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How
Long To Visit & Tour Logistics
During
the winter months when there are no queues the average visitor will
take 90 minutes to 2 hours in the Castle.
An audio tour is part of the admission price. This is available in
many languages. You simply key in the number of the room or place
you are in and a full commentary is given. There are many optional
commentaries within some commentaries that go into great detail about
individual items.
There are also classic guided tours that leave regularly from near
the entrance. |
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No
photography or video recording is allowed within the State Apartments
or St George's Chapel.
At peak times during the summer there are often long queues to the
entrance of the State Apartments.
On paying your admission you pass through airline style security
where bags are put through an x-ray machine and you empty your pockets
and pass through a detector door.
Once through the security you pick up your audio phone at the kiosk
opposite. There is an information desk, toilets and gift shop here
too. By the audio kiosk is a sign that details the times of the
guided tours that day. It is from here these tours start. Please
note, the exit is from the main Windsor gateway, not the visitor
entrance.
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Changing
of the Guard
Many
visitors like to time their visit so they can view the changing of
the guard. This is very similar to that practised in Central London
at Buckingham Palace or Horseguards.
If you're not visiting the castle you can still see the band marching
through the town around 11:00. The barracks is about 500m from the
castle, the band passes the Guildhall and Old Town before turning
into the castle at Queen Victoria's statue. |
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you're in the castle, congregate in the parade ground by the main
exit in front of St George's Chapel. The whole thing takes around
30 minutes here. |
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State
Apartments
Most
people after getting their introductions and briefings about the castle
on their tour will make their way past the moat of the Round Tower
(not open to the public) up to the north terrace. It is here that
the entrance to the State Apartments is situated.
From the north terrace you gaze down to Windsor town below and get
far reaching views of the surrounding countryside. Windsor town looks
much smaller from up here. |
The
entrance is roped off into two options. One gives entrance direct
into the State Apartments, one precedes this by giving you access
to St Mary's doll house. The dolls house is precisely what you'd expect,
a single miniature dolls house suitable for royalty complete with
miniature crown jewels. The viewing area is quite dark. On exiting
there are display cabinets of costumes.
The State Apartments follow this. Much of the southern part was destroyed
by fire in 1992 and has been restored. Arguably your experience is
much the better for it, some of the rooms that were beginning to look
faded and antique now really do bring alive what the original rooms
would have looked like on completion.
Such are the treasures that you can perhaps look at an obscure painting
only to realise that your are inches from an original Rubens. |
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St
George's Chapel
St
George's Chapel is a working church with services every day. St. George's
Chapel is open daily but closed to visitors on Sundays as services
are held throughout the day. Worshippers are welcome to attend the
services. The church also closes earlier than the rest of the castle
to prepare for the evening service. If you're entering the castle
from early afternoon onwards its worth making St George's your first
port of call. |
Within
the chapel are the tombs of ten sovereigns, including Henry VIII and
his third wife Jane Seymour, and Charles I. The gothic architecture
is particularly impressive, particularly the roof.
Perhaps most fascinating and differentiating the chapel from similar
churches and abbeys is the order of the garter, an English order of
chivalry with a history stretching back to medieval times. Membership
of the Order is extremely limited and includes the monarch of the
United Kingdom, the Prince of Wales and not more than twenty-five
companion members. Members are each assigned a stall in the chapel
choir above which his or her heraldic devices are displayed. |
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