Apparently, sleeping until 8:15 is sleeping really late for me. It is a little later than I have been waking up, so I did feel well rested. Breakfast was a bowl of granola with skim milk and with a bowl of mixed berries + banana. The granola was so fresh and so good (loved the dried fruit and nuts), and I was excited to have it with skim milk! It's the first time I've had it all trip-they don't believe in skim milk in France.
Yes, I did have to take one of these adorable little guys home for a souvenir.
I'm happy to report that we made it to Windsor Castle without a hitch. It's amazing how much easier it is to navigate a train station when the signs are in your native language.
Windsor Castle has been a royal residency for 900 years, and Queen Elizabeth spends most of her weekends there. It's also the burial site of King Henry VIII. I have to say I'm pretty well versed in the history of Henry VIII after being in London for a week. I've now memorized the names of all six of his wives: Catherine of Aragon, Anne Boleyn, Jane Seymour, Anne of Cleves, Catherine Howard, and Catherine Parr. And if you need a catchy way to remember the fates of each wife, here's how the saying goes: divorced, beheaded, died, divorced, beheaded, survived.
After touring the castle, we ate a late lunch (I'm getting a little sick of these 3 PM lunches-I've learned to pack snacks or else I'll faint from hunger) at EAT. It's another natural sandwich shop much like Pret. We spotted it on our way to the castle, but by the time we finally got there, all of the sandwiches I would have wanted were sold out. I decided to be adventurous and go with the Bombay Bhaji sandwich, consisting of onion bhaji, cucumber, Greek yogurt, rocket leaves, mango chutney, coriander, and mint. It was the sandwich of the week after all! It sounded really good, but I ended up not really liking it that much, so I only ate half. I did love the parnsip, beetroot, and carrot crisps I got to go with it though!
Once we got back to London, we just had an hour to change and get ready before seeing Billy Elliot at The Victoria Palace Theatre. The musical takes place during the coal miner's strike in 1984-85 (when Margaret Thatcher was Prime Minister) and does a good job of depicting the social issues of this time. It was a little hard to understand the actors and actresses-they almost sounded like they had Scottish accents! I found out later that this was because the story takes place in Northern England, where they would naturally have more of a Scottish accent. I loved that all of the music was done by Elton John! I <3 Elton John.
On another note, my eating schedule was way messed up yesterday. Since we had such late lunch and didn't have time to go anywhere before the show, we didn't eat dinner until after it was over. I had to eat a granola bar during the intermission to stay alive. After the show was over, we walked across the street to the train station, where I bought a Chicken Pesto Panini from Camden Food Co. I ate this walking down the street to catch a cab back to the hotel. It was classy.
I've got to get to packing. It's always my least favorite part of traveling, but I guess it has to be done. My personal packing style is throwing everything back into my suitcase and hoping it fits. We have an early morning flight out tomorrow (we're leaving for the airport at 5:15) and should get back to Birmingham by mid-afternoon. It's been the trip of a lifetime, but I think it's finally time to get back to a routine schedule and my everyday life. Besides, I miss everyone, and I feel really disconnected from everything that's going on back home.
Goodbye fantasy world, hello real world!
That sounds like such a fun day! I've always wanted to go to Windsor Castle and I LOVE Elton John too. I'm glad your trip went so well and welcome home!
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