We had a refreshing Aperol Spritz and enjoyed the nice weather.
Our itinerary summed up Day one like this:
Your tour departs at 2 pm from your Windsor Hotel. Venture to see the splendors of Windsor Castle, a residence of the King, and the oldest and largest inhabited castle in the world. Then take a walking tour arouind the medieval town of Windsor with a local guide. Enjoy a welcome drink with your group, and dine and explore as you wish this evening. Our welcome drink was scheduled for 6 pm.
Walk this way. There are no inside photo's permitted, but it was awesome to see it. Wish I could share with you; but it's a BIG no no. There are security checks as you enter so travel light and leave backpacks in the hotel or in our case the tour coach.. Trying to snap photo's as we walked with our guide wasn't super easy. You have to keep up. Queen Victoria on High Street as you make your way to the entrance. As you can see lots of rehab work is going on. The tour guide said it's perpetual. The bronze statue was to commemorate her Golden Jubilee (50th year). At that time, she was the longest serving Monarch.
The State Entrance. Just outside this gate was wear The Queen was often seen with her dogs, and or riding her horse. She was quite popular and friendly according to our tour guide who saw her multiple times. Turning the opposite direction from The State Entrance puts you in line with The Long Walk. A beautiful place to walk, run etc. It's 2.64 miles to the end where a horse statue resides on Snow Hill. This was created during the reign of Charles II.
Our local guide pointing out items of interest. Note the restaurant behind her, The Prince Harry. After our tour and welcome drink, we attempted to go there for dinner. They were not busy, but the wait staff and bartender just looked at us and walked away. We waited a few minutes more and then walked out. Guess they didn't want our business. We did note pictures of Harry and Meghan on the walls. Tried my best to get a picture without people, but as you can see, wasn't quite successful. Windsor is full of tourists. The shambles built in 1718. Look how crocked it is. Remember you can click on any picture to see things larger. While this old plaque isn't readable. It marks the location of Nell Gwynn's residence, and now tea room. And Chinese Restaurant. The date on the building is 1648. She was a stage actress and one of King Charles's mistresses.
You'll recall dinner was not included, which is very weird. I've never done a tour that didn't have a welcome dinner. It gives the group a chance to get to know each other, and many people have just arrived that day and are tired. To have to search out somewhere to eat isn't a particularly good way to start the tour. So after our welcome drink, and a foiled attempt to eat at the pub right across the street from our hotel, The Prince Harry; we ended up at Meejana, 1 Church Lane in a very cute Lebanese restaurant. My dish was an eggplant something and was delicious. Don't remember what Jane had, but she was very pleased with it. **edited to add my friend remembered what I had, it was Mousakaa. See what a cute little super clean place it was. Would highly recommend it. We were seated at an open window area, and they had outside eating as well.
Marching orders. Most days we had something like this posted to indicate what was next. So breakfast at 7am, luggage out by your door by 7 am, be on the coach at 8 am for departure. Dinner tomorrow at 6:30 in our hotel, our first group dinner.
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