Windsor Castle
Friday, 21st April 2006 by Alex Turnbull
Today is the Queen's 80th Birthday (her actual birthday, as opposed to her official birthday), which is being celebrated at Windsor Castle in Berkshire, England. It is the largest inhabited castle in the world and the oldest in continuous occupation - there's been a functioning castle here since around 1070.
Besides a giant Royal Standard flag being raised over Windsor Castle (presumably from the Round Tower?), today's events include a 41-gun royal salute in Hyde Park, and an extended royal walkabout! Er, great. You can see lots of people hanging around in the castle, maybe hoping to catch a glimpse of the Queen themselves I don't doubt.
There's a full history of the castle at Wikipedia, and also a page explaining why the Queen gets two birthdays...
As an aside, Jonathan Rawle says:
I noticed the new hi-res areas seem to be appearing on a county-by-county basis. You can clearly see the outline of West and South Yorkshire and Greater Manshester; Cambridgeshire; Berkshire; and south Wales minus Monmouthshire. So if you're looking for something in those areas, you're guaranteed a good shot!
Thanks to Tom, Tim and Jonathan Rawle.
Take a look at this long man-made stretch of water on the opposite side of Windsor: https://www.googlesightseeing.com/maps?p=883&c=0&t=k&hl=en&ll=51.493141,-0.662184&z=14 It’s presumably some sort of reservoir. It’s about 2km long (measured using the newly reinstated ruler!)
Jonathan, if you are lucky enough to go to Eton School, these are the kinds of facilities one might expect. Only the best for the princes. 😉
It is Eton’s personal rowing lake (?), only a handful of public schools have this facility. See the boats?: View Placemark
Then on the other side of Windsor you find Legoland: https://www.googlesightseeing.com/maps?p=883&c=0&t=k&hl=en&ll=51.463072,-0.649567&z=15
How many famous sights can you find in the picture? No need to bother going to other parts of the world with Google!
rob, you are spot on about the lake. Apparently it’s called Dorney Lake: http://www.dorneylake.com/
And it says, “The main Lake is 2,200 metres long”, so the Google maps scale is quite accurate! They have now added a “warm-up channel” alonside it too, which doesn’t appear in the Google photo.
One might also like to know that the boats are more likely to be skulls (2 blade per person) instead of the normal rowing boats, this being the norm in school racing (having partaken in some myself) with the boats in my link seeming to be Quads.
Im gonna stop talking now… and present- Boat Houses of the Public Schools! Radley- View Placemark Eton- View Placemark Cambridge University and Kings, Ely- View Placemark (Note cambs uni train here for astretch of river- see right upstream 😀 )
there will be more when I can find them…most of the great ones that I have been to are low res unfortunately. I didnt think I would find that little!
Cant believe you GSS boys missed this:
https://www.googlesightseeing.com/maps?p=883&c=0&t=k&hl=en&ll=51.46116,-0.610278&z=16
Any ideas? looks like a big car boot sale (i think our American friends call them rummage sales dont they?) but i cant see old Lizzy allowing such things in her back garden. They have horse trials in Windsor Great park but there doesnt seem to be much evidence of such. I know Prince Phillip is a big fan of Google Sightseeing so maybe he will tell us.
I think, cookie monster, that the name you’re looking for is “flea market” . But maybe I’m wrong and you think that area is something different than I think it is.
I dont think would be a car boot sale cos is all tents. It looks like maybe some sort of camp, im thinking, although this is a guess, a medievel reenactment festival or something, cos of the white poles in the middle, and the large(ish) crowds gathered around certain stands,