There was a hiccup with the rental car and how we were being charged~ I didn’t even have time to review the information on the receipt (there was a bunch of people in line after me) when I picked up the car, and later found out I was charged 212 pounds for ‘special equip repl.’ I rented through Alamo cuz I thought they were a brand I could trust… but instead, Alamo does some kind of leasing of their rights to the name to Europcar because when I picked up my car, I found out Alamo in the UK is by Europcar! I had heard horror stories of how Europcar bills customers and was trying to avoid doing business with them! In fact, when I was booking, I found that Europcar had better deals online than Alamo, but I chose the more expensive Alamo because I thought I could trust their brand and the way they do business. Guessed wrong! When I picked up the car, the clerk gave me a choice of returning the fuel tank empty and they’d charge me 1.08 pounds per liter to fill up if I made my decision NOW on the spot… or I could return the tank full… or I could return the tank empty but they’d charge 1.89 pounds instead! Good grief! I asked if I could change my mind afterwards, and he say yes, but today, when I returned the car, the clerk said that this was a nonrefundable decision! Grrr…
Ah think happier thoughts! We woke up early to get breakfast, and then were on our way to London… London! I’ve only been once before in high school, but I still have very fond memories of my time there. The trip was supposed to be around 3 hours and 30 minutes, or around 180 miles. We decided to fill up the tank for peace of mind that we’d get to Windsor in one go… but later discovered that we shouldn’t have filled up the tank at all and would still have gotten to London from Stockport no problem. I was a bit nervous of driving so long a distance… on the left-hand side of the road, driving on the right-hand side of the car! But it turned out to be pretty smooth, the GPS (TomTom) was pretty good about directions, telling you how long in real time it would take for you to get to that location, and letting you know when there are traffic cameras (yikes! Those cameras are EVERYWHERE!).
It took us 3 hours and 40 minutes to get to Windsor, which ain’t bad considering there were long stretches on the ‘motorway’ backed up with traffic, and we had to drive through the mountains with a large truck driving slowly in front of us! It totally reminds us of driving on highway 5. Indeed, I am quite sad to return the car! I enjoyed driving while in England and it'll be hard for me to go back to driving on the left-hand side again!
Online bloggers suggested parking at King Edward’s parking lot in the town of Windsor, as there is no freakin’ parking lot at the actual castle site! But the town itself is quite charming, especially the shops right across from Windsor Castle.
We saw a fudge shop, and the guy behind the counter gave us a taste of the house’s Belgian Chocolate Marble Fudge. It was soooo good! The fudge texture is like one I’ve never had before (and that’s with me eating fudge at any place I come across it) … the outside is crystallized and hard, but once you break through to the inside, it’s so incredibly silky, smooth and almost has a runny consistency. Yum! The flavors are awesome as well. The guy gave us an offer we couldn’t refuse~ buy 4 slabs, get 1 free. We ended up buying a Peanut Butter:
Strawberry & Cream (vanilla bean!):
Mocha Chocolate Swirl:
Toffee:
And the Caramel Swirl:
Windsor Castle was initially built as a military fortress on a strategically advantageous site, high above the city so that if any enemy wanted to attack, they would be seen from far away. The views from the Castle of the city below:
Much of Windsor Castle is outdoors (which surprised us… we thought we’d be seeing a gigantic palace!), as Windsor Castle is more like a collection of buildings that make it almost like a little town within the walls.
Once you reach the main walkway leading up to the castle, you see holes in the stone walls shaped like a cross.
This is used for shooting arrows; it is shaped in a cross shape so that the shooter can move his bow around inside the cross and tilt the bow upwards to maximize how far to shoot. These ‘windows’ are large on the inside, but very narrow on the outside so that enemies can’t shoot back in successfully.
There is a tower in the middle of this walled little town and it is built on a man-made moat. This is where the King & Queen of England traditionally lived, and was designed to be the least penetrable area in Windsor in case of a siege. The moat separating enemies from the tower is now a garden:
The tower has its own well in case of a prolonged siege. The flag showing when the Queen is in residence is the English flag, a red cross on a white background. But on the day we went, the flag was the UK flag of blue, red and white, which means the Queen is not in residence at this time.
We waited patiently in a looooong line to see Queen Mary’s famed dollhouse. There are 2 different entryways~ one goes through the dollhouse and then to the State Apartments and the other goes directly to the State Apartments. Nobody went through the latter line! I guess everybody wanted to see the dollhouse. It is really worth it! Not a dollhouse in the traditional meaning, but a full-blown miniature dollhouse, complete with miniature paintings, furniture and running electricity! The craftsmen who made this dollhouse were collectively the forefront of their respective crafts at the time.
The State Apartments are entirely something else. There is one room devoted to military weaponry and military heroes, to show off English might. There is one hall that has every single knight’s coat of arms hanging on the ceiling, with some blanked out to show that somewhere along the way, the knight screwed up and his shield was taken away. This is to remind citizens of the shame associated with what they did.
We also saw the room that PBS filmed ~__^ It’s the dining hall for State dinners, where everything is measured by a yardstick precisely, down to how far the chair must be from the table.
There was a fire that broke out at Windsor in 1992, and a whole wing was burnt down. It took 5 years to completely rebuild the rooms and restore them to their original state. Unfortunately, we had to rush through the last part of our tour, as we had to return the rental car in London by 5pm. I thought there would be distinct signs saying “You are now entering London City”… or something along those lines. But I didn’t even notice when we entered London!
London has a congestion charge/toll for cars entering a certain zone during business hours. They installed this new law as a way to cut down on traffic on major streets. It’s a hefty 8 pounds per day! We didn’t even know about this charge until we googled the directions, and found that the car rental location was located right smack in the middle of the congestion zone! There are no actual toll bridges entering the zone (all you see are signs or painted lines on the ground), but there are cameras all over taking the license plate of the each car that enters the zone. AND you gotta be smart about it, because if you pay the fee on the day of, it’s 8 pounds. But if you pay the following day, it’s 10 pounds!
We walked to Buckingham Palace from our hotel:
We walked to Piccadilly Circus to see Fortnam and Mason’s flagship store:
Angel was super excited about the Big Ben because of Peter Pan (“Second star to the right, and straight on til morning…”). When we finally walked there though, she was disappointed that it wasn’t a self-standing tower, but rather, part of the House of Parliament building. In Peter Pan, you see, they depict Big Ben as a large tower. Still, it is very pretty.
Westminster Abbey was closed by the time we walked by, but that’s cool because we got nice shots without anybody in the way! ^.^
Haha there are signs on the ground all over London telling pedestrians which way to look for cars before crossing the street. Despite these signs, we still end up looking the opposite way since we’re used to people driving on the other side of the rode. =P
There is a pasty shop near our hotel in the Victoria train station. We bought a hot beef & stilton pasty for 2.9 pounds and although we couldn’t taste the stilton, the pie dough was very flaky and buttery, the beef filling was peppery and rich.
We found a grocery store near our hotel called Sainsbury’s. It’s cheap and has a wide variety of products, many prepared foods. 3 pounds gets you a sandwich, drink and fruit. Can you believe they were ALL sold out? And this 3 pound section takes up a whole grocery aisle too!
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