London Outskirts - Windsor and Runnymede

Today, 9th August my Dad and I decided to expand our explorations and venture outside London and its constituent boroughs.
We checked out of our hotel and hopped the Tube to London Euston's railway station. There we deposited our suitcases with the left luggage service for 9 quid per bag - we will depart from Euston on the overnight train tonight.
From Euston we tubed it again to the Waterloo railway station for our commuter train to Windsor. Travel time from London to Windsor, a little shy of an hour. We had time before our train left Waterloo for breakfast in the station - we each had eggs Benedict with an Italian twist. 

Windsor and Eton Rail Station, 2013

We arrived at one of two small stations serving Windsor - our choice was the Windsor and Eton Riverside station. The station is located conveniently to Windsor Castle and the picturesque downtown of Windsor itself. 
Windsor Castle is one of Her Majesty's residences, so security is tight to enter. Good news was that she was not in-residence today, so my Dad and I were able to get special tickets to the Conquer the Tower Tour, allowing us to be part of a guided tour to climb the big round tower that the castle's flag flies from. The Conquer the Tower tour goes all the way to the roof - all 200+ steps!



Here's the flagpole from the roof. The pole was donated to the Queen by one of her loyal Canadian provinces. The pole is nearly 100 years old. My Dad's not quite that far along. 

The Queen's private apartments are beyond this stretch of grass - her sitting room is behind the glass windows on the second floor in the corner, on the left end of the picture. 

A royal residence requires some royal pomp, too. We saw bearskin headgear matched with modern rifles in several spots in Windsor Castle. See if you can spot the Red Coat in the picture above, and in the picture below. 

My favorite part about the picture to the right is the little girl, lower left, who is pointing enthusiastically at the guardsmen, while her sibling, behind her, can't be bothered to turn around. 

My Dad, on the other hand, was positively apoplectic about the proximity of the guards to our location - he delightedly fussed, and preened, and nearly swooned - like Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz.  Or maybe he did ...................


Where are the flying monkeys when we need them, I always say!! Or, is my Dad secretly an old-school Andorian from the original Star Trek?? Without the antennae?
Seriously, folks, the guards passed within mere feet of my Dad and I, and I think the chubby one tried to smile pretty for the camera. 



The entirety of Windsor Castle was cool. In particular the state rooms were amazing, but no photography was allowed. They had tons of cool weapons, priceless artifacts of historical and social importance (many happened to be in silver or gold, too) and even the very bullet that killed Lord Admiral Nelson, Britain's finest naval hero, and the guy whose statue sits on top of the column in Trafalgar Square - that place where that darned blue chicken now resides.

We toured the church on the grounds, too, but again no pictures. Lots of crypts, though, including for several past monarchs.  

From Windsor my Dad and I caught the No. 71 bus toward Heathrow for Old Windsor. The actual stop was at the Bells of Ouseley Pub and the journey from Windsor Castle took about a half hour. Where were we headed? To the (still) quiet countryside of Runnymede, where an extraordinary thing happened way back in the early 1200s. 
King John (the same one from Robin Hood fame) signed a little contract with his subject barons in the fields of Runnymede, not that far from London. That document, known as the Magna Carta, limited the sovereign's power - but more importantly it recognized and protected rights and duties owed to the common man. Rights that you or I may take for granted today, like the right to a trial and the liberty to own property. 

The site is run by the British Land Trust and is full of walking trails through meadows and along a sleepy portion of the Thames. 
 
There is a small memorial to the signing of the Magna Carta, of course. Weirdly, it was erected by a bunch of American lawyers - the American Bar Association!

ABA Monument to the Magna Carta at Runnymede, England - August 2013

There were a few commemorative plaques scattered through the fields, but it was really an understated nod to this founding document of modern democratic principles. 
From Runnymede we caught the next local bus from the pub stop, heading to Egham. We caught a train from there back to London with time for some dinner and a pint before collecting our left luggage and boarding the sleeper train to Inverness, Scotland - to be covered in the next post!!!