windsor castle and more

After spending a week in Turkey, I'm back in London again.

On Saturday, a colleague and I went to Windsor Castle, which was less than an hour away on the subway and trains (one of the best things about the UK is the subway/train system--it's not expensive, very convenient and very punctual). I wish I could have taken pictures inside, but as has been the case at many cool places here, that wasn't permitted. All I will say is that if you're coming to London, you should definitely go there. The art, decor and presentation are all very impressive. The church that's inside the castle, St. George's Chapel, is also impressive, both architecturally and for the royalty that's buried inside, including Henry VIII.

Some photos of the grounds:






Foot Guards:




The chapel:


Statue of Queen Victoria outside:


Looking up the street, with the castle on the left:


After we were done with the castle, we walked around Windsor for a while. It's a quaint little town with a full range of restaurants and shops, from high end to low end. Apparently a lot of really wealthy people live in the area, hence the high end stuff.

A typical Windsor street:


After cruising around for a while, we found a Chinese restaurant and had an early dinner. The restaurant was called "Nell Gwynn", which was funny because not only did that not match the Chinese name, but also because that sounds like the name of a traditional pub or something. The food was surprisingly decent, and I even managed to get my favorite fried noodles even though they weren't on the menu (I'm glad my degree is getting some usage here).

The view from our table at the restaurant:


This morning I went to the National Gallery, which is at one end of Trafalgar Square. Photos weren't allowed inside, which really sucked because they had a lot of very famous art inside, including works from pretty much every famous European painter from the early 20th century on back to the 1300's. My favorites were, as usual, the impressionists. The National Gallery is free every day of the week, which was great.

Trafalgar Square was busy today with a Hare Krishna festival:


The Gallery:


After that, I decided to go back toward my hotel and walk around Notting Hill (yes, the one in the movie), which is only a couple subway stops from the hotel. I got fairly lost and ended up walking for an hour and a half before I found my hotel. The weather was nice and the neighborhoods were interesting, so it was quite alright. The area (Notting Hill and Kensington) is pretty upscale, and the homes have a lot of character. Plus, there are still older buildings like churches around, which is cool. This would be a great area of London to live in.







Only six more days until I get to go back home. I like traveling and this trip has been pretty good, but 26 days is a long time to live out of a suitcase.