Yet ANOTHER trip to London Heathrow and I thought I should do something a little more exciting. A couple of our Heathrow flights stay by Windsor and thought it be the perfect opportunity to go and explore somewhere relatively new. I say relatively as the last time I came to Windsor was when I was about 3/4 years old? And my parents took me to Legoland. So 20 years later, I headed into the town to do a little bit of exploring.

We landed into Heathrow at 4pm and once I got to the hotel I changed quickly and took a train into central London to meet some of my friends for some dinner and drinks! We went to a place called Blues Kitchen in Shoreditch, which I really recommend! The food is wonderful, the atmosphere is amazing and it was packed out with people for after work drinks. At about 9pm a live blues band even came on. It was a wonderful evening, and when I got back to my hotel around 1am I felt very content.

Waking at 9am the next morning, I got dressed and took an Uber over to Windsor. It was only £6 each way and was much quicker than taking the bus and train. First stop was Starbucks, I was tired and craving a coffee and something to eat.

I also had a few errands to run whilst on UK turf but as soon as they were completed, I walked up towards Windsor Castle to have a venture inside.

Upon first glance I couldn’t believe how huge this place was! Windsor Castle is the oldest Castle in the UK that is still used for residential purposes, and our lovely Queen Elizabeth likes to use the castle on weekends and to host state visits.

Entrance to the castle was £21 which included an audio guide for you to learn all about the castle and it’s history as you wandered in and out the walls and halls.

It’s incredibly impressive with huge beautiful grounds inside, and my first place to visit was St George’s Chapel.

St George’s Chapel is where Meghan Markle is to marry Prince Harry in May 2018. As much as I LOVE a good royal wedding, I’m slightly disappointed that I missed out on the last eligible British Prince and my chance at being a princess…

Anyway! Sadly you can’t take pictures inside but I will try my hardest to describe to you what is probably going to be the most beautiful wedding. The chapel is stunning. It has incredibly high ceilings held high with gorgeous gothic architecture. The windows are coloured with intricate stained glass windows, that shine the light ever so slightly across the old wooden beams that stretch far and wide inside. The chapel was built in the 14th Century and just oozes history. There are numerous side rooms that include knights badges and crests with thick wooden high chairs and a gorgeous organ. I can only begin to imagine how magical Harry and Meghan’s wedding day is going to be here, and I was sat wondering as I took it all in, how on Earth I could bag myself an invite to the wedding?!

Moving on I wandered across the forecourt towards the estate. It was a gorgeously crisp winters day with the sun shining down, and it made the castle look even more magical.

I went inside to look at some of the rooms previous and current monarchies use, but again pictures weren’t allowed. The rooms were huge and incredibly decadent and filled with different historical pieces that have been used by royalty throughout time. You can see that no expense has been spared. Gorgeous golds and plush carpets were everywhere and grand oil paintings of the monarchs through time adorned the walls. There was so much to see here, and the audio guide filled you in on everything you could need to know. And if that wasn’t enough, numerous guides were scattered around to answer any further questions you may have.

I enjoyed strolling through the many rooms, and imagined all the grand banquets that must have been thrown within these walls.

Back outside I handed in my audio guide and exited the castle. I had decided to go and visit Eton College too with it being just a short walk across the river.

Eton College is an elite public boarding school for boys established in 1440 that has been home to royalty and many a well known individual such as Prince Harry and William, David Cameron and Eddie Redmayne. School fees here would set you back at just £38,730 a year, pocket change right? The school is set on the most beautiful grounds with the most gorgeous buildings. Imagine the grounds of Harry Potter and this might give you an idea of the grand scale of this school.

Sadly, it was closed to public access when I arrived but I was able to wander around the outskirt to get a feel of the place!

As there wasn’t actually much I could see here, I set back towards Windsor for lunch when suddenly it was class change over time. All the boys came out of every single door imaginable within the vicinity I was in. What I didn’t realise was that the school was spread across the village of Eton too, but they have a wonderfully British uniform of a tailcoat and pin stripe trousers with a bow tie. And within the space of a couple of minutes the chaos was over and there were only a few of us scattered around the streets again.

I chose to stop in Wagamamas for lunch before going back to the hotel to get ready for the flight back to Dubai.

A wonderful and different UK layover for myself. Non UK crew don’t realise how much the UK has to offer and seem to find themselves spending their 24 hours in Primark and Tesco. I’ll be sure to recommend this day out to crew on my future London Heathrow trips!

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