A Trip to Windsor Castle


One of the trips you can chose to take using a London Pass is to go to Windsor Castle, the family home of Queen Elizabeth II and the burial place of King Henry VIII among others. At first I was a little hesitant to go because it actually isn't in London proper and you have to take a national rail train out. But, it turns out to be very easy and a great trip for a Saturday.



To get to Windsor on a London Pass there is one route which is luckily the fastest one. First you have to take the train to Paddington. At Paddington you must go from the underground side to the national rail side where you will see a variety of trains. Now, you must find a train going to Slough. The main ones are to Oxford or Reading which stop at slough But it's good to double check they are stopping. Next, simply go up to the ticket barrier. Once there there should be an attendant that will let you through if they see your London pass and you say you are going to Windsor. They must be used to it because there was no questions asked and they didn’t scan my pass. Next, you take the train to Slough which takes less than 30 minutes and when you get on further down the same platform there is a special train that goes straight to Windsor in about 5 minutes.


At Windsor Central Station, as soon as you walk out you can see the castle. Then, you just walk in the pre paid ticket line and then go through security. I went in at around 10:20 which is a very busy time for them so it took over 30 minutes to get my ticket and go through security.
Once in, I really recommend seeing the changing of the guard at 11 am on most days. They shout a lot which is funny and play modern songs: they played the frozen movie song “Let it Go”  when I was there!

Next, I went through the church and then the state apartments. Everything was well organized and there were people to ask question to all over the place. Unfortunately you can't take pictures inside the chapel or any of the exhibits so I don't have any pictures of the amazing interiors to show.
Overall, I had a great time. The trip took less than 90 minutes and then I spend a nice 2 hours or so in the castle. I would recommend it if you have time and a London pass, but normally it would be pretty expensive since the tickets are £20 and then the train would be another £20 probably.

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