Da Royal Crib
I'm For: The Simpsons, english ticketbrokers, and Indian food in England.
I'm Against: The Geico Caveman Show, american ticketbrokers, English Food in England
On Wednesday we head just West of London to visit the inland towns of Windsor and Eton. These two towns would be just like any other small country towns except they contain two of the greatest historical establishments in London. Windsor Castle and Eton College.
Eton college is basically Harvard X 30. It is a breeding ground for the educational elite of England since the mid-15th century. Initially established as a small public school for the middle class, Eton has transformed into the breeding ground of nearly every influential political figure in british History. The only prime minister of note that didn't attend Eton was Oliver Cromwell and anybody who knows anything about Irish history knows how bad he sucked.
Eton college is relatively unimpressive from the outer walls of its ancient buildings. But by walking around the small cobblestone campus I start to take in the magnificence almost by osmosis. It is on the edge of a pristine small town on the edge of the River Thames. It has the basic essentials of a small college town, a few pubs, some shops, cafes, and a couple of hotels for visitors. More impressive are the expansive green playing fields, the spectacular river walk complete with regal swans, and the historic cobblestone roads and brick courtyards and buildings. If I didn't know any better I would tell you for certain that I was on the set of the Dead Poet's Society. Enough of the shit let's move onto the main attraction.
Windsor Castle, like its small college neighbor is not an overly impressive sight from the outside. Just a bunch of white stone buildings and oversized walls. Within the walls the castle is its own mini-village, a much larger relatively newer version of the tower of London. The first building we entered was St. George's chapel. Chapel is probably not a very good word for it because the thing is pretty fricking large and impressive. Everything was carved out of marble and featured the very prominent Gothic architecture. The coolest part of the whole chapel was the choir area. Above the seating of the choir area were all of the Coast of Arms of the Knights of the UK. Next to each Knights shield of arms is a sword half drawn, symbolizing that the knight is ready to fight at all times for the Monarch. When the Knight dies the sword is sheathed until they knight a replacement. It's like an extremely elite and noble frat with much cooler symbols.
St. George's chapel also hosts a number of dead people, although not nearly as many as some of the other church crypts in England.
We entered the castle at warp speed because it is going to close in like 45 minutes. The first thing you see is the Royal Dollhouse. The Royal dollhouse looks great but I am sure it is not very functional as a toy. It was built for one of the princesses who was a big fan of dolls. That dollhouse and all its accessories costs far more than my parents house, or any house that I will probably move into during my time on this Earth. Everything is built perfectly to scale of one of the Royal apartments (by apartments I mean multi level complex) and it features working electricity and plumbing.
The next few rooms are old bedrooms that feature insane Rembrandt's and other famous Renaissance paintings. Everything is velvet and looks pretty uncomfortable to sit in.
The first room that catches my attention is a lobby area that leads you to the Royal Ballroom. The lobby features all sorts of awesome trappings of imperialism. Including some wicked pieces from Asia. There is Samurai armor, emerald and onyx statues of tigers, some wicked mideval looking weapons, and a lot more impressive artwork and statues. The ballroom actually has a real royal orchestra practicing as we walk through the room. Needless to say they sounded better than average.
There were two other cool rooms to note. There was the royal armory which featured a whole bunch of weapons from different eras of war next to busts of prominent war heroes from that time period. Similar to the guitar tower they have in the EMP in Seattle or the baggage stacks they have at the Sacramento airport, Windsor Castle's arms room has antique gun stacks and sword stacks (I would say the most impressive of the three stacks).
The other cool room is the Knights Banquet hall. Which featured coat of arms for all of the Knights in the past. For any knights that committed treason or betrayed the crown their shield was covered in white effectively erasing them from history. In case you haven't noticed Knights are totally kick ass.
Windsor castle is notable for three things. One, Its packed with all kinds of insanely rich and cool stuff. Two, it has some pretty incredible views of the English countryside and the Thames. Three they were too cheap to take out a fire insurance policy, and wouldn't you know it the place caught fire! There was a ton of wood and paint damage but they managed to restore the place pretty well. However to pay for all these restorations, they were forced to open the Castle and several other English palaces for paid tours. Which is why I got to enjoy the place today.
For dinner I had some of the best Indian food I have ever eaten. I came to learn that 95% of Indian restaurant are owned by Bangledeshi. I also learned that Bangladesh is the 7th most populated country in the World!
I'm Against: The Geico Caveman Show, american ticketbrokers, English Food in England
On Wednesday we head just West of London to visit the inland towns of Windsor and Eton. These two towns would be just like any other small country towns except they contain two of the greatest historical establishments in London. Windsor Castle and Eton College.
Eton college is basically Harvard X 30. It is a breeding ground for the educational elite of England since the mid-15th century. Initially established as a small public school for the middle class, Eton has transformed into the breeding ground of nearly every influential political figure in british History. The only prime minister of note that didn't attend Eton was Oliver Cromwell and anybody who knows anything about Irish history knows how bad he sucked.
Eton college is relatively unimpressive from the outer walls of its ancient buildings. But by walking around the small cobblestone campus I start to take in the magnificence almost by osmosis. It is on the edge of a pristine small town on the edge of the River Thames. It has the basic essentials of a small college town, a few pubs, some shops, cafes, and a couple of hotels for visitors. More impressive are the expansive green playing fields, the spectacular river walk complete with regal swans, and the historic cobblestone roads and brick courtyards and buildings. If I didn't know any better I would tell you for certain that I was on the set of the Dead Poet's Society. Enough of the shit let's move onto the main attraction.
Windsor Castle, like its small college neighbor is not an overly impressive sight from the outside. Just a bunch of white stone buildings and oversized walls. Within the walls the castle is its own mini-village, a much larger relatively newer version of the tower of London. The first building we entered was St. George's chapel. Chapel is probably not a very good word for it because the thing is pretty fricking large and impressive. Everything was carved out of marble and featured the very prominent Gothic architecture. The coolest part of the whole chapel was the choir area. Above the seating of the choir area were all of the Coast of Arms of the Knights of the UK. Next to each Knights shield of arms is a sword half drawn, symbolizing that the knight is ready to fight at all times for the Monarch. When the Knight dies the sword is sheathed until they knight a replacement. It's like an extremely elite and noble frat with much cooler symbols.
St. George's chapel also hosts a number of dead people, although not nearly as many as some of the other church crypts in England.
We entered the castle at warp speed because it is going to close in like 45 minutes. The first thing you see is the Royal Dollhouse. The Royal dollhouse looks great but I am sure it is not very functional as a toy. It was built for one of the princesses who was a big fan of dolls. That dollhouse and all its accessories costs far more than my parents house, or any house that I will probably move into during my time on this Earth. Everything is built perfectly to scale of one of the Royal apartments (by apartments I mean multi level complex) and it features working electricity and plumbing.
The next few rooms are old bedrooms that feature insane Rembrandt's and other famous Renaissance paintings. Everything is velvet and looks pretty uncomfortable to sit in.
The first room that catches my attention is a lobby area that leads you to the Royal Ballroom. The lobby features all sorts of awesome trappings of imperialism. Including some wicked pieces from Asia. There is Samurai armor, emerald and onyx statues of tigers, some wicked mideval looking weapons, and a lot more impressive artwork and statues. The ballroom actually has a real royal orchestra practicing as we walk through the room. Needless to say they sounded better than average.
There were two other cool rooms to note. There was the royal armory which featured a whole bunch of weapons from different eras of war next to busts of prominent war heroes from that time period. Similar to the guitar tower they have in the EMP in Seattle or the baggage stacks they have at the Sacramento airport, Windsor Castle's arms room has antique gun stacks and sword stacks (I would say the most impressive of the three stacks).
The other cool room is the Knights Banquet hall. Which featured coat of arms for all of the Knights in the past. For any knights that committed treason or betrayed the crown their shield was covered in white effectively erasing them from history. In case you haven't noticed Knights are totally kick ass.
Windsor castle is notable for three things. One, Its packed with all kinds of insanely rich and cool stuff. Two, it has some pretty incredible views of the English countryside and the Thames. Three they were too cheap to take out a fire insurance policy, and wouldn't you know it the place caught fire! There was a ton of wood and paint damage but they managed to restore the place pretty well. However to pay for all these restorations, they were forced to open the Castle and several other English palaces for paid tours. Which is why I got to enjoy the place today.
For dinner I had some of the best Indian food I have ever eaten. I came to learn that 95% of Indian restaurant are owned by Bangledeshi. I also learned that Bangladesh is the 7th most populated country in the World!
posted by IrishZag at 9:08 PM
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