Get out of the City: Windsor Castle

Windsor Castle, Berkshire. One of the Queen's residences - built almost 1000 years ago and the oldest inhabited castle in the world. I have a real fascination with castles, palaces, stately homes – basically anything grand and historic. Just knowing that you’re at a place steeped in so much history, (sometimes gruesome!!) is something special, and Windsor Castle isn’t short of this. It was built in the 11th Century by William the Conqueror, and has been in use ever since.

The main thing I’d advise about a day trip to the castle is to book your tickets online in advance. When we got there the line for tickets was ridiculous – but as we’d booked them already it felt like “priority boarding” as we got to skip straight to the front to simply collect (honestly, do this!). As for the journey from London, it’s not so bad, it was around half an hour from Clapham Junction (you can go from central too obviously).

It’ll probably take you 3-4 hours to look around all of the open parts of the castle, you could definitely do it quicker or slower, but an afternoon or morning there is enough. If you’re going on a weekend, chances are it’ll be really busy, especially in the Summer, so be prepared for crowds. This applies to Windsor town centre too, especially the main road outside the castle which houses a few pubs and restaurants, alongside the tourist trap souvenir shops.

So, to enter the castle you have to go through airport like security, but once you get past here it’ll take your breath away. It was a lot bigger and grander than I’d somehow imagined and it felt a bit fairytale-like walking up the pathways towards the castle. The gardens are beautiful and so are the surroundings. One side of the castle is in the town centre, the other side is backing straight out onto the countryside – best of both worlds! You’re pretty much free to roam around the castle at your own pace and in whichever order you like, obviously minus the parts which are still lived in by HRH! The quarters in which the royals still occupy is fenced off but you can peep through the gate to have a look at where the other half live.

Alongside strolling around the castle and its grounds, you can go into the state apartments, it’s well worth going in and seeing areas which the Queen still uses nowadays for events, such as hosting other heads of state. You can’t take photos for the most part here though. There is also a historic route which includes rooms created by Charles II; they’re very garishly decorated with gold and royal red, alongside hosting many valuable art pieces (notably the ceiling being painted so intricately!). It’s said that Charles II set out to decorate these rooms to rival that of his cousin’s gaff, Louis XIV’s Versailles.

After you’ve spent time in the castle, it’s worth having a walk around Windsor town centre, getting some lunch (we went to the Duchess of Cambridge pub, just opposite), and then having a meander down to the riverside – and crossing the river into Eton.
All in all, it’s a great day out from London, and you certainly get the feeling that you’re far from the city – at the end of the day it only takes 20 minutes by train to get into the British countryside!

Read more about Windsor Castle here: https://www.rct.uk/visit/windsorcastle