Day two of our trip was an excursion to Windsor. This pretty little town is dominated by Windsor Castle, which has been a royal residence for over 1,000 years.

We traveled to Windsor via Slough, and the whole trip only took about 30 minutes. The coolest thing about the train trip was the glimpse of the castle–it’s so big you can see it from a ways away.

Slough Station

Once we arrived, we explored the castle grounds and then went inside.

Windsor is the queen’s favorite weekend getaway.

You have to curtsy when you meet the queen!

Photography is not permitted inside, so we don’t have many pictures from inside–except some sneaky selfies that we took when the guides weren’t looking.

Inside, we saw the State Apartments, which are filled with Royal artwork and treasures, Queen Mary’s Dollhouse, which was beautiful, and (my personal favorite) an exhibit in the library about Shakespeare. We saw Elizabeth I’s copy of Spenser’s The Fairie Queen, Holinshead’s Chronicles, one of Shakespeare’s major source materials, and Charles I’s copy of Shakespeare’s second folio, to name a few.

One of the coolest parts was seeing the original versions of paintings I have seen in history books. It was also really neat to see the Royal family’s connection with the works of Shakespeare. Here are a few snaps from the rest of our afternoon at the castle.

Mom and the castle, view from the long walk

Front of the castle from the long walk.

One of the queen’s guards.

I also broke down and bought a stuffed corgi. Don’t judge.

After we left the castle, we wandered around the town for a bit, finally settling on fish and chips for lunch.

Day two was a great day–no rain, and a lot of things to see. Check back tomorrow for a look at day three and to see more pictures like this:

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Sarah