Windsor Castle & Eton College

Last Wednesday, we took a trip up to Windsor/Eton to visit Windsor Castle (home of the royal family) and Eton College (most prestigious secondary school in the country). The first thing we did upon arrival was to go straight to the Castle for a tour. Although this was the third royal residence I've visited, Buckingham Palace and the Royal Pavilion being the others, it was extra interesting because it was the first castle I've seen!

While the inside of the castle itself was pretty interesting, my favorite part was the chapel. Not only is it widely acknowledged to be one of the finest examples of gothic architecture in the world, the interior was packed with history, including the graves of many former royals. However, what impressed me the most was the pure skill that went into carving the stone for the statues. In one tomb, paying homage to a woman who died in childbirth, the robes on the mourners looked so realistic there were times when I wasn't sure that it was all stone. Unfortunately, pictures were not allowed inside the chapel.

After a nice walk, and a pub lunch (Shepard's Pie!), it was time to make our way across the Thames to visit Eton College. As a little background, Eton is one of the best known secondary schools in the world. It is the pinnacle of what every private school wishes to become, and their results are hard to argue with. They have educated 19 British Prime Ministers (including the current one, David Cameron), writers such as George Orwell (1984) and Ian Fleming (James Bond), and various other individuals highly successful in their fields (e.g. Bear Grylls). This being said, they also have a reputation for churning out boys who don't exactly have the widest of perspectives. The school demographic is extremely monochromatic, and not much can be said for any type of diversity. However, our tour guide gave us a good insight into the Etonian mind, which I do believe was eye-opening for many of us (he also brought us to the world's oldest continuous use classroom!).

Etonian Dining Hall

The day ended with an interesting discovery, two first edition Harry Potter books! Not first printings, but still pretty cool, although they mean that I've now bought nine books here, and I'm beginning to wonder how I'm going to get them home. But anyways, after a quick pint at a local pub, we headed back to London! I think that it was definitely an educational day, though I wouldn't mind going back to spend some more time in the chapel.

Side note: the train station in London that we left from and returned to was Paddington Station, famous for a certain bear. Also, once we got back to London, I experienced a revelation in food, the Salt Beef Bagel sandwich. It is amazing.

Paddington Bear!