Berkhamsted Castle was first built as a motte-and-bailey castle in the late 11th century. Kept in royal hands, it was occupied by key figures of the Middle Ages, such as Thomas Becket, Richard, Earl of Cornwall, and the Black Prince. Much of its stone was plundered during the 16th century.

The lodge situated at the site of the castle dates from 1865.

• Information about the island can be found on my previous post.

After completing my Queen Elizabeth II memorial walking challenge; 96k (60 miles) by virtually walking from Sonning Common to London, I retraced my steps on the virtual route from London back to Windsor (just under 29 miles). I concluded my challenge with a ‘real’ walk along the 2.64 miles ‘Long Walk’ from the Windsor Castle Cambridge gate entrance to the Copper Horse statue of King George III.

We enjoyed the views and seeing the deer herd as we got closer to the large statue of King George III that is at the far end of the walk. I enjoyed the sense of achievement and reflected on Queen Elizabeth II as I took in the view from the elevated location before walking the pathway back to Windsor.

My medal didn’t arrive in time for it to be presented at the end of The LongWalk . When it arrived I had it presented in one of my favourite local places, Hodnet Hall Gardens which also has lovely tree lined walks.

All the proceeds of medal purchases were equally donated between selected Queen’s Animal Charities. I have made additional donations to two of them; RSPB and the Dogs Trust. I have also made a donation to The Queens Green Canopy which was an initiative to plant trees to mark the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee. The initiative has now been extended so that trees can be planted in memoriam to honour Her Majesty.

Bekonscot in Beaconsfield, Buckinghamshire, is the oldest original model village in the world.^[1][2][3] It portrays aspects of England mostly dating from the 1930s.

Bekonscot was first created in the 1920s by a Beaconsfield resident, Roland Callingham (1881–1961). Callingham, an accountant, developed the master plan for his miniature empire as an addition to his large back garden, drawing in help from his staff: the gardener, cook, maid and chauffeur. Together they developed the model landscape portraying rural England at the time. The swimming pool became the first “sea” and the undulating rockeries were built up as hills. Bassett-Lowke, the large-scale model railway manufacturers, were commissioned to build an extensive Gauge 1 railway network for the project.^[4] Callingham named the village Bekonscot after Beaconsfield and Ascot, where he had lived previously.

Bekonscot was not conceived as a commercial visitor attraction but as a plaything to entertain Callingham and his guests. It was only after 1930 that its existence became widely known, catching the imagination of the press and public alike. Frequent newsreels, such as Pathé, and international and national newspaper coverage, ensured a steady stream of visitors, all of whom were invited to make a donation to the Railway Benevolent Institution.

Mr C overslept which meant we were a little late for our breakfast timeslot. As the day evolved the reason for his oversleeping became apparent; he had come down with the lurgy overnight.

After breakfast we loaded our luggage into the car and drove to Bekonscot Model Village, a place that Mr C had wanted to visit for a long time due to seeing it signposted on his many journeys along the M40 The miniature village didn’t disappoint with its well crafted models, fine attention to detail and whimsical names. I learned that Queen Elizabeth II and her sister, Princess Margaret, loved to visit Bekonscot as children.

When we had finished the tour of the village it wasn’t quite time for lunch so we headed off to Berkhamsted to tick off another item on Mr C’s bucket list, Berkhamsted Castle which he had seen often as he travelled by train to London. By the time we arrived in the village it was time for lunch. We dropped lucky with the only parking space available being outside The Dower House Coffee where we both indulged in a slice of Lemon Fudge Cake that was delicious.

We had time to visit the delightful Parish Church of St Peter before moving our car nearer to the castle. Parking near to the castle proved more of a challenge. It was next to the railway station and most nearby parking was blocked by double yellow lines. It took a few circuits around the site of the castle before a suitable space presented itself.

The castle didn’t quite live up to the Romantic Ruin that was teased by those glimpses from the train, but Mr C was glad to have ticked it off his bucket list.

Whilst in Berkhamsted we picked up a ready meal from Waitrose before continuing on our journey homeward, stopping at the motorway services for a leg stretch and choosing to sit outside on the picnic benches with bottled water from the car rather than fight the chaotic options within.

We arrived home to find that a couple of family members had come down with the same lurgy as Mr C…

After breakfast we walked to Windsor Castle to pick up our pre-booked free-return visit tickets. We had a mini panic when we arrived at the desk. Mr C should have received a confirmation email with a booking reference to enable us to collect the tickets but this had not arrived. Thankfully the lady on the desk for pre-booked tickets was able to track our order down via the £2 fee that we had paid for making the booking on line in advance.

We chose to visit St Georges Chapel first as this was one of our main priorities to see because it wasn’t fully open on our previous visit. There was only a small queue which less than 5 minutes to enter the chapel. It was easy to enjoy the chapel and see its many features. We were able to pay our respects to Queen Elizabeth II as we passed the King George VI Memorial Chapel, her final resting place. It was humbling to see the newly marked ledger stone with both hers and Prince Philip’s inscriptions beneath those of her father, George VI, and mother, Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother. Now the family are together again resting in peace.

The sun shining through the stained glass windows lit the chapel in a spectacular way, the Quire was positively twinkling with light and energy, displaying all that was on offer. It was an uplifting experience leaving me with a sense of joy and wonder as I left the chapel.

Next we entered Windsor Castle and lingered in our favourite rooms. We were also able to enjoy the Castle view of The Long Walk and relive our experience of walking it the previous day.

We joined the queue for lunch in the Undercroft Café which was just as busy and chaotic as it was on our previous visit. But thankfully this time I didn’t have someone standing so close they were physically touching me. There was a lovely couple in front of us who we got chatting to as we waited to be able to pick up our chosen food options. The sandwich section was a bit thin on the ground (awaiting restocking) so we opted for cake instead.

After lunch we thought we might visit St George’s Chapel again but the queue had turned into a long winding snake with 40 minutes wait to enter the chapel. We decided to drive to Maidenhead instead in order to visit the Heritage Museum. When we arrived we found that it was closed on Mondays. Silly us for not checking the opening times! Not to be deterred we decided to return to Boulters Lock and Ray Mill Island which we enjoyed on our previous visit to Windsor. Approaching it from the the opposite direction we briefly found the wrong car park and had an altercation with a picnic table that had been placed in an unexpected area of the car park.

At the island I hinted that perhaps we might like to go to the café for an ice cream. Remembering how delicious it was on our previous visit, I chose wild cherry. Rays Mill Island was every bit as delightful as I remembered it. I had the privilege of seeing a Kingfisher sitting on a post, but he was gone in a flash of blue before I could even consider a photograph.

We returned to the hotel to find that our room had been serviced. We had been told that rooms were currently only being serviced on request and we hadn’t requested a service due to a poor experience on our previous visit.

Later we dined in Al Fassia, a Moroccan Restaurant.  The restaurant manager was very welcoming and after my first choice of dish was not available, helped us to choose our main courses. We shared the restaurant with a lovely group of ladies who it turned out were there for a birthday celebration; their lovely girly giggles were so joyful to hear.

We returned to the hotel via Wetherspoons. After we had settled in our chosen seat we had to move due to a large group choosing to sit on a small table next to us with one of the group placing his chair back leaning on Mr C and jostling him continually!  We headed back to the hotel the long way round because of a diversion due to roadworks.

For breakfast I chose the continental option. It was every bit as good as I remembered it from last time. Comfortably replete, we walked through Windsor to the Cambridge Gates (The Windsor Great Park entrance to the castle).

The weather was perfect for the the walk; it was so warm we didn’t need to wear coats. The walk is 2.64 miles long and we enjoyed the views and seeing the deer herd as we got closer to the large statue of King George III that is located at the far end of the walk. We enjoyed the sense of achievement and took in the view from the elevated location before walking the pathway in the opposite direction in time for lunch in Clarence Brasserie & tea room where I chose fishcake with a sweet chilli sauce.

After lunch I sat on a bench whilst Mr C went to look for a Moroccan restaurant we had booked for the Monday night. He was gone so long I began to wonder if he had got lost or forgotten about me. Whilst I was waiting two ladies decided to sit next to me on the bench even though there were several empty benches nearby. As they had crowded me out I moved up a bit to give myself more space only for the lady next to me to shuffle up close to me again! I decided to move to a nearby vacant bench which turned out to be in a nicer spot than the one I had vacated. Whilst there I was asked to take a photograph of family group who wanted their picture taken standing in front of Windsor Castle.

When Mr C eventually returned half an hour later we walked across the Windsor bridge to visit an antiquarian bookshop that Mr C had remembered from our previous visit to Eton. Next we retraced our steps across the bridge in search of a naughty cake before taking a leisurely boat trip along the Thames to Boveney Lock after which we returned to the hotel to freshen up before dinner.

We dined in The Ivy Royal Windsor Brasserie. The food was lovely (I chose fish and chips followed by mini chocolate truffles) and we had excellent service and plenty of friendly banter with the gentleman who was waiting on us.

We finished our evening in Wetherspoons for a final drink before it was time to turn in for the night.

Our return visit to Windsor took place a week later than we had originally planned. Our plan was to revisit Windsor Castle, in particular St George’s Hall and St George’s Chapel, which was not fully open on our previous visit. The castle had only reopened a few days before our planned visit date following the passing of Queen Elizabeth II so we thought it might be busy that weekend.

Our journey to Windsor was accompanied by sunshine and mostly ran smoothly apart from a congested portion on the M40 which because of the queues, led to us missing Cherwell Valley services for lunch. We stopped at Oxford Services where neither of us were enamored by the lunch options. Eventually I opted for a sandwich from Waitrose and Mr C chose a KFC burger.  Modern life with on screen food ordering really isn’t for me. I like to get up close to the counter and see what is on offer without having to scroll through screens. The place was heaving and we were glad to get away from it.

Due to it being Saturday we found the road into Windsor was congested. The congestion was particularly bad  when we arrived at the car park which is next to Windsor and Eton Riverside station. This was where our hotel has reserved spaces that are pre-bookable. Cars were parked all over the place making it difficult to manoeuvre in and out of the car park. I got out of the car to do a recce and established there were plenty of spaces in the hotel’s reserved spaces for which we had pre-booked a ticket for the duration of our stay. We  had to be patient and wait in the queue until we got to the appropriate section of the car park.

Safely parked we checked in at the hotel, then walked back to the car to collect our luggage. The car park was still chaotic and I had difficulty manoeuvring my wheeled case between the narrow spaces between both parked and moving cars. I breathed a sigh of relief as I left the car park and stepped into a side road to let a car exiting the car park pass by me. The car driver drove towards me so I decided to move further to one side but the car driver tried to park her car in the space where I was standing causing me to leap into the only space left for me which meant hastily lugging my wheeled case up a curb to get out of her way.

Luggage safely in the room we opted not to go on the Long Walk as originally planned because we didn’t think there was enough time to enjoy it properly. We opted for a walk along the river instead which involved ice cream and a drink before a leisurely stroll ‘there and back’ along the River Thames starting at Eton Bridge.

Once back at the hotel we claimed our free drink which we enjoyed at our leisure, sitting outside on the hotel terrace before freshening up for dinner. We dined in A la Russe where I chose halibut steak followed by lemon sorbet, oranges, amaretto, and amoretti biscuit crumbs.

The place was buzzing and the food was every bit a delicious as it had been on our previous visit there. After each course we were asked if we had enjoyed it to which Mr C quipped as his (empty) plate was taken away, ‘As you can see it was awful’. At the end of the evening after paying the bill we were offered a complimentary glass of Limoncello, it would have been rude not to accept the offer. When it arrived the proprietress told Mr C that ‘it would be awful’ and as we left (with a twinkle in her eye) she wished us ‘an awful weekend’. Much laughter was had by all.

Holiday diaries of my recent mini break in Windsor are coming soon. Watch this space…