{"id":2032,"date":"2016-12-02T11:05:04","date_gmt":"2016-12-02T11:05:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/international\/?p=2032"},"modified":"2016-12-02T11:05:04","modified_gmt":"2016-12-02T11:05:04","slug":"away-windsor-castle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/international\/away-windsor-castle\/","title":{"rendered":"Away to Windsor Castle!"},"content":{"rendered":"

I’d been counting down Netflix’s new series The Crown<\/a> for months.<\/em> I proceeded to binge it earlier in the month, and fell in love with the Royal history all over again. Having already visited Hampton Court<\/a> in 2013, and Buckingham Palace<\/a> last year, I knew a visit to Windsor Castle<\/a>, the Queen’s weekend estate, was definitely a must.<\/p>\n

The first thing you notice about Windsor Castle from outside its brick walls is it’s MASSIVE. It sits on a hill like an ostrich perched on a tree branch. Once inside the walls though, it does begin to feel homey despite its grandeur. As the docent explains it’s the longest-occupied palace in Europe (having been around for nearly a thousand years), it’s easy to feel very small as you make the way through the Queen’s favorite home.<\/p>\n

\"Windsor
Courtyard views<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Windsor
Patchwork brick from centuries of construction<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I didn’t catch a glimpse of the Queen, but I was able to see the State Apartments, St. George’s Chapel, and Fashioning a Reign<\/a>, a special exhibit on the Queen’s wardrobe. It’s fascinating to see the thought that gets put into her outfits… especially considering that I have a daily uniform of a t-shirt, jeans, and booties.<\/p>\n

St. George’s Chapel, which is only<\/i> about seven hundred years old, is also a must see on the property. Many royals are buried there- including the Queen’s parents and sister- and King Henry VIII, who is buried there with his third wife, Jane Seymour. I was especially stoked to see King Henry VIII buried there, considering he’s my favorite Twitter parody account- really!<\/p>\n

\"Windsor
Endless grounds to explore<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Windsor
The delicious Cinnamon Cafe nearby, in an old train station<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

At one point, an elderly gentleman next to me asked his wife what King George VI had died of. I knew the answer (cancer) having just seen it in The Crown. Watching the series served as a great ‘lil nerdy refresher for Royal history and definitely made the Royals feel like real people versus just people you read about in history books. After my tour, I finished the day with a cinnamon swirl from the neighboring Cinnamon Cafe<\/a>. Twas a good day!<\/p>\n

What are other castles in the UK (and other European countries, I don’t discriminate!) that are a must-see?<\/p>\n

Read this post and more tales at Monique’s personal\u00a0blog<\/a>!<\/i><\/p>\n

PS: How can you not want to follow this guy… seriously. Go follow him.<\/p>\n

\"Windsor<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I’d been counting down Netflix’s new series The Crown for months. I proceeded to binge it earlier in the month, and fell in love with the Royal history all over again. Having already visited Hampton Court in 2013, and Buckingham…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":180,"featured_media":2039,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,18,19],"tags":[598,618,764],"class_list":["post-2032","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-culture","category-student-experience","category-travel","tag-royal-history","tag-sightseeing","tag-windsor-castle"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/international\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2032","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/international\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/international\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/international\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/180"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/international\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2032"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/international\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2032\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/international\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2039"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/international\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2032"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/international\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2032"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/international\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2032"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}