London! Day 3

Actually it's only day two and a half but it's the third calendar day we've been here. We ate breakfast in the bar today which is lit by green fluorescent lights. Although it makes for a great atmosphere at night when there's music and drinking, it just makes the plain breakfast even worse. After the glowing meal we waited for Amanda and Geoff to pick us up in their rental car. Even though they had a Tom Tom GPS I had a hard time following directions and getting a feel for the driving on the left side and the round abouts.

The drive out to Windsor Castle only took 20 or so minutes but we had to stop for refreshments. English countryside is really pretty and the lead up to the town surrounding the castle was interesting. After parking we decided to take the tour which is a self guided audio tour that you get with admission to the fortress. It was very clean in and around the grounds and a really quiet nature. The whole tour, which included inside and outside areas took us about two hours to complete and along the way we saw some of the common areas, the older ceremonial rooms, the gardens surrounding the main keep and the church that is still in use today with three daily services. I met an interesting guard when we first arrived. He asked what my nationality was and when I told him Filipino he started speaking in simple Tagalog in a British accent. I asked if he knew a lot of Filipinos and he said no. Fascinating. For all I know his wife is Filipino and he's just showing off. There was a deep sense of history walking around the grounds as the Castle has been around for over 900 years. St. George's chapel has the burials of several royalties and has been the site of several royal weddings. It was a beautiful day and we all took tons of photos.

After this tour we had lunch at a local stand where I had... fish and chips again. We thought about getting ice cream but decided against it. then we drove back to London taking side streets that were an adventure. Amanda was hoping the route would take us past old historic towns but they were simply smaller towns with modern furnishings. It did take us a while to get back due to traffic and when we arrived we were all happy to be out of the car.

This was to be our last night in London so we walked around again to find a place for dinner. We walked a while and didn't find anything so we ended up at a Japanese Bento Box place that was inexpensive and just okay. On the walk back home we decided to have a Guinness in a local pub. Our last hurrah before getting on a train then plane tomorrow.