Trip Day 3 - England/Windsor

Wow, did we have a good sleep! We woke up after 8am and first injoyed some tea. Electrical plugs, appliencies, some things needed to be figured out. 

But finally we made it to Jane again. We could chat a little bit before he had to go to work. 

We chatted but suddenly Jane said "we have to go" and we hurried to the barracks where the soldiers appear to march to the castle for the changing of the guards. First appears the band and behind them the soldiers which do the guarding. 

Jane said, hearing the music without having seen the band, that it will be gurkha guards. The music is always fast because they march fast. 

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It is quite cold at the moment here, so the plan was that once the soldiers disappeared into the castle we would do a little shopping. I was looking for a woolly hat. Opposite the castle entry is the shops with tartan things. I hoped to find a hat with the Wallace tartan. That was James' mother's maidenname.

No luck, but this one fitted nicely and was lovely warm. Did I mention that I had forgotten to pack my hat from home? 

And when the guard changing (inside the castle we could not see) was complete, we listened to the beginning but did not go back to the barracks with them. 

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It was interesting though because the guards were from a different regiment and were marching must slower. Amazing, Jane knew all the names and details down to the difference in the uniforms and names of the parts. 

As we were at the top of Peascod Street we walked down. This is a photo I should have taken yesterday, but it doesn't really show the spirit of anticipation. 

Before getting to Jane's house we stopped at the air&b, to be exact to meet the host Linda. She and Jane are very good neighbors. We also met two daughters and one grand-daughter. It was a lovely meeting and we could tell Linda honestly how nice the apartment was. 

Back at Jane's house, we had lunch, played cards, and had coffee. Then we decided to have a walk along the Thames before it would get too cold.

On the way to the river we stopped at St. Stephen's, the church the family has been part off forever. 

I liked the colorful banners. 

The church was empty so we could enjoy it in peace. I had never noticed that the ceiling above the altar area was painted. 

Jane told me that the stained glass windows in the back told the story what the duty of deacons were. 

The statue next to the altar is St. Stephen. Jane told us that the golden stripe on the bottom of his dress shows that he was a deacon.

Jane had to take care of something and we went into a workroom. Looking around I thought these signs were funny. 

We continued to the Thames. There were more water birds, Swans, and Canada geese than people. 

We went to the Eton Bridge and then turned around. See the castle way in the back?

We walked back via the temporary ice ring with some other amusement things. The entry looked fun. It was set up in the Alexandra Gardens.  

We had a peak into the large tent, the ice ring. We enjoyed very much watching the little children pushing around the "penguins". 

After the walk it felt almost like evening already. We just relaxed, had tea and chatted. Later Jane gave us a nice dinner again and we watched some TV about the Royal Family. Stephen had come back from work and joined us too. Nice time.

And now it is time to say "night, night".