Castles and Calamity

Well, bad news. Callista is really sick today. She’s running a fever and stuffy nose. So we aren’t going anywhere today. We had to wait until 10 for the Boots to open. Another difference between the two places. We could run to Walgreens when it opens at 8 or go an extra mile to the 24/7 Walgreens, but here nothing opens until 10 and the stores close between 5 & 6. Not saying that is necessarily bad, but it’s very different from what we are used to.

I sent George to Boots to get medicine for her but apparently Boots doesn’t open on Sundays until 11. Ok…It’s wonderful to travel! It makes you appreciate what you do have and makes you much more patient. It makes you realize that you have it pretty easy living in the US.

Yesterday we took the train to Windsor which is just West of London. It is where Sir Elton John lives as well as Queen Elizabeth.

It is the largest occupied castle in the world. And it really looks like what we envision castles should look like. We were able to tour the state apartments and see the priceless art they have. Also the rooms and architecture is incredible. There was a fire that destroyed over 100 rooms in the castle. Some through the roof so that all you saw was the bare rafters. This gave them the opportunity to restore all of the rooms, some of them exactly as they were, using the same materials and construction techniques as the original, others they embellished and restored a few of the room to great Georgian splendor. Pretty spectacular. They also displayed set of china back from the early 1700’s.




Here are a couple of gargoyles at the castle:



It was freezing yesterday and we were out in it most of the day. We came back to the hotel and did nothing. Callista went to sleep and didn’t wake up until 7 this morning.

So we got her some medicine and we’ll see if that makes her feel good enough to trek over to the British Museum again. Thankfully it is only 2 blocks from the hotel, so if she starts feeling bad again, we make it back to the hotel quickly. No trains to take.