Windsor; Saturday, 01 September, 2012

I had a long lie in and by the time I finally left the hotel it was already late morning. This turned out to have been a good idea as the early morning rush for tickets to the castle had already subsided and the next crowd were queuing up to watch changing of the guard rather than queuing up to buy tickets.

After a relatively painless queue (later in the day the queue was at least an hour long), I was into the grounds of the castle. I’d booked a ticket for the tour of the round tower terraces so I headed over there first. After the tour I descended back down to the castle grounds and started the general audio-guided tour around the site.

Again I appeared to have timed my day relatively well as the queue to get into the state apartments wasn’t too bad so I was able to get into there, and get round without too many other people also trying to see everything at the same time.

I had a long wander around the grounds that are open to the public before stopping for a late afternoon coffee and then down to St George’s Chapel to look around that.

With all the sites, that you are allowed to see, in the castle seen, I headed down through town to the riverside to catch one of the last river cruises of the afternoon for a pleasant 40 sail up and down a small stretch of the Thames.

After finishing the boat tour I walked over the bridge into Eton and found a nice pub a bit back from the river where I had a very pleasant dinner.

By the time I had finished dinner it was dark so I had a wander through the streets of Eton in the night before heading back over the river into Windsor and back to the hotel for an early night.