Day 1 - Arrived in Windsor

Here I am.  In a beautiful old place called Cumberland Lodge.  Originally a hunting lodge for a Duke of Cumberland way back when.  Now a residential conference facility, academic retreat and educational charity.  Situated in the Great Park at Windsor, it is on the original grounds of Windsor Castle which is approximately a 3 mile walk away up the 'great road', a grassy thoroughfare for walkers and riders.  I am planning on going for a walk up there later and will take some photos.  The afternoon has turned sunny so it will be good to get out - leaves are still on the trees so it is a gorgeous fall day now.

 This is my room.  and the bathroom has heated floors and heated towel racks, and a great big cast iron tub.  May not come out.







The plane was pretty uneventful - got some intermittent sleep.  Heathrow makes Pearson airport look like a tiny place.  It is huge, but luckily it wasn't busy this morning so it only took about an hour through the airport, customs and baggage collection for our group.  We had pre booked a taxi service to pick us up and drive us to Windsor and he was waiting there, so off we went.  Since the airline fed us supper at 11:30, and only a coffee or juice and 'muffin' for breakfast, we told the driver we wanted to stop in Windsor for some breakfast/lunch before going on to the lodge.  At first he thought MacD's was a good suggestion - quickly disabused that idea.  So he took us to a local place loosely called a bed and breakfast.  A diner that served 15 different versions of english breakfast, combinations of: eggs (scrambled, omelette, fried), sausage, blood pudding, ham, bacon, chips, beans, toast (which was bread and margarine not toasted), chips, beans, black sausage, fried tomatoes, did I say chips and beans yet? a daily special, and of course tea.  Todays was pot roast beef, chips, beans, gravy and something green.  And they only use g.m. oil.  So I had to ask - general motors oil, grape mustard seed oil????  Nope, you guessed it - genetically modified oil.  yum.  So we had a very entertaining breakfast with all the local tradesmen.  5 GBP each, pretty good I'd say.  Tonight we've all decided we are going to the pub down the road - pints are needed.  But right now coffee is needed.  So I am on the hunt for some.