My plan was to go to the Dulwich Picture Gallery and then walk over to the Horniman Museum today, but late last night I realized that the Dulwich Gallery is closed on Mondays. Duh! No problem, though. I'm flexible.

So instead I decided to go to Windsor with the plan of doing a walk around Windsor and nearby Eton, and including a visit to Windsor Castle. It was a beautiful, sunny day, and I'm sure there won't be many of those days left. Well the best laid plans . . .

I bought my train ticket at Paddington Station and the guy said the train was leaving in five minutes. He neglected to say that platform 13 was as far from the ticket office as it could be. I saw people running and decided to run too. About a half dozen of us reached the train but the doors were closed and the train departed about ten seconds later. No problem. There was another train leaving in ten minutes on platform 11. Only this train was the local and stopped at every station between Paddington and Slough (rhymes with "cow"). But we eventually made it to Slough and I immediately caught the connecting train to Windsor.

I decided to do the Castle first, a truly beautiful place with a gorgeous view. They began building in 1070, amazingly enough! I went to St. George's Chapel first, in the castle's Lower Ward. After all, I saw where Charles I was beheaded last week, now I was able to see where he was laid to rest, along with Henry VIII, and Jane Seymour under the center of the Quire. Also buried in the chapel are King George VI and his wife Queen Elizabeth (the Queen Mum), as well as Princess Margaret and a few other kings. This chapel, in the Perpendicular Gothic style, was under repairs of some kind so parts of the chapel normally open to the public were off limits, and we had to listen to a cacophony of noises, circular saws and such, all through the audio tour. No problem. It was still beautiful, the ceiling, the West Window, the Quire, the fan vaulting, the little carved angels under all the upper windows, the banners of the Knights of the Garter.

Next stop on the tour was Queen Mary's Dolls' House, built by architect Sir Edwin Lutyens in 1924--replete with running water, electricity, vacuum cleaner, real silver on the tiny tables, a garden, and thousands of objects--the detail was incredible.

The Drawings Gallery displayed some of the royal family's collection of 600 drawings by Leonardo da Vinci. 600! They also have works by Hans Holbein, Michelangelo, Raphael, Parmigianino, Guercino, and Canaletto. These are just the works on paper. Throughout the state apartments, paintings by Rembrandt, Rubens, Van Dyck, Lawrence, to name a few, graced the walls. The audio guide made reference to only a few of them, so I had to buy the souvenir guide. If I had known, I would have bought it at the beginning so that I could reference it during the visit. Oh well. No problem.

I will not go into a description of the china in the china museum or each specific room in the state apartments, but I will say that it is beautifully restored. A fire in November 1992 destroyed the ceilings of two rooms and gutted many of the others, and a five-year, thirty-seven million pound restoration took place.

When I finished the tour and went outside, it was still sunny, but the wind had picked up and it was brisk. I decided not to do the walking tour; hopefully I will get another opportunity. I stopped for tea near the train station, instead, to warm up; then I caught the train to Slough. On the platform in Slough, during the fourteen minutes before the train to London arrived, three "through" trains passed through the station (i.e., without stopping). There were multiple announcements prior to warn people to stay back from the edge. No wonder. They "passed" through at a very fast speed and were quite loud.

The train to Paddington made no other stops and was considerably faster than the train this morning. I was home by 5:30.

Katie arrives tomorrow!