We were never looking forward to the traveling part of this trip, since there were not a lot of options in getting there and it is a long way away. I used American Airline miles to get us free business class tickets between Europe and South Africa, and because of availability, we had to come in a day early. We left O’Hare at nearly 10 on Thursday night and arrived at London’s Heathrow 7-1/2 hours later at 11:30 Friday morning. We then had an 8-hour layover, so we left Heathrow and went to Windsor Castle before boarding our flight at 8pm to Cape Town.

Days 1&2—Traveling

On our flight to London in coach

In our taxi

Our first glimpses of the castle were primarily of the round tower. Of course, seeing one of the guards up close was kind of cool.

I had to send Dana a postcard

On our flight from London to Cape Town in business class: we had seats facing each other with a privacy screen between and the seats reclined flat

Jammin’ to my music and eating breakfast while seated comfortably backwards on the plane

During the tour of the State Apartments, we saw St. George’s Hall and the King’s Bed Chamber

St. George’s Chapel

The Middle Ward

After the castle tour, we walked around Windsor and had lunch at a restaurant recommended by our taxi driver, then walked down by the River Thames

9/15/11—9/28/11