What happens when you put together a couple of parents who don’t speak English, a Windsor castle tour and a traditional British afternoon tea? A nice vlog on youTube, but also this quick vademecum on what to see and what to eat in Windsor!
When my parents came visiting us from Italy, we planned to have a nice and relaxing week hanging around Reading mostly. I mean, they came to spend some quality time with me and Franz, not to go here and there like pinballs checking the entire Berkshire and South England ;)
However, we also planned a full intense day out, like a proper tourist day. Among many destinations, we picked Windsor. Not only is Windsor a nice town, but its castle has always attracted my parents’ curiosity, especially my mother’s.
I visited the castle more than a decade ago, so I was happy to refresh my memory :)
Windsor is about 20 minutes from Reading by car, so the journey wasn’t long! We had a nice and hot day which made everything even better :)
If you don’t want to go ahead and read along, here’s a video I made that summarises what to see and what to eat in Windsor:
What to see in Windsor
If you think that Windsor is only about the castle, think again.
I didn’t recall at all the nice Alexandra park, and I was glad to discover it. It has a huge green meadow, many fountains located here and there, a mini golf that looked very promising (we didn’t try it though), and much more.
The park flanked part of the riverside, which was a very lovely stroll to take before and after visiting the castle. We walked along the east side before lunch, and the west side right after the castle visit and the afternoon tea (spoiler alert, see below).
The town centre resembles the typical English town centre: a couple of main broad streets with all the shops, pubs that smelled of good food, and a train station that was literally embedded within the shops! That was a bit unusual to me: you can see many shops and food places within stations, but not the other way around! Or at least, that’s the feeling I had at the station.
The castle should deserve a very long paragraph: it’s simply beautiful. Since it’s still in use by the Royal family, only a tiny part of it is open to visitation. When you get inside the castle walls, it seems like you’re in a tiny city.
Even though the apartments are very nice, the most gorgeous part for me was St. George’s chapel. It left me breathless. I felt like I needed another pair of eyes to catch everything that was sported inside.
Unfortunately I couldn’t take any pictures indoor as it was strictly forbidden, but we took plenty outside – check a out a selection of them!
What to eat in Windsor
As Windsor is a very popular tourist destination, it goes without saying that you won’t die of hunger in there, whatever diet or food regime you’re on. You don’t have to wonder about what to eat in Windsor too much before finding something that you can fancy.
Since my mother is a super Bill’s affectionate, we brought her there to have lunch, although we were really spoilt by choices.
After all that walking around the castle, we needed a food refill, so Franz and I thought of having my parents taste a traditional afternoon tea, something that could recall the British afternoon tea as close as possible. We opted for Brown’s bar and brasserie, and it did not disappoint. We had two huge trays with sweet and savoury canapés, mini sandwiches, cakes and pastries. We picked our tea flavours and enjoyed it thoroughly.
All in all, we had an amazing time in Windsor. There are many things to see, and the castle is worth every penny of the ticket. There’s also plenty of choices to eat, whether you fancy some pub food, or prefer a restaurant or international cuisine (whether it’s Italian, Asian, Indian etc).
My parents stayed at my place for a whole week, and we had a very nice time together. I also interviewed them, getting a different perspective about Italy, the UK and their “relationship”. I made a video about it as well that you can check out here.