London - Day 5 - Storming the Castle

Today we had a wonderful time exploring Windsor Castle, the weekend home of the Queen.  It takes about 35 minutes to get to Windsor by train from Paddington Station in London. Mark did a great job coordinating everything for the day - he ordered our tickets for the castle online, figured out how to get there, and then got us there and back with no hiccups.  Although now he seems to think we need to purchase a "weekend castle" so we can live like royalty.

We got an early start so that we were in Windsor in plenty of time to see the changing of the guard. I had read that the guard changing at Windsor Castle was better and less crowded than at Buckingham Palace, so we decided to see this one instead. We found a spot about 30 minutes before the ceremony and we were right up front. While I enjoyed it, I do not think it would have been worth seeing if we had not had such a great spot.

I had also read that most people find the changing of the guard to be a disappointment. We enjoyed it but maybe that's because our expectations were low. 

We expected the band to play military music but they played a medley of Beatles tunes!

We also did an audio tour of the castle, including the State Apartments and St. George's Chapel. I fell in love with St. George's Hall in the State Apartments section. We weren't allowed to take pictures inside but I bought a postcard of this room because I liked it so much. It's exactly what you imagine a castle to look like. (Once again, Mark's "weekend castle" ideas may prove rather costly as he tries to recreate this room that is likely larger than our current home.)

We had lunch at a little pub called the Carpenter's Arms. We both enjoyed the beef rib pie.  Mark said the Outlier Lager was quite good.

Then we headed back over to the castle for our guided tour of the Great Kitchen. The kitchen has been in use for over 750 years. It's quite large, with extremely high ceilings. The guide compared it to a cathedral and I thought that was an accurate comparison. We learned that the Queen likes her food local and organic!

After visiting Windsor, we went back to the hotel to rest for a bit and then headed out to Brick Lane for dinner. Brick Lane is the center of the Bangladeshi community in London and is famous for the restaurants lining the street, and also for the Brick Lane Market.  

As you walk down the street, there are men who come up to you from all of the restaurants trying to get you to have dinner there. This is not unlike many other areas we've been to in other cities but what was different is that they offer you discounts at the restaurant. If you walk away, the discounts get better. We decided on a restaurant called City Spice. 

The offer we took was two starters, two main dishes, rice, naan, and two drinks each for 15 pounds each. I'm not sure if this was a good deal or not but it was one of the busiest places on the street so we thought that was a good sign. We started with Aloo Chat and something else we can't remember the name of. For main dishes we had Garlic chicken and Dansak chicken. The Dansak chicken was super spicy!  Overall, the food was pretty good but nothing special.  We just have trouble beating Thali of India in Rochester.

We had a nice walk back to the hotel beside the Tower of London, over the Tower Bridge and along the Thames.  On our way back, we noticed this crane in the sky and discovered that people were having dinner on it!  How fabulous!  If you want to find out more, check out:  http://dinnerinthesky.co.uk

We need to get 20 more people together to do this. Who's in???  Oh, and now apparently Mark's "weekend castle" will feature a dining room suspended over a waterfall...he always has to try and one-up the Queen.