They were a whole week ago! I think I'm slacking off. It's actually been a busy week. A nice, mostly sunny & warm activity filled week. Which is a good thing.
Last Friday, Chris, Kyle & I took the 10 am train from Waterloo Station (an easy tube ride from Hampstead) to the Windsor/Eton Riverside Station, which took about an hour. Our hotel was barely a block away, and we were even able to check in early. It was a lovely old place - the Christopher Wren House and as I write this I'm ashamed to say that I never found out who Christopher Wren was. Although I did think about it! We began our visit by walking through the really lovely (yes I know - I'm overusing the word but it works in so many contexts!) town of Windsor. It was a nice day - mild & partly sunny and we sat out on the terrace of the The King & Castle Pub for lunch and a pint (of course.)
Windsor Castle itself literally looms over the town of Windsor and is really magnificent. This one's not free, but well worth the cost of admission. From what I understand, the Queen was actually staying there all week while she was attending Royal Ascot. We saw the State Apartments, which are frequently used for events such as entertaining foreign heads of state, the amazing Queen Mary's Doll House, which was designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens and presented to Queen Mary in 1924 (unbelievable teeny tiny details), an exquisite collection of artwork, and one of my favorite exhibits, which is temporary - an extensive collection of photographs by Marcus Adams, who was the official photographer for 4 generations of the Royal Family between 1926 and 1956. (Charles was a really cute little kid!)
We also visited the daunting St. George's Chapel - more the size of a cathedral - which holds the remains of many former monarchs, including Henry VIII and the current Queen Elizabeth's parents and sister Margaret. The chapel is on the castle grounds, and was also where the wedding blessing was held for Prince Charles and Camilla in 2005 following their civil ceremony.
Leaving the castle grounds, Chris struck up a conversation with a local constable with an impressive firearm (he was obviously a special security detail for the castle as regular coppers don't carry weapons) who gave us a recommendation for a good local pub so of course we had to go have another pint. The Two Brewers wins the award so far for the prettiest pub we've visited, and we caught the end of the US - Slovenia tie in the World Cup. On the way back into town, we came upon the Crooked House of Windsor which really is a crooked little building where Chris & I went for tea. The plan next was to head up to Eton College for a look around but by then it had grown really cool and started to rain so we just headed back to the hotel. After a little nap on the part of all 3 of us, we had a nice dinner at the hotel and went to bed.
The next morning, our harried Ascot prep time was interrupted by a call to Chris's mobile from the porter back at our apartment in Hampstead. Apparently, a neighbor had complained about the alarm in our apartment going off, which perplexed us because although there is an alarm system installed, we've never set it up or armed it. So, after Chris gave him permission to check out the flat, he called back a few minutes later to report that it was an alarm clock going off, and he didn't think that we'd been robbed but the room was somewhat unkempt... Chris assured him that it was just the room of an American teenager and all was well.
So we got ourselves all gussied up and took a taxi to Ascot. The sun was out but it was chilly. We'd gotten our tickets to the races via the Hampstead Women's Club, who was also hosting a pre-race tailgate picnic. We found our group, which also included the London alumni clubs of both Notre Dame and Georgetown Universities, so there was quite a varied group of mostly Americans. We met some nice folks, and there was a nice spread of food and drink, but it had grown overcast and was windy and, well... pretty dang cold. After a few hours of socializing, we walked up to the entrance with the crowd having by this time gotten separated from our group, who had headed in the direction of the Royal Procession, of which we were oblivious. No matter - we'd gotten a prime view of the Queen just the week before at the Trooping of the Colours, and by this time what we were really interested in was figuring out the betting system. Priorities please.
A friendly young chap from Ladbrokes tried to assist us, but he spoke quickly and with a thick Brit accent we couldn't quite get a solid explanation of what we were doing. So we all lost 5 pounds on the first race. The worst part was going out to the stands to watch - the cold & wind were really miserable. The folks who were obviously having the best time were the ones walking around with open bottles of wine & champagne and were nowhere near the racetrack. We got ourselves some hot coffee and made a second attempt at perusing the odds, this time on race #3, which was called the Jubilee Stakes and also the "Highlighted Race of the Day". It was indeed a highlight for us as we placed another 5 pounds "either way" on a horse called Starsspangledbanner - who won! ("Either way" means that your bet gets split and you'll win either if your horse wins or places.) So we made 25 pounds, just enough to pay for the taxi back to the hotel, which we did next because we'd had enough. We had a bit of an adventurous train trip back to London, as we had to take a bus for the first leg of the trip, then encountered 3 rude American women who clearly had been to Ascot and were still carrying their open bottles of wine, as well as a disturbed gentlemen who felt it necessary to profess to the entire train that he was the real Terminator - not the Hollywood version - who would destroy anyone who got in his way. Life in the big city.
The next day was Father's Day - here too - and after laying around recovering from our trip and working out, we walked up to nearby Golder's Hill Park, which is part of Hampstead Heath and has become my very favorite park so far. We were able to sit and enjoy a much better afternoon - sunny and probably 70 - then head to the nearby Old Bull & Bush for a Father's Day dinner, which was really good. We didn't even have a beer. (Bottle of wine, yes; beer, no.)
It was a busy but very nice weekend. I would definitely go back for a visit to Windsor Castle and hopefully see Eton on the next go round. I'd also like to go back to Ascot when it's not Royal week and the weather would hopefully be more conducive to actually sitting and enjoying the races. But for now, it's onward and upward. It's almost July, and we have a picnic at the Embassy to attend!
http://picasaweb.google.com/swronsky/WindsorRoyalAscot#
http://picasaweb.google.com/swronsky/FatherSDayGoldersHillPark#
No comments:
Post a Comment