Day 6 - Touring the Castle

We got up this morning and after breakfast headed straight up to Windsor Castle. We waited on a brief line and then we got inside. We toured Queen Mary's doll house, St. George's Chapel and several other exhibitions. Unfortunately, the Royal apartments were not open today. The Queen was still in residence and we were told that if we watched this one place we might see her come out and get into a car, but we didn't bother. We did see some guards marching around, but due to the rainy weather, they didn't do a formal changing of the guard.

The Queen was in residence in the roundish area at the center of the picture.  We were told that if we waited, we might catch a glimpse of her exiting the building and getting into a car.

Part of Queen Mary's doll house (where we weren't supposed to take pictures but someone - not me - did)

More from Windsor Castle

After leaving the Castle, we went to a gift shop and looked around and then tried to find someplace for lunch. We ended up at the Bel and the Dragon which was very good. Barbara wanted to go back to the gift shop so I went with her and David went back to the boat. She and I left the gift shop and then went into several “posh” shops. We found one that sold the fascinator hats and we tried some on. Then we went back to the boat and got ready to leave. A nice man who was in the boat behind us helped us pull up our stakes and shove off.

My new look?

The boat neighbor who helped us

Soon after leaving Windsor we stopped to fill up our water tank. While there, at this marina, I noticed a pilates studio right on the marina grounds! We meandered our way to Maidenhead. We chatted with one of the more friendly lockmasters and also with another boat captain with whom we shared the lock.

Marina pilates studio!

We passed many beautiful houses along the way.  Just before Maidenhead, we passed under the Sounding Bridge. This bridge has an interesting story. After it was built,the railway barons of the time didn't believe it could take the weight of trains crossing the river and insisted that the wooden scaffolding used during building be left to support the bridge, however the builder, Brunel, cheated by setting up the scaffolding so it was short of the bridge itself. The woodwork was later washed away but the bridge has now survived for 2 centuries.

The Sounding Bridge

We finally arrived in Maidenhead and found a place to moor the boat. Then we took a walk into town (not nearly so nice as Windsor), and stopped in a supermarket and bought some more food. Then we came back and relaxed till dinner. We ate at the Blue River Cafe, where the place looked nice, but the food was bad and the service was awful! Then back to the boat for the night. While we were relaxing and chatting before bed, a large party boat pulled in to dock right in front of us. They came extremely close alongside us but couldn't stop by their dock. So they backed out and this time they rubbed against our boat. Glad we were all up and watching or it would have been pretty scary!

Our boat in Maidenhead

The boat that hit us

Soon after, a gentleman named Paul walked by with his dog. David struck up a conversation, and we all spent about an hour talking. So interesting!