Windsor Castle

For all those who aren't Anglophiles (that's not someone who likes fishing), and don't follow what British Royalty does, you may never have heard of Windsor Castle. I could tell you honestly I didn't know why we were going to Windsor Castle until we got there.
Windsor Castle is one of X castles that British Royalty live in, so if the Queen of England were there on the 31st of December, I wouldn't have all these nice pictures because tourists are only allowed in when they're not around. Oh, the "X"… that's a trick I picked up in algebra, if you don't know the number you can just use "X".

The Round Tower (the one with the flag) is the most notable feature of Windsor Castle. From what the guide told us, the Normans dug in a trench/moat, piled all of the dirt from the moat on the location where Round Tower is. It's something like a keep, but round. The really cool thing about it is the garden they have growing in that moat area at the footing of the tower.

As I think of what they allowed us to see outside of the castle, I remember that The Round Tower was pretty much all they let us see. Maybe that's why it's the most notable feature.? With the tour package we were allowed to go inside, but they didn't want anyone taking pictures. It was the same in St. George's Chapel. There were some cool things worth taking pictures of inside both places, but I guess you'll only have to take my word for it. Okay, there was only one thing I really wanted to take a picture of. After seeing Leeds Castle and Canterbury Cathedral the day before I felt pretty satiated with Castle/Cathedral views. If you didn't know, you can click on any of the pictures for a larger image.

I thought this was worth taking a picture of though. Not so much the soldier, but the tourists around the soldier. It made me wonder if this particular soldier had done something wrong or if it was just part of enlisting. Because there are so many pictures of these soldiers I wonder if it is more an honor than a form of discipline.
From Windsor Castle we went to London for the New Years Eve Celebration. From what we had been told, fireworks are lit from the London Eye, which is a large ferris wheel right next to the Thames River. I'm not sure exactly how tall it is, I'll let someone else google it, but it is tall enough to see over miles of London if you ever ride it. There were X people there when we arrived at the Westminster Abby area, really there was a lot. I counted as high as I could ten times and still found that ten wasn't a large enough number to describe how many people were there. They say that a picture is worth a thousand words
and if that's the case this is a mouthful. Looking back gives a better idea of how many people were there because their white faces looking towards "The EYE". Sounds almost as ominous as "The CLAW." :-)
I decided to take a picture of Big Ben to prove that I stood in just about one place for X hours to bring in the New Year. When something unexpected happened. Big Ben caught fire!!!



Okay, it didn't really. The fireworks were really nice. I tried taking a video, but ash got in my eye and the focus of the tower drops to the feet of the people around me. Fail. I've never seen such good fireworks before. That may have had something to do with growing up in a desert where fire resulting from fireworks is a real possibility, or it may have had something to do with the show being over a river, but really it was likely a combination of the two.

Happy New Year!… a few weeks later. :-)