2.Windsor
Windsor Castle is a one hour train ride from London, and if you have a day I would certainly suggest going to explore. Tickets are around 11 pounds (20$ Canadian) so it’s not killing your wallet either.
We entered through giant archways to beautiful gardens and stone walls leading to the main palace. My first question was, who the heck lives here? BUT luckily with your ticket purchase you receive a personal headset that tells you the history and you can skip tracks based on which room you want to go into. You can be your very own tour guide which is great for those strong sassy independent pupils. PLUS it comes with fancy pompous classical music so you can pretend you are real royalty strolling though your palace, and walk around saying things like “OFF WITH YOUR HEAD”..just don’t say that too loud because yelling about decapitation is frowned up in most countries…and in general.
For someone who is generally considered a middle class suburban/broke student it was pretty amazing to see how regal the inside of the castle was. We’re talking Gold bed posts, swords made out of diamonds, and so much red velvet you could mistake the place for a cupcake. The most extravagant things to see are the ceilings. I couldn’t believe the detail and carvings, the masterpiece paintings. All this time we were walking under a museum of art and that could have been easily missed if we didn’t take the time to look up! Which is a super important travel tip, NEVER forget to look up because every wall, nook, and cranny is art when you’re in Europe.
Once we finished in the castle we found those classic guards with the fuzzy caps. You know the ones, just like in Austin Powers. Well needless to say we spent a good 15 mins trying to crack him, but they really don’t laugh or move at all, it’s no myth.
And finally after a long day of being the super classy broads we are, we decided to dress it down with some slices of za at Pizza Express. (GLUTEN FREE OPTIONS AVAILABLE YAY). It wasn’t by any means a very “London” meal but it was right across the street from the castle and tasted delishhh.