States. I feel like it was such a blessing to be able to go on this trip, one that I will ALWAYS remember. It was so much fun to be with Josh just the two of us for more than a few hours. I was reminded over and over why I love him. He was so much fun to be with and made this trip as great as it was. I hope that one day we will be able to go back. Until then I will always have a special place in my heart for England.