Winsor Castle

(8th day)

Despite of the headache fuel problem, we still have a little bit more time left before we need to check in at 4 pm. So, we drove to Windsor Castle for a quick tour. Sad to say, this was going to be our last destination.

Same like many other places in England, it's kind of difficult to find the car park in the town center. So, it's better to park the car outside the town center and walk in, to save time.

Due to raining reason, the bar was just quiet.

Turn left, and we saw Windsor Castle from far. This is the rear entry gate on Thames Street.

We walked up the hill slowly, and was getting closer and closer to the castle.

Windsor Castle, located in the English county of Berkshire, is the largest inhabited castle in the world. Together with Buckingham Palace in London and Holyrood Palace in Edinburgh, Windsor Castle is one of the principal official residences of the British monarch. Queen Elizabeth II spends many weekends of the year at the castle, using it for both state and private entertaining. Her other two residences, Sandringham House and Balmoral Castle, are the Royal Family's private homes.

Since it was begun by William the Conqueror in the 11th Century to its prestigious stature as the ancestral home of Queen Elizabeth II today, Windsor has stood for nearly a millennium.

The Castle Hill entrance to Windsor Castle. Today, this is one of the busy tourist attraction in England.

On 20 November 1992, a fire which began in the Queen's private chapel quickly spread. The fire raged for 15 hours until it had destroyed nine of the principal state rooms, and severely damaged over 100 more, in all the larger part of the upper ward. One-fifth of the floor space of the castle was damaged.



The restoration programme was not completed until 1997. 70% of it was funded by the decision to open to the public for the first time the state rooms of Buckingham Palace. The total cost of repairing the damage was £37 million The restoration was undertaken at no additional cost to the British taxpayer.




So successful was the restoration and faithfulness to the original plans and decorations that the distinction between old and new is hard to detect. Although some of the rooms that had been gutted by the fire were completely redesigned in a modern interpretation, the new design is very organic and of the Gothic style. However, what is less obvious to the eye is that the restoration work resulted in significant improvements, particularly to the arrangements of the public rooms and the service quarters.




Aerial view of the castle.





Windsor Castle, a thousand-year-old forthress transformed into a royal palace. This well-known silhouette of a seemingly medieval castle was not created, however, until the 1820s by Jeffry Wyatville.





Well, there is nothing much we can see since we didn't pay to get inside the castle.

Many parts of the Castle are open to the public, including the precincts; the State Apartments; Queen Mary's famous dolls' house; St George's Chapel and the Drawing Gallery.

Among the highlights of a visit to Windsor is Queen Mary's Dolls' House, the most famous dolls' house in the world. Despite of raining that day, a long queue was form outside the doll house.

Saw this beautiful mother-and-sons postcard on the street. A decade after her death, Princess Diana still looms large in Britain's psyche. Her life was truly a legendary and will continue to live as the Queen in English People's heart.

Statue again.

The rain didn't stop that day. Although clumsy we looked, we tried to walk around the town area as far as possible.

This restaurant is slanted a bit to the left.

An indoor shopping center that near to the Windsor Castle.

An oil painting that cost a few hundred pounds.

Finally, it's time to go. We left the place at around 3 pm.

We returned the car to the car rental, then took a shuttle bus to go to the Heathrow Airport terminals. Thank God the loading was not too full, and thus, we were given the boarding pass very fast this time. Lucky we, could sit together this time. How great.

Feeling tired and hungry, we simply walked in a restaurant to fill up our empty stomach. A small world it is, KS bumped into his colleague who was dining in there too. He went over their table for a chat. Then he came back 10 min later and told me that his colleauge and his wife and son went to southern part for holiday. They complained a lot about the accomodation, for they have to stay in the very expensive B&B (cost £50 per head) or worst, no vacancy in some places, so they got to sleep inside the rented car. Poor them.

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When his friend got to know about our 'good' accommodation in England, his jaws dropped. Apparently, he didn't aware of the Novotel's promotion to CP staffs at that time. This made KS very proud of himself. Well, I'm proud of him even before we heard of this friend's whine about his accomodation in England, ok. Now I know, I'm even proud of him. Really, KS had done a marvalous job in this trip. For this, I'm very grateful to him.

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After another 13 hours flying, we returned our home sweet home safe and sound. The boys were back to their normal self very fast, but I felt a bit weird to be back home after leaving there for 10 days. That night, I woke up and felt totally lost in nowhere. It really had taken me quite some time to be back to normal.

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There are many things I missed about England. This Walkers brand cookies are one of them. I bought it from the Heathrow Airport, for we wanted to use up all the remaining coins. As for how I came across this Walkers brand, it's because the Novotel hotel had supplimented us 2 packet of Walkers Short Bread every day. And the more we ate it, the more we like it. Actually I like this white chocolate & raspberry biscuits more than the butter shortbread. Unfortunately, I couldn't find it in HK's supermarket, but shortbread. Sigh...KS said he will buy me some when he happen to fly to England next time.

When we landed HK, we saw these Olympics mascots greeting the visitors in the arrival hall. Oh yes, we had missed the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olmpic Games, held on 8-Aug. We could only watch the highlights from England's TV the day after.

Whew, can't believe I have taken more than 2 months time to finally finish up the details of this vacation. I could have just made the journal a short and simple one, but this trip was so wonderful that I feel it worth more of my effort to proper document it.

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So now, as my last entry about the trip has been finished, finally everything has came to its end too. So long, England.

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Spires of Oxford

(8th day)



This was our last day in England. The weather turned gloomy and it rained again, but that didn't bother us that much anymore. Instead, we felt contended that we have enjoyed the good weather for most of the time during our stay here, which can't be bought by money.


Since the departure time was 6 pm, we still have some more time to go to the places that lie on the way back to Heathrow Airport. We chose Oxford City because of its reputation, and also, its location is convenient enough to us.


We parked our car somewhere near the Old McDonald's Hotel, then walked to the city center under the shower rain. It's cold and humid that day, with holding an umbrella in one hand and the boy's hand in another, we walked very slowly. Only when the situation was in control, then we stopped for a while and took some photos.

Oxford is the oldest university city in England, situated some 50 miles (80 km) to the west of the capital London in its own county of Oxfordshire. It is the home to the University of Oxford, the oldest university in the English-speaking world. Oxford is also known as the "city of dreaming spires", refer to the medieval churches and colleges that dominate the bustling modern town in all their Gothic splendour.

Together with Cambridge (the second oldest university city and Oxford's great rival), Oxford has long represented the English academic establishment and élite ("Oxbridge"), a haven of tradition and endeavour. For over 800 years, it has been a home to royalty and scholars.

St. Michael's Church is the oldest building in Oxford City. It was built c.1000-50 in a late Anglo-Saxon style. The north transept was rebuilt in 1833 and the interior was restored in 1853-4. Most of this was destroyed in a disastrous fire in 1953. But the church was quickly restored in 1954.

St Michael's Tower is the only part that survives from this date, served as part of the defensive wall at the North Gate, which was demolished in 1771 to make room for a road. The original use of St. Michael's tower as a defensive structure is evident in its rough appearance. It is made of a stone called coral rag, which is tough and resistant to weathering but cannot be decoratively carved or even cut into neat blocks.

The tower can be climbed for a small admission fee. Unfortunately, we just ran out of time to do that.

Oxford, The City of Dreaming Spires, is famous the world over for its University and place in history. Nowadays, the city is a bustling cosmopolitan town. Still with its ancient University, but home also to a growing hi-tech community.

Throughout our whole journey in England, the most beautiful girls we saw are all in Oxford. Picturesque architecture and vibrant modern life (driven by students) make Oxford an interesting city.

Someone had left their drawing on the street.

One of his signature pose : statue.

Bicycles left in front of the Town Hall.

Posting box that can post newspapers and packet, besides letter. Is it a norm to send the newspapers by postage?

Museum of Oxford. The Museum of Oxford covers the history of the City and University of Oxford. The displays include original artifacts, treasures from Oxford colleges and period room reconstructions, from prehistoric times onwards.

We took a short break here as the rain became heavier. 5 min later, we continued our walk.

Carfax is located at the conjunction of 4 principal roads, St Aldates's (south); Cornmarket Street (north); Queen Street (west) and the High Street (east) in Oxford. It is considered to be the centre of the city. The name "Carfax" derives from the French "carrefour", or "crossroads".

Carfax Tower, this 13th-century tower is the remains of the former town church of Oxford : St Martin's. The church became unsafe and was demolished in 1820, and then rebuilt and demolished again in 1896 as part of a road-widening scheme. The tower was actually 20 feet taller than we see it today but, because townspeople once amused themselves by throwing small coins at students from the top of the tower, the university authorities had it lowered.

It is possible to climb to the top of the tower for a good view of the Oxford skyline with a small admission charge.

The two quarter jacks no longer strike the quarter hours, although visitors can often be seen patiently waiting for the clock to reach the appointed time.

A bistro bar hidden in a quiet lane.

A bit further walking, we reached the compound of Oxford University. The University has 38 independent colleges and 6 permanent private halls, each with its own internal structure and activities.

Radcliffe Camera, one of Oxford's landmark. The word "camera", translates from Latin as "room" or "chamber". Built in 1737-1749, it was the house to Radcliffe Science Library.

After the Radcliffe Science Library moved into another building, the Radcliffe Camera became home to additional reading rooms of the Bodleian Library. It now holds books from the English, history and theology collections, mostly secondary sources found on undergraduate reading lists. There is space for around 600,000 books in rooms beneath Radcliffe Square.

The round Camera functions as a reading room for Oxford's students and so is not generally accessible. Many students choose to order books up to Radcliffe Camera's reading rooms to enjoy the picturesque surroundings. Annoyingly for the staffs, it is also one of the harder Bodleian sites to deliver the items to.

The University Church of St. Mary the Virgin, is the parish church of Oxford University. Originally built in the 13th century, it has seen many historic sermons over the centuries. It is also notable for its unusual architecture and the fine views provided by its tower.

The oldest part of the building is also the most striking : the tower. Originally built in 1280, the tower was decorated with spires and pinnacles and is considered the best example of Decorated Gothic architecture in Oxford.

The tower can be climbed at the cost of 124 steps and £2.50 Again, we didn't have time to climb up the tower. I think the view up there should be very spectacular, with a closer look at the tower details and overviews of Oxford.

In the courtyard of University Church of St Mary the Virgin, All Souls College as backdrop. We didn't many students around the campus on that day, maybe because it's a Saturday and also, a raining day.

The Adam de Brome Chapel was added in 1328, the chancel was rebuilt in 1453 and the nave was reconstructed in 1510.

West window

All Souls College.

My soul mate, standing in front of the All Souls College.

Bodleian Library, the main research library of the University of Oxford. The Bodleian is one of the oldest libraries in Europe and is second in size only to London's British Library. The Bodleian now possesses numerous branches throughout the university.

Visiting bibliophiles will be most keen to peruse the the central site, which includes Duke Humfrey's Library above the Divinity School, the Old Schools Quadrangle with its Great Gate and Tower, the Radcliffe Camera, Britain’s first circular library, and the Clarendon Building.

Bodleian Library's Door

Oxford's Bodleian Library opened in 1602 with a collection of 2,000 books assembled by Thomas Bodley of Merton College. The new library replaced one that had been donated to the Divinity School by Duke Humphrey of Gloucester (brother of Henry V of England), but had dispersed in the 16th century.

Radcliffe Camera, view from the courtyard of the Bodleian Library.

Main entrance to the Bodleian Library. To be granted access the library, one must be a student or fellow of Oxford University.

In the courtyard of the Bodleian Library. The main "Old Bodleian" building contains upper and lower reading rooms, the gift shop, and the Divinity School. Visitors are not allowed into the reading rooms except on guided tours, which usually occur daily.

Today, the Bodleian includes several off-site storage areas as well as nine other libraries in Oxford, including the Bodleian Japanese Library; the Bodleian Law Library; and the Radcliffe Science Library. Altogether, the sites now contain 9 million items on 176 km of shelving, and have seats for 2,500 readers.

Bridge of Sighs, built in 1913-14 and named after the Ponte dei Sospiri in Venice. It links the two buildings that make up Hertford College. Although the building of this bridge was originally strongly opposed by New College, it has become a much admired architectural feature of the city. And despite being almost hidden in a side street, it is one of the most frequently photographed and well-known landmarks in Oxford.

Oxford City Tour bus.

Sheldonian Theatre, was built from 1664 to 1668 after a design by Christopher Wren for the University of Oxford. The building is named after Gilbert Sheldon, chancellor of the university at the time and the project's main financial backer.

In 1994 the Theatre was described by the European Commission as "one of the architectural jewels of Oxford". Its purpose was to provide an appropriate secular venue for the principal meetings and public ceremonies of the University, and this remains its purpose today.

However, in addition to being a functional building of the University of Oxford, it is made available for hire to those who wish to promote recitals of serious music and other similar functions. It is also open as circumstances allow to those who wish to visit the building for its historical, architectural and contemporary interest.

There are stone heads atop the railings surrounding the front of the Sheldonian Theatre.

The sculptured heads are not portraits of anyone in particular, and are actually anonymous. They are known as the twelve Caesars or Apostles.

I can never write good on a board with the chalk. Thus, this board have captured my attention instantly.

A striking red park-and-ride bus in Oxford. In rainy day, maybe it's better to hop in the bus to tour the town instead?

When we saw this tower, we knew we were almost back to the car.

We left Oxford City at around 12 noon.

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By then, we were not only ran out of time, but the fuel as well. Since we supposed to return the rented car with an empty tank, it's kind of difficult to judge how much of fuel we need to refill at this point of time. Actually we have just made a small refill before we drove to Oxford this morning, from Conventry. Seeing the indicator blinked again, we wonder should we just ignored it for some more time? But, after 15 min driving, we were desperately looking for a gas station already, and this has wasted at least 45 min, sigh.

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We learnt our lesson here : it's better to return the car with a full tank than an empty tank !