Yesterday it was one of our friends birthday. She is also from South Africa but have been living here in England with her husband for a while now. They took the day off work and invited us to spend it with them.
Since arriving we've been quite focused on finding jobs so I have not felt like I'm here on holiday. So it was really nice yesterday to go sight seeing and feel like tourists for a day. It was also so good to meet up again with our friends. We used to have regular BBQ's back in SA and we really missed spending time with them.
So yesterday morning these friends came to pick us up and we drove to Windsor Castle. We first had lunch at a pub and then went on a walk through the castle. You can get an audio guide for free which makes it really interesting. The guide gives sooo much information that occasionally you have to just switch it off to have a break from listening. But it was really interesting. I would advise you to take the earpiece offered with the audio guide. We didn't because we didn't think we'd have it stuck to our ear the whole time! My arm got tired holding it up!
We had all kinds of weather yesterday. It started out lovely and sunny. I got excited when I saw some shadows outside because that meant the sun was really out! Then on our way there it got cloudy and a but windy. When we came out the castle it was raining and even more windy.
I would definitely go there again and do it all again. And if it's a nice day I'd like to walk around more outside and see the town of Windsor. It was just too cold and rainy when we got out and it was getting late. You can spend quite a few hours in the castle.
It was amazing to see the inside of the castle and to imagine that it is still used today. I've been to a few castles in Europe but then the kings or who ever it belonged to died a long time ago and it is basically just a museum. Not this one. Unfortunately we weren't allowed to take pictures or video inside so you'll have to come and visit us and then well take you there!
We visited St George's Chapel and the State Apartments where the dining rooms and ball rooms etc are. We also saw Queen Mary's doll house which is like a miniature castle showing all the insides of the rooms with so much detail.
On the way back to the car we went past The Crooked House. You can't see it so clearly on the picture but this house is really crooked and to top is shifted to one side. It's leaning to your left as you're looking at the picture.
I fantastic day out!
Today it's back to organising and seeing what we still need to get done. I have decided to now actually keep my maiden name and not change everything to my married name. In a way I'm sad about this because initially I decided I will take my husband's surname. But in a way it's also nice to keep my own surname and not lose it as there aren't that many people with my surname. The reason behind this decision: I need to renew my German passport. It's expiring quite soon. And it's still on my maiden name so I planned to change it over when I renew it. (I should have done this before leaving SA but I didn't..)
I will probably need my passport to open a bank account so I don't want to have to wait to long for the passport. I will need it to change my SA driving license to a British one very soon too as this is also expiring in a few months. And if I change the name on my German passport I will also have to change my name on my South African passport. So I have decided it's all to complicated and much easier to just keep my surname as it is.
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