(London, England)

We woke up this morning to a bright, fresh sunny day. I really enjoy the freshness that results the day after rain… like everything is sparkling clean and the air is clear. Grant and I were up and out the door by 8:00 to meet up with his dad and stepmom at their hotel. Grant had mapped it out so we could navigate our way on the London train system to Windsor Castle. I didn’t know what to expect but was excited to take a trip out of the city.

Windsor Castle is located in a town called Windsor which is at the end of a train line. We walked across the Thames to catch our train from the Waterloo station. The trip there didn’t take too long, about 1 hour, and was pretty smooth. Exiting the train station, we saw a looming castle nearby on a hill surrounded by a protective wall. This was reminiscent of our time in Salzburg when we tried to figure out how to find the entrance through the fortification wall. Thankfully, we followed the road up the hill toward a historic-looking section of the town and soon found the main entryway. I was pretty impressed, the castle is one of the most well-preserved, livable castles I’ve seen. It’s very well-maintained (and well-loved I’m sure!)

Windsor Castle was originally built in the 11th Century after William the Conqueror invaded England as part of the Norman invasion. This castle is the longest lived-in palace in Europe and has been used by the reigning monarch from the time of Henry I. According to Wikipedia, art historian Hugh Roberts had this to say about the castle’s luxurious 19th Century State Apartments: …“a superb and unrivaled sequence of rooms widely regarded as the finest and most complete expression of later Georgian taste”.

Here is our outer-castle photos (no photos were permitted inside):

It was fun taking a photo with the castle guard. Afterwards, we took the train back to London and got ready for a night at the “Theauhta”. I wore a black and white floral summer dress (with tights as it was still too cold for this Hawaii girl) and Grant looked classy in a dress shirt and pants. We had tickets to the musical “Motown” which was showing at the Shaftesbury Theater with the rest of Grant’s family. Lucky for us, Grant’s aunt and uncle had brought us freshly baked doughnuts from Bread Ahead in nearby Covent Garden to try just before the show. I had a custard creme-filled doughnut and it was delicious.

The show was high energy and very entertaining. There was a lot of dancing and singing with well-known songs from the Motown era. I’m super glad we were able to go.

Afterwards, we slowly walked back to the hotel while taking pictures along the way:

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