On Sunday morning we got up, sorted out our food delivery and some washing and then Peter headed off to get his vaccine. I met him at London Bridge station afterwards, from where we caught the train to Waterloo and hopped on our train to Windsor.

It was only a 50 minute train ride and then we were walking through the sunshine and facing the castle looming over the town. We found our little hotel and dropped our stuff and then went out for an explore. Luckily we’d remembered to put sunscreen on for once as it was a beautiful day and lovely to walk in the sunshine. A local in a shop recommended a pub down the road so we headed there for some lunch and a relaxing sit in the sun. After we’d eaten, we continued our little tour of the town, walking up the street to find A Hoppy Place, a beer store with taproom that Peter had read about online. We stopped in for a drink and ended up chatting with the girl working in the bar about what to see and do in town. After heading back to the hotel to drop some stuff in our room, we headed out for dinner to a Japanese place I’d read about online. The food was great, but the service was absolutely atrocious. They were obviously still trying to balance the demand for takeaway (through Deliveroo and ubereats drivers) and people eating in the restaurant, which made for enormous wait times between each dish. Peter was feeling quite exhausted by this stage (vaccine side effects kicking in), so after finally finishing our dinner and paying, we headed back to the hotel and crashed.

Peter felt quite sick overnight so we had a bit of a toss-and-turn night, but after a slow start, he still felt up to heading to the castle in the morning. We wandered across the main road to the entrance and after a small line, were ushered onto the main drive which had a fantastic view of the walls and towers of the castle. Picking up audio guides on the way inside, we listened to the introduction and walked through to a fantastic view over the main round tower and gardens surrounding it. The audio tour led us along the North Terrace and then inside the State Apartments, where unfortunately we weren’t allowed to take photos. It was spectacular though, with weapons, paintings and tapestries on display in every room, and an informative audioguide that explained each room. There were even audio clips from various members of the royal family – mostly Charles – and the members of the household that live in and run Windsor Castle. Quite a lot of the inner rooms had information about King Charles II and his wife Catherine of Braganza, who renovated Windsor Castle as a symbol of the importance of the monarchy after being reinstated in 1660 after the civil war.

After leaving the State Apartments, we admired the quadrangle before heading down to St George’s Chapel – a very understated name for an enormous church! Ten former monarchs are buried in this chapel, and it’s where Prince Phillip is currently interred. We found several of the tombs, several of which were far less grand than you might expect. After following the path around the church, we found our way back out into the sunshine, watched the guards doing some marching and generally admired our surroundings. The Royal Standard was flying above the main tower, which means that the queen was in residence there, which certainly made us wonder where she actually lives in the castle, and how much of it we hadn’t seen! After a last look around though, we headed out the gate and made our way up to the Two Brewers, a pub near the entrance to the Long Walk.

We managed to get a table as they opened and sat down under an umbrella so that we had a little bit of protection from the sun. A delicious Ploughman’s lunch was the obvious choice for lunch – although we had some snacks alongside it as well. Once we’d eaten, we headed in the gates of the ‘Long Walk’, the 4km walk down to Windsor Great Park, which had a spectacular view back up towards the castle. Peter wasn’t feeling up to a huge walk, so after walking a little way down the path we looped up through town and back to the hotel for a bit of a rest. In the afternoon we walked down along the river and checked out the gardens on the way to Windsor & Eton brewery. Unfortunately they weren’t serving anything take-away and nothing they had was chilled, so after a quick look around their shop, we headed back along the river towards Eton. There were some gorgeous little shops but not much else there and it was quite warm, so we ended up sitting down in a beer garden at a pub for a gin and tonic.  

Once we started to get hungry, we headed back towards the river where we’d spotted a gorgeous French restaurant views over the water. Unfortunately they were totally booked out so we headed back towards the hotel and went for dinner at a little Italian place right next door. Peter had a gorgeous pasta and I had a steak before we headed back for an early night.

Tuesday was a beautifully relaxed day that felt very summery. After there was nothing (not even the expired croissants) left of the hotel breakfast, we had a delicious hot breakfast at a café around the corner. We then went shopping for a little while and I finally managed to find a new dress and some sneakers, which I’ve been trying to get for ages. Then we just headed back to the Long Walk and found a spot in the shade and read/had a little picnic for the afternoon. At around 3:45 we headed back to the station and hopped on the train back to London, arriving back with plenty of time to make dinner and relax in the evening!