day 14.

WINDSOR CASTLE.

Well it was yet another early morning... and yet another morning Andrea and I woke up late, not a half hour before we had to leave or even 20 minutes..... but 5 minutes before we all had to meet downstairs!!! I swear I set my alarm, but of course I slept through it and so did Andrea. I heard a knock on the door and popped up like a jack-in-the-box, swung the door open as Molly stood there not looking suprised that we just woke up as she said "you have 5 minutes". Don't worry... we just got dressed and ran out the door getting downstairs just in time. Oh, and not to mention the fact that my hair looked like Henry VIII, which means frizzy bush hair, I was looking fly.
We then got on the train to Windsor and rode for about an hour, once we got off and walked a short distance to Windsor Castle, which has been inhabited by Royalty for almost 900 years!!! Our tour guide said that Windsor Palace is what the Queen considers home and Buckingham Palace is like her office, she is also supposed to come next week, when she comes they close the castle down from visitors. We went on a nice little tour of the outside learning all sorts of interesting information. After the tour we all watched the changing of the guards up close and personal! I was probably like 2 feet away from on of the guards, I love the big black fur hats they wear. I'll have to post a video of them playing in the band. But it was fun to watch them play their music and march around. Afterwards we looked at the beautiful cathedral with fan vaulted ceilings, unfortunately we weren't allowed to take pictures.. but it was a breathtaking cathedral. I was marveling at the intricacy of the carvings in both the stone and wood details throughout the cathedral, it is still mind boggling to me that they did it all by hand. The Queen Mother and Henry VIII were buried there as well.
After checking out the Cathedral we looked around inside the castle (where we were also not allowed to take pictures either) but we found this room that had a huge doll house that was made for Queen Mary. It was huge!! Basically as big as the whole room it was in.. Everything in the house was made exactly to scale made with only the finest furniture from the craftsmen that actually designed and built the life size furniture, including the paintings. We also saw her dolls, the clothing for them were nicer than any piece of clothing I own. Thinking back to my raged old dolls, it was interesting to see toys for royalty.

the castle

my and my buds!

more the the castle

a cute little royal ice cream truck

waiting for the changing of the guards

changing of the guards

Me and Danielle

Danielle and I found this amazing bed for the King while walking through the Castle, and since we couldn't take pictures we sketched it! It was funny when people would come in and crowd around you and a watch as you sketch, a little awkward as well. The little school boys were the best, they were so fascinated and Danielle and I received a lot of compliments on our sketches :) It was fun.

After sketching, Danielle and I got separated from our group so we walked back to the train in the rain and went to a nearby cafe/bakery thinking we could get a yummy sandwich and pastry for lunch, so we went to the first one we saw. It was the most disapointing, most expensive, most disgusting cafe I've ever been to. It was worse than food from the dollar store or any grocery store for that matter. We finally got on the train and made a few friends. Afterwards, we did a little shopping and then decided to make up for our horrible lunch at this cute little cafe in London, where I tried this delicious black cherry cake. It was amazing! 

here we are on a night on the town!

We had a great time that night dancing our hearts out and meeting new people!