From Central London its about an hours subway and train ride outside the city to Windsor, home of the famous Windsor castle and of Eton college where all the young princes go to school. Turns out “going off to college” is about a two block trip from grandma’s house for Will and Harry.

Windsor seemed an interesting community. Appeared wealthy and fairly expensive. Something I’ve noticed about London as well is all of the young people. Lots of different accents, but the majority of people we see out and about are very youthful.

Windsor Castle is a must see activity in England. The structure is imposing, set upon a hill with high walls and significant armaments. For some thousand years the Royals have lived here. It’s said that Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth favors it among all of her residences, though she was not in residence the day we were there. The Union Jack was flying overhead instead of the Queen’s banner. There’s a guy whose job is to raise and lower her flag simultaneous to her imparting or departing the gates of the castle.

About 175 people live in the castle, all sorts of people who comprise the Royal Household---the Queen’s staff which actually numbers over 900 people. We visited with a Mr. Hall of her staff who interestingly told us he’d once been employed by the Hall family of Kansas City, Missouri, owners of Hallmark cards. Mr. Hall told us that the Queen greets and shakes hands with each of the household twice annually, once at Christmas and then one other time each year. He and all the staff seemed extremely proud to be working for the Queen.

In area of the castle leading to the private quarters I spoke with a young woman who told me she ran into the Queen regularly in her duties (of which guarding the hall was evidently one). She commented that the Queen knew her name and the names of many of the staff and said “you can talk with her about anything.” Hmm. Well, even a Queen has to have some people. I mean President Jeb Bartlett had Charlie!

One big deal in the realm of the Queen is the Royal Order of the Knights of the Garter. I don’t get exactly why that’s so big a deal. But the way it was explained to me is that Paul McCartney and Elton John are “just knights” and the five layers of knighthood above them are the Knights of the Garter. There are only 24 of them---because Henry VIII was enamored with the notion King Arthur’s Knights of the Round Table and chose to bring them to life via this order of knighthood. There are 24 of them because that’s the number he needed to have in order to have a jousting tournament. SO, yes, apparently being a high end Knight is something akin to play on the company softball team.

Perhaps the most interesting thing at the Castle was St. George Cathedral. Wow! Quite an impressive structure. Really stunning in its beauty. Yet I couldn’t help but think “God lives in human hearts not in structures built by human hands.” It’s interesting to me how for thousands of years men have tried to build buildings for God.

A weird thing about the Chapel is that it is the burial site of all the royals. You walk into the Nave and there, among the chairs, are sarcophagus holding the bodies of the Kings. Some of them are buried in vaults under the floor, and most interestingly, Queen Elizabeth’s father and the Queen Mum who died just a few years ago are buried “in the ground like a common man” at a level below the rest of the Chapel.

Windsor Castle is definitely worth the effort! If you come to London you must see it.

Here’s a tip: Kelly bought something called a London Pass. It gets us into all of the attractions, and moves us to the head of the line. So you don’t want to fail to get a London Pass. Another key thing to get is a Travel Card. It allows you to board the subway and trains as many times as you like, so you can zip back and forth across the city without traffic problems or having to have car or pay a taxi. If you are going to sightsee London don’t fail to get a London Pass and a Travel Card.

That’s all for today. Not sure what’s up tomorrow----Westminster Abbey, Cathedral, Chapel, etc. Funny thing is that just a week ago, an acquaintance of mine, Ed Stetzer actually preached at Westminster Chapel. Kind of a small world. Wish it had worked out for me to have been in London that weekend. That would have been kind of cool.

More tomorrow. Stay tuned.