Windsor is a comfortable train ride away from London and makes for a nice day out. There are the typical attractions of Windsor Castle, Eton College, and of course Legoland. But Windsor also has great shopping and great food.

Although the weather wasn’t the greatest at least it didn’t rain on us and the company more than made up for the average weather. Briefly:
– Windsor Castle is fairly impressive and not just a little bit massive! covering 13 acres. As the Queen’s principal place of residence it makes it the larges inhabited castle in the world. The free guided tour is a good idea if you don’t want to shell out money for the audio tour. The State Apartments are lavish but like any of the other royal residences I’ve visited (including Hampton Court Palace and Buckingham Palace) seem excessively so. I enjoyed the exteriors more than the interiors. The thing we missed (due to the length of the queue) was Queen Mary’s Dolls’ House which is apparently an amazing doll house built on 1:12 scale complete with running water and electricity.
– Eton College. Just down the road from the Castle and across the Thames is Eton College. A quick visit didn’t really excite though the Chapel probably would have been impressive if we’d taken a tour. More interesting were the shops that line the Eton High Street – with antiques, dolls, art, teddy bears and many other novel items on sale. Check out this cute gollywog doll and monkey
– Windsor Royal Station. The station has been attractively refurbished and has many little shops.
– Windsor High Street. The High Street has all the shops you would expect to see on a London High Street and it is even home to the Queen’s officially appointed Waitrose supermarket.
– Crooked House Tea Rooms. The stream of tourists taking a photo of this tea house seemed endless as we sat observing the goings on from a nearby pub whilst eating our lunch. We did think about having a cream tea there, but a closer look at their prices scared us off.

In front of the Crooked House Tea Room	Eton College	On the River Thames

More photos here.