Travel Day from Halifax to Seattle with one stop in Vancouver.

We had to get up for 4:30am to get to the airport in time for security and to drop off our checked bags.  I arranged for an Uber to pick us up at 5:00am.

The Uber was prompt and the driver got us to Heathrow by 5:30am plenty of time to get all our stuff done since there was no one there, or at least no one at the Air Canada check-in.  We dropped off our bags, and went through security with no issues at all.

We went looking for the Air Canada lounge (at the other end of the terminal) since we had about two and a half hours before boarding our flight.  We came to realize that we did not have access to the AC Lounge at Heathrow, nor do we have access to the lounges in Paris (CDG) nor Frankfurt (FRA), for some reason TD did not setup their cards to allow access to the lounges in these airports.  We did have one other option, there is a lounge that we do have access to so we walked all the way back to the other side of the terminal found the lounge.

We got some food and drink in us, got to relax a bit before the flight.

The flight was again good, uneventful, and we had the middle seat empty between us.  The entire row of seats next to us was empty.  I think that AC actually blocks the middle seats if they are empty once boarding begins, which is great.  The flight was just a little more than 6 hours.

Jessica was at the airport to pick us up, she got us home and then we headed to Chester to pick up the pups.

The pups were happy to see us, they bolted from the gate at Janes's and headed right for the car, they really wanted to go home.

This has been a very long day.

This morning we headed out to Windsor to take in the Castle.  We took the tube from Victoria Station to Vauxhall where we then changed to the SouthWestern Rail line direct to Windsor & Eton Riverside.  The entire trip took only 1 hour and 30 minutes.  Getting around London and actually the UK via train is easy and really convenient, I wish we could do something similar in Canada.

Windsor castle opens to visitors at 10:00am and we got there around 9:15 so we stopped for a quick breakfast and coffee / orange juice, then made our way to the castle.  Our tickets allowed us acces at 11:00 but the crowds were light so we tried and successfully got into see the castle early.

Now Windsor castle is what I see in my minds eye when I think of a castle.  Tall walls, lots of heavy doors at the gates, a moat around the castle keep and battlements all around, just perfect.  The grounds are well kept, no one allowed on the grass, I think if anyone did step on the grass the hounds would be released and the guilty parties would be taken off to the dungeon.

We toured around the grounds taking pictures, following the bit that Rick Steeves had in his guide book.  We then went into the chapel, this is where we've seen many weddings and funerals on TV, most recently that of Harry and Megan, and the funeral of Prince Philip.  We also saw the burrial place for Queen Elizabeth II, Prince Philip, and her parents.  They are all here in the same location.  Princess Margaret is also placed here.

The chappel is just that a chapel within the confinds of the castle walls so its not huge like some other churches we've seen on this trip but it is initimiate in comparison and is the burrial place not only for the QEII and family but also for a number of other historical royal figures.

After visiting the chaple we made our to the royal apartments.  These are ornately decorated rooms.  Including great rooms where the royalty would entertain dignitaries with a formal dinner, where the King would greet honored guests, present them with nation honors, as well as bedrooms, dressing rooms, and meeting rooms for past royals that made Windsor castle their home.

The entire visit to Windor castle took about 2.5 hours, which took us to lunch time.

We did the thing, and tried out the loacl Five Guys, there seems to be a lot of them in the UK every town we've visitied, Bath, Cardiff, London and now Windsor have one.  We are so sick of chips (fries).

We then made our way back to London, to check out the shopping scene on Oxford street.

We wandered around looking for some of the stuff that Krista was looking for but could not find it anywhere.

We then headed back to the hotel, Krista's ankle was not getting any better and we did have a reservation for dinner at the Jones Family Restaurant (Where we got the roast dinner on Sunday), reservation at 7:00.

The dinner was good, I got the sea bass and Krista the steak, but we stayed away from the potatoes and the fries, oh we have had so many chips here.

Time to pack, so back to the hotel we went, tomorrow we fly back home.