T’was a Royal Day

Our first order of business was to meet King Charles, so we headed to Windsor Castle, where he was in residence today.

We met over coffee at a great neighborhood cafe and our concierge, Paul, organized the transportation via the Elizabeth Line and a bus to Windsor. We ran into a lovely couple,who serve as guides at Windsor, who showed us the Council Hall where King Charles and Camilla got married, and discussed the building as rather new – 1685, “paint still wet”.

King Charles really was in residence today, but we didn’t get to see him. We did get to see about 30 of the 900 rooms of Windsor Castle. We weren’t allowed to take photographs, so you’ll just have to image the total splendor of the place. Priceless works of art, thousands of pieces of armory displayed in the most amazing ways, porcelain, furnishings and just the most elaborate decorative architecture you can imagine. And then there was one room with a large picture window that looked over the grounds, the private golf course and the Thames. The sky was a miraculous blue, there was mist in the distance, and the rolling green fields with mature trees and gardens and fountains as far as the eye could see. It was otherworldly.

The best part about it was that we had been taking in an hour of the most beautiful works of art from every part of the world, in the most opulent setting, and we were all riveted by the sun, the garden and water. It’s amazing how powerful nature is.

We strolled around the town, had lunch at The Prince Harry Pub and took a real train back to London where the girls got to visit Paddington Station.

We all took a break and made a cup of tea and rested a bit before we all went our separate ways for the evening. The V’s did fun food and ice skating at Somerset House, Kirsten Paul and I had a pre theatre posh dinner at Bentleys followed by Jersey Boys and King Lear. It was an eclectic night, but we each got to do our thing – best part about traveling with these guys, we have fun together and apart.

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Brad and I were so energized by Kenneth Branaugh’s Lear that we decided to walk home. Kirsten and Paul took the Tube. We both came in the entrance to the building at exactly the same time from opposite directions. We couldn’t have timed it better.

A long, fun-filled day. Step count was 18,000. Tomorrow morning should be interesting.