The travels of Tim and Megan: From Cottage to Castle

Craven Cottage

Tickets to Fulham v Arsenal at Craven Cottage in West London were sold out weeks ago. Megan was pretty upset that we wouldn't be able to support Arsenal in an away match in London, so Tim had been trying to find tickets being re-sold on the internet but without any luck. So when Colin said that his mates (who don't particularly care for the Gunners) had season tickets to Craven Cottage and were willing to sell him their tickets to the match, Tim jumped at the chance. Megan was very surprised!

On Saturday morning we set off for Putney (one of our favourite old stomping grounds) and stopped in at Gourmet Burger Kitchen for lunch before the game - excellent burgers!!! Then we wandered across Putney Bridge and in to the Larrik pub for a pre-match beer and to get our tickets for the game from Colin's mates (the Larrik is their local). We hadn't realised that it was the official "away team" pub, so it was packed with rowdy Gooners drinking and chanting. We liked it.

After struggling to understand the weird gates and numbering systems in the stands at Craven Cottage, we eventually found our seats and watched a really good game. Arsenal played well and won comfortably, 3-0. The away section of the crowd (where we were not sitting) was brilliant, easily making more noise than the home fans. Despite the 3pm kick-off, it's like the old day-night cricket matches. The lights come on at half-time because it's dark by 4pm.

It was a nice little ground to watch football at, with the historic cottage in the corner of the ground...it's a shame that Fulham (owned by Muhammed al-Fayed) are relegation-bound and we probably won't be back there. After the match we made our way back to Islington and had a few celebratory beers at The Famous Cock.

Windsor Castle

On Sunday we decided we would venture out of London and visit Windsor Castle. For Tim this was quite exciting, as it was the first time in the 9 months since we arrived that he has been anywhere in the UK outside of London! We got a train from London Paddington to Windsor via Slough, which was entertaining in itself. For those of you who are fans of the BBC comedy "The Office", you will understand that visiting Slough was a special moment. Slough was chosen especially as the setting for "The Office" as it is typical of small town England - sterile, grey, unexciting and miserable...the Gore of the UK. Sadly we just changed trains at Slough and we didn't explore the town.

Strangely, Windsor (which is a beautiful, vibrant little village) is just a few minutes on the train from Slough - stark contrast! There are a few old cobbled streets lined with pubs, shops and plenty of restaurants, all surrounding the enormous Windsor Castle (the floor area of the castle is 45,000 square metres!!!).

After lunch, we headed up to the castle and started our tour. As we lined up for tickets we were surprised by the big banner on the wall that read: "Windsor Castle: Home of the Sovereign for over 900 years". Tim had no idea she was that old!

But some form of castle has stood on that spot for over 900 years. It began as a fortress to protect the monarchs from invading forces, but was gradually transformed into a palace. It has been added to and improved many times over the years, most recently following the fire in 1992. Apparently the Queen spends most of her weekends there, but she was not there on Sunday.

The tour begins in the castle grounds, where you can examine the 4-metre thick walls surrounding the castle, with thin slots in them where the archers would stand and fire arrows outwards at invading forces. On the inside of that wall, there is a large moat (which interestingly has never been filled with water) and is now home to a beautiful rose garden with a water feature in the middle.

Sadly, St. George's Chapel was closed to the public on Sunday, so we didn't see inside that. Once inside the castle itself, the first stop was Queen Mary's Dolls House. Almost everything in the huge dolls house (designed in 1924) was commissioned on a scale of 12 to 1. The detail is phenomenal - with household items right down to linen and cutlery at the dining table included. The tiny plates on the dining table are made of solid silver!!! More impressive though, is that the mechanical, electrical and plumbing systems in the house are made to work, including running water and elevators that operate!

Next stop was a drawing room containing original sketches by Leonardo da Vinci amongst other famous artists, followed by an exhibition on Royal Weddings, from Queen Victoria's wedding (to her first cousin Prince Albert - interesting) to the current Queen's wedding to Prince Philip.

The State Rooms were amazing. Much like when we toured Buckingham Palace, we were blown away with the extravagance and wealth everywhere. Every one of these rooms contains some form of enormous paintings, exotic furniture, porcelain or china, carvings, statues/busts of monarchs or war heroes etc. In a few of these rooms there were huge paintings on the ceilings, as well as all over the walls! Obviously we were not allowed to take any photos, but we have cheated and added a couple of pictures below that we found on google.

The fire in 1992 raged for 15 hours and destroyed 9 of the state rooms and damaged over 100 more rooms. The restoration took 5 years and cost over £37 million, mainly funded by a decision to open to the public for the first time the state rooms of Buckingham Palace. In a "convenient" turn of events, many of the irreplaceable paintings and furniture in the state rooms survived as they had been removed before the fire for maintenance and renovation...

Our favourite room inside the castle was St George's Hall, a long narrow hall where state banquets are held (see picture below). On the walls and ceiling of the Hall are hundreds of crests or coats of arms (one for every knight going back hundreds of years). Some of the crests have been painted over with white paint to signify knights that have committed crimes and been stripped of their titles. Our very Sir Edmund Hillary made it on to the Honours Board (although we couldn't find his crest), along side the likes of Prince Charles, Prince Andrew and Sir John Major.

After our castle tour, we wandered the pretty streets of the village and stopped in at The Royal Oak pub for a drink before heading back to London. We will definitely be back in Windsor - we still have to check out Eton College and Legoland!!!