The Queen and I Breathed the Same Air Today...

Windsor castle was SO GREAT. I thought "eh, if you've seen one castle/palace, you've seen 'em all." Totally wrong. I was actually considering skipping this mini-trip because I was so stressed over homework, but I'm so glad I didn't!!

Also... the Queen was home today! IN WINDSOR CASTLE. HOW COOL.

PICTURE TIMEEEE

The whole city is basically built around the castle... it totally reminded me of "Tangled"!

The castle/kingdom from "Tangled." ... Wowzers. Why aren't Disney movies real!?

Took a helicopter, and this was the view!!!*

Inside here is St. George's Hall. It was SO COOL. It basically looks like this:

Most of it burned down in 1992, but they rebuilt it. It has all (ALL) of the coats of arms of the Knights of the Order of the Garter. Yes.

Apparently, it got its name from an incident in Edward III's time. At a party, a lady's garter fell down (darn the lack of elastic in the 1300s!). A bunch of the other guests were laughing at her, but King Edward didn't! He went over, grabbed the garter, and put it on his own leg, saying the old French that is now part of the insignia: "Honi soit qui mal y pense,"which roughly means "shame on he who looks down upon it."And now, it's a thing.

As my friend Sarah puts it, "you can't get much more castle-y than this!"

This building here is yet another reason why Henry VIII was a freakin' jerk. So in his time, Henry was trying to establish that he was in charge of the church of England, and was getting some beef from the Pope. So Henry decided to take all the money from the Catholics in England by tearing down the abbeys, monasteries, etc. This building here has visibly different stone from the connecting part, because this stone is from the abbeys that were torn down. He used them to build an add-on for his already sprawling castle. Henry VIII just did. Not. Care.

Elizabeth I! Heck yes!

View from the castle terrace.

Rando changing of the guard ceremony!

Creeper picture. But still, a police officer and palace guard in one picture? If I'm not a creeper photography pro... then... that'd be okay. But I think this picture proves that I am!

I thought that this building looked like Henry VIII...

Necessary. That guard totally did not want to be there though!

And there you have it!

Some other random stuff, since we weren't allowed to take any pictures in the castle or in St. George's chapel:

The Queen has a freakin' china museum. MUSEUM. There is seriously china everywhere.

It was quite extravagant, to say the least!

The dollhouse and gallery were cool... there were some Da Vinci originals in there!

The chapel was fantastic. I saw the tomb of King George VI and Elizabeth the Queen Mother, which was definitely one of my favorite parts. It was so simple, but so elegant!

Also saw the tomb of Henry VIII. Apparently, he wanted to be buried with Jane Seymour, his favorite wife. Whoever was in charge made it happen! Then, Oliver Cromwell happened... after beheading Charles I, someone decided it would be a great idea to sew his head back on and throw him in with Henry VIII and Jane about 100 years after they had died. Whaaaa-? Here's a picture from Google:

Apparently, there's also a baby buried there. I just don't understand! 

Now I need to get to sleep... my family's arriving bright and early tomorrow!!! Can't wait to see them!

Thanks for reading!!

*This is a total lie... it was a picture inside the ticket building! lol