We arrived at Heathrow this morning at 0615 GMT – about 13 hours after we left our house in Saint Louis. After a lengthy queue through the “UK Border”, we picked up our bags but happily did not get stopped at Customs (we went though the “Nothing to Declare” door, but saw other people seemingly stopped at random). Over to the Hertz rental center, and after a fairly expensive upgrade, we ended up with a Ford Mondeo diesel with automatic transmission.
We had a wonderful tour of Windsor Castle, once we found it and some “blue badge” parking close to the castle entrance. The rain stopped long enough so that we stayed relatively dry for our visit to Queen Mary’s Dolls’ House, The Drawings Gallery and St George’s Chapel. The various staff we interacted with were fabulous – all very accommodating to Kathy’s mobility concerns.
The Round Tower (The Keep) at Windsor Castle dates to the year 1080 and William the Conqueror who built a "motte and bailey" (raised earthwork with a protective fence) on the site.
The rest of the day was spent driving to our first nights’ lodging in the sea-side town of Weymouth, on the south coast of England. Our room overlooks Weymouth Bay – we are just across the street from the beach. Dinner out was at a fish and chip restaurant. Pleasant from a temperature standpoint – it was probably in the low 50s tonight. If it weren’t for the thunderstorm that passed through, perhaps the football (soccer) players who had been playing on the beach could have finished their game!
We are both so physically exhausted from the day, I’m not sure I’ll even get the pictures loaded to the Zenphoto gallery tonight.
Picture of our hotel in Weymouth just a few minutes before a thuderstorm came through the area.
wow! beautiful hotel!