Windsor – the Royal jewel in the crown of England
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To travel to Windsor from Keith is easy – if you take the train. Flying would take almost as long and involve a lot of undignified hassle. The Scotrail train from Keith arrives in Aberdeen and you stroll along the platform to the glossy Virgin East Coast train (click on all coloured links for more information) for London. Although these "High Speed Trains" (HSTs) are nearly 40 years old, they are still the best trains we have ever had. Take my tip – go first class. The seats are huge, loads of leg room, they line up with the windows, and the service is superb. By Stonehaven we were being served breakfast, and the food (and wine!) kept coming all the way to London.
From London Kings Cross, it took a hot and bustling underground train to Paddington to catch the train to Slough, where you cross the bridge to the shuttle train to Windsor Central. Here there used to be a grand station, built in great style for the Queen. Today the train apologetically slides into a wee bent platform to one side of what has become the "Windsor Royal Shopping Centre". Shopping has become a big thing in Windsor, and the old station is certainly a very popular and busy place, loads of shops and eating places, but it still seemed sad to see the splendid wooden booking office is now a tourist office, while the railway booking clerk is in a wee box about twice the size of a phone box over to one corner.
Emerging from the station you are facing the castle, just across the road. To one side, at the road junction, an imposing statue of Queen Victoria stares straight at our hotel, the Macdonald Windsor Hotel. The frontage is very discreet – and small. This is because it used to be the home of the Caley family. In 1818 Mrs Maria Caley won a royal warrant for her goods and moved here in 1826, right opposite the castle and on the High Street. Her business expanded and in 1919 it opened as a department store, which it continued to be until 2006. Macdonalds built the superb 120 bedroom hotel on the footprint of the old store and opened for business in September 2010. Like the "Tardis" once you go through the revolving doors the hotel opens out, and it is all very high quality. One thing that especially impressed me was that it serves so much Scottish produce. Kippers, salmon, ice cream, shortbread, oatcakes, haggis, all from named suppliers, and even the toiletries in the room were from Arran. I know that often you like to try something different, but any hotel that buys from so many Scottish producers so enthusiastically deserves support.
The next morning it was off across the road to the castle. It opens at 10 am. The queue was already way down the road, out of sight. Windsor castle is, of course, huge. It is 1,000 years old and is the world’s oldest and largest occupied castle, and is the number one tourist attraction. When we eventually got into the reception area where there is airport style security, I asked one of the lady attendants how busy they were – she replied that today (October) they were expecting only 3,000 people, in the summer peaks it can be 10,000 people PER DAY!!! See www.royalcollection.org.uk for details. Multimedia hand sets are available, free, in a great many languages. They say to allow at least 2 hours to go round – I think that you would need roller skates to do it in just 2 hours. Then, at 10.50 am each day, there is the changing of the guard. This is spectacular, and something that we Brits can do so well. The red coated soldiers march through the town and into the castle, stamp and parade and slope arms and march off in all directions while their band plays. It is spell binding. After watching this, it was back into the castle buildings again. It would take this entire article and the next to describe everything that you see – have a look at the web site – or even better, go and see yourself.
Coming out from the castle, the open top red buses are right there. This was next on our agenda. The bus goes all round Windsor, plus Datchet and Eton too. Even though it was freezing cold, we didn’t want to be downstairs, so braved it out to see everything. The whole area is so historic. One of the stops is at Windsor Farm Shop, where they sell produce from the castle farm. The bus also circumnavigates Windsor Great Park, 5,000 acres of parkland, and crosses the "Long Walk" of 2.6 miles with the Castle at one end. A modern addition to the attractions is "The Queen’s Walkway". This is 6.373 kilometres long, representing 63 years. 7 months and 3 days of Her Majesty’s reign. The walk links 63 of Windsor’s best attractions, features and views. See www.outdoortrust.com for details.
Luckily, it was Windsor Festival time and we had tickets for a concert in St. George’s Chapel inside the castle, so after an early dinner, we stepped across the road and into the castle. The concert was absolutely wonderful, the acoustics superb in the ancient building, the choir and orchestra powerful. A bonus is that in the interval we could explore this remarkable chapel – which is huge. There is so much history under your feet, on the walls, in the woodwork.
The next evening we went to another concert, this time in the School Hall of Eton College. Eton is just across the river Thames, 15 minutes walk from our hotel. Eton village is small and spread out along the road from the river, with the college buildings dominating the further end of Eton. The School Hall was big, and the concert again superb.
There are so many things going on in Windsor, all the year round, concerts and plays and events. You will never be there without finding something to attract you. For children there is Legoland nearby. There are regular shuttle buses from the High Street. Around Windsor are Ascot races, Runnymeade, Maidenhead, you can hire boats or cruise on tourist boats on the Thames, ride in horse drawn carriages, the possibilities are endless.
Windsor is very accessible. Heathrow airport is just 15 minutes away (as you would guess from the constant noise and sight of the big planes going overhead every 2 minutes) the motorway is nearby, buses run to London, and of course the train. For our return, we went to the other railway station, Windsor & Eton Riverside. This has not been converted to shops, and still has the long wall down one side with tall blue doors at close intervals; these are so that the royal horse guards can enter without dismounting, to form the guard for the monarch. Trains from here go to London Waterloo which was best for us to go to our next hotel.
Completing our culture experience, we also went to a concert in London, and the hotel we stayed in was The Hoxton, just a couple of minute’s walk from Holborn underground station. I have heard many, many people, including Swiss, Spanish, German and French folk, as well as Brits, say that London hotels are overpriced and poor quality. That description does not apply to the Hoxton. They have re-thought the concept of hotels. See www.thehoxton.com for details. When you walk in off the street, you enter what looks like a club. Comfy chairs, tables with folk eating or sharing coffee, racks of old magazines, and reception discreetly to one side. The rooms are very well sound proofed (a big plus in London!) with all the facilities you could wish for, and stylish too. In most hotels you never use the telephone, the charges are too high – but not here – they give you one hour of free phone calls!! As they say, you can call just about anywhere you like, except the moon. This is in addition to free Wifi. A nice touch is that you are given a paper carrier bag when you check in. You enter onto this what you would like and hang it on the door handle. In the morning your complimentary yoghurt, fresh fruit and juice is hanging there – this is in addition to your breakfast – it is their way of healthily easing you into your day. Hotel mini-bars in your room are overpriced and a source of trouble – not here – the ‘fridge contained 2 bottles of mineral water and a half pint carton of fresh milk to go with the tea making facilities – brilliant!
From here it was a short walk (well, 15 minutes or so, not much for Keith folk but long distance for Londoners) to Kings Cross. We were walking against the stream of commuters. Grim or blank faced, clutching card mugs of coffee like a "keep clear of me" symbol, earphones in or thumbing iphones with the one free hand, avoiding eye contact, and the stream was never ending. At Kings Cross it was back to friendly folk. Our HST was standing waiting, and with time to spare I went to the front to photograph the engine. The driver was a Newcastle man, driving back up home, and he kindly invited me into the cab, and took photos of me using my camera, sitting in the driving seat – the cultural highlight of the entire trip for me!! The return trip was just as luxurious as going down, and well fed and watered it was a come-down to crush into the Aberdeen to Keith train – and back to auld claes and porridge.
