Day 2 Windsor Castle, London Bus Tour, Jack the Ripper

This was another fantastic day, starting out with plenty of much-needed sleep and a good breakfast at our hotel. We met our official Windsor Castle Guide, Stuart, at the hotel, then boarded a nice Mercedes tour bus for the drive to Windsor Castle. The ride was about 45 minutes, which flew by as Stuart condensed 600+ Nyears of British history into a few minutes to help us understand the significance of WIndsor Castle and all the additions and inmprovements by the various monarchs through the centuries. Windsor Castle was uncrowded, we had the run of the place and the adjoining small town of Windsor for our 2 1/2 hour stay, and learned more about the monarchy than we ever realized we didn't know. After some lunch, we reboarded our bus and headed back to London for Stuart's humorously-narrated bus tour of the city. We saw EVERYTHING I think, and heard enough stories about the buildings, the Thames River, and the Royals to last us a LONG time!

The bus tour ended after St. Paul's Cathedral (where Prince Charles married Princess Diana; we heard a choir singing during a worship service that truly sounded "heavenly", what a beautiful sound in that impressive Cathedral), and several views of Big Ben, Parliament, London Bridge, Tower Bridge, etc. We returned to our old haunt, Picadilly Circus, to meet up again with Emma. We spread out for an hour's free time, some went shopping, some did sightseeing, some tried the Portrait Gallery and British Museum. We all were familiar enough with this part of London that we met back up with no problems at the Statute of Eros and headed off for supper. Another adventure: chicken curry and rice, then an hour to explore "Trocadero", a nearby arcade. Following that, we split in two groups: some to the "Jack the Ripper" walking tour of old London, and 10 of us back to the "tube" and train to return to the hotel. Altogether a FULL day and wonder of wonders, NO RAIN until the very end! Tomorrow's a full one: EARLY wakeup call and breakfast, some sightseeing in England on the way to the ferry, then we cross the Channel and begin our adventures in France. Hope you like the photos, will post more of them when I can at http://picasaweb.google.com/jlphil7584/2010EnglandFranceTrip02#