gnine

So, I've spent the last few weeks so busy settling in/attending classes(which I'm greatly enjoying so far)/penny pinching until my student loan money arrived, etc. that I haven't had overly much chance for exploring. But, things have settled a bit, and the money came in (w00t...still a poor, poor grad student, but now have at least a bit of solvency \o/...however temporary it might be :-p) so I decided a little exploring was in order. However, a lot of the main touristy sites of London itself I saw back when I visited

utopiantrunks in 2005, so for my first short foray, I decided to do a day trip to Windsor Castle.

All together it's around an hour out from where I'm currently living so I packed a small lunch and headed out around eleven...thirty...ish...okay, probably closer to noon (c'mon, this *is* me, guys. Getting up anytime before noon on my day off is ALWAYS a great accomplishment, no matter how close to noon it may in fact be... ^_-) and arrive at the castle a little after one.

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This was the outer walls to the castle, on the approach. Thankfully, by choosing to go on a Thursday, the crowds were at a minimum. Though, considering the long roped off line areas they had set up, I have a feeling that is not generally the case.

And then there was this random door in the inner wall:

...what kind of education is taking place there, exactly?

And then in the garden area that seemed to have at one time been said moat, they had some real fall foliage going on.

...Imported foliage, is my guess. Or at least, I'm almost positive that's some kind of Japanese maple, from the leaf shape...I am missing my New England/Japanese falls...alas...but Castles! So...^_^

And, because someone *cough*

byakkodan_slash*cough* complained last time about not enough pics of me, I got a kind soul to do the classic "I'll take one of you if you take one of me" exchange. At two different locations, even!

Then there was the amusing (at least to my warped sense of humor) fact that Heathrow airport is located quite close to the castle, so there were fairly low flying planes going over head on a very regular basis.

I also was able to see the State Apartments, as the Queen is at Buckingham palace for the time being and thus the ones at Windsor were open. And impressive...crazily over the top decorative...but truly a sight to see. As was Queen Mary's Dollhouse, also on display. That thing was HUGE! And the level of detail in...well, just about everything, was incredible. Sadly, no photos were allowed in any of the inside areas.

After that I made my way down the grounds to St. George's Chapel, also located within the castle walls. And sitting there, right on the lawn in front, happy as you please and not at all startled by the numerous tourists passing by was this adorable little one:

Random cat is random. Not sure who's it was, but it was rather...out of place and totally content with that, in a way that only a cat can be. ^_^

Finally, after leaving the castle behind, I wandered down to the Thames...and found swans:

Lots and lots of swans:

There, neechan, I took bird pics, just for you. Happy? ^_-

And that was my Windsor excursion. (If you follow the embedded links on the pics, there are a few more random ones up on my picas album...)

One of these days I'll remember to actually take my camera on the way to class and get some pics of the campus, the area where I'm living and even my dorm itself. Really...really I will. ^_-