One extremely hot and sunny day (30º degrees 🫠), we went to Windsor. Despite being very close to where we live, we ended up taking almost 2 hours to get there from home, due to poor transportation choices.
Still, even if our way was long and winding, I was excited to get early views of Windsor from sitting on top of the bus. Alas! The bus lumbered from one dreary suburb to another, and our only view of Windsor Castle was a brief sighting before getting blocked by trees.
We didn’t get tickets to go inside Windsor Castle. It costs ~30 pounds per person, and we didn’t think it was really worth it. Besides, on such a beautiful day, we’d rather be outdoors than on a guided tour in the castle.
So, we reached there around 2ish in the afternoon – so hot that we had to stop for ice cream before we even approached the castle 🫠.
The route to the castle is beautiful. We strolled around Eton High Street, then made our way to the riverside, where we watched the swans for a bit. Then, we walked to the castle.
The castle is massive, quite the fortress, and looks very royal and majestic. It’s on a slight rise, so it looks even more imposing as we walk toward it. The surrounding areas are all modernity, though – shops, restaurants, and everything very touristy.
Since we were not going into the castle, we just loitered around the surrounding very pretty areas.
The high street and the railway station area is very pretty, and there were Union Jack flags fluttering everywhere. I believe we came a couple of days after some sort of anniversary, so the place was looking very festive still.
After the high street, we went to Windsor’s main attraction (if you are not going into the castle itself)—The Royal Mile. This is a one-mile walk in front of the castle surrounded by parklands, and it was a joy—simply a joy—to walk there with the castle as a backdrop. Warning: photo dump incoming.
On the way, we took a moment to duck into a church that looked promising. The interiors were beautiful, and there’s a wonderful depiction of The Last Supper there.
The Royal Mile is beautiful. There were loads of people running, cycling, or just walking around like us. But this place is so massive, it didn’t feel crowded at all. We weren’t jostled or pushed or anything. We took our time strolling, pausing every few minutes to take photographs, and just admiring all the greenery around us. There’s just something about massive stretches of green that’s very soothing to the soul.
After the walk, it was now time to return home, leaving all this gorgeousness behind.
We stopped to click a picture of Piglet in front of this crooked house, which honestly didn’t look that crooked – just one of those random tourist attractions.
