Trip to Windsor

With the close of the church service on Sabbath afternoon comes many decisions that must be made. Primarily, deciding what you're going to do for the rest of the afternoon: eating the cafeteria, imposing on another friend's outing, inviting yourself over to someone's house, venturing off campus to find some excitement. This Sabbath a group of 15 of us took three cars out to Windsor - not just the castle, but the town.

[From Left: Sarah (Germany), Clément (France), Simon, Mark, Jonathan, Michelle, Eric (England), Lars & Synne (Norway), Kasyn (Canada), Karlee (US)]

It was about a 30 minute drive out to the town with a short stop in between. When we arrived it was quite difficult to find parking (most people go into Windsor by bus). One car spent probably 30 minutes to find a spot after the rest of us had parked.

Before really seeing Windsor though, we crossed over a bridge into Eton, home of Eton College where Prince William and Prince Harry attended for secondary school. Eton College is a very prestigious secondary school in England for parents with millions of pounds to spend on their children's education (and you thought Adventist education was expensive!).

The grounds at the school are impeccably kept. We spent a short while in one of the gardens at the school where a statue of Perseus holding the head of Medusa stands.

A gate to one of the gardens at Eton

The statue of Perseus holding the head of Medusa

We went back over the bridge to Windsor at this point to catch Evensong at St. George's Chapel. The chapel is part of Windsor Castle and is the resting place of King Henry VIII (along with many other royals) and where Prince Charles and Camilla received their marital blessing from the church.

Because it was late in the afternoon at this point, we decided not to take a tour of the castle (and because I know some of you will be wanting to go there when you come visit). Instead, we opted to see the park in front of Windsor Castle. Straight out from the front gate stretches a long path imaginatively called "The Long Walk". The path is three miles long, though it doesn't look it. From one end, I looked out and figured I could walk to a certain point, about a third of the entire stretch, in five minutes. This ended up taking half an hour to walk there and back.

The Long Walk

(From Left: Karlee, Kasyn, Eric and Mark)

Windsor Castle

On our way back to the main street in town for dinner, we passed by Windsor's Crooked House and the shortest street in England.

(Building is more crooked than it appears)

We ended the evening at a pub on Thames Street right next to the castle called The King and Castle. It was relatively inexpensive and their vegetarian Five Bean Chili was exceptional. Sitting around and just talking, it was clear I wasn't in America anymore. It seems that whenever alcohol is present in the states it is a given that the persons drinking are either drunk, or about to be drunk. However, in this cozy pub there was none of that to be seen (except perhaps out back). Conversations and small get-togethers, rather than unabated laughter and slurring language, were the overall mood.

Walking back to the cars, we passed by a McDonald's where two plastic guards like those seen at Buckingham Palace were standing inside. I have never seen a McDonald's so clean and aesthetically pleasing in my life.

This concludes the trip to Windsor.

For those that haven't gotten a chance to talk with recently and have been wondering what I will be studying this semester at Newbold College, wonder no more:

Introduction to International Development

Jesus in His Time and Ours

Civilizations and Ideas

Introduction to Words and Music in Worship

Cultural Anthropology

(I will have a posting up about the Thames Festival that I went to in London yesterday soon)