Windsor jubilee pageant

Saturday night we got to attend the Windsor Castle Diamond Jubilee Pageant! This is one of many events to commemorate the Queen's Diamond Jubilee this year, and hopefully not the only one we'll participate in. With the London 2012 Olympics and the Diamond Jubilee, this is an exciting time to be in the UK! Union jack flags are flying everywhere.

The pageant celebrated some of the locations around the world the Queen has visited during her reign. It was a great evening that also included performances by The Tenors and narration by Alan Titchmarsh and Angela Rippon. The following brief video shows a Haka dancer from New Zealand whom the audience loved because of the way he jiggled his bare cheeks to the rhythm of the songs (sorry, that part's not in the video). This is his bow upon leaving the stage.

In addition to New Zealand we like the performance from Africa (including some West End stars singing from The Lion King). We saw these performers before the show. That headdress is really something. 

The performers from the Indian subcontinent were colorful and beautiful, and we loved the dude who followed the dancers around and threw what looked like poppadoms in the air, cleaned them up again, then threw them in the air again. It was entertaining.

The performance from the USA had a western theme with this cute stagecoach and a very talented lasso group. 

By far the most impressive act, and one of the more impressive things we've seen in our lives, was the Russian performance. The horses were moving at their top speeds while riders did stunts like hanging upside-down from the side of the horse or climbing underneath the fast-moving horse. It was crazy-cool--we were totally wowed. It was too fast-moving to get photos and I didn't get videos of the really impressive stuff, but here's a video of something cool (though much slower-moving).

Windsor

My Aunt Nancy and Uncle Don are the family members who have most consistently promised to visit us in England, and we're super-excited they're here! They arrived this morning and haven't showed any signs of jet lag as we toured Windsor Castle today. I toured the castle before, but today was also Jacob's first visit to the Queen's other London residence. It's the largest inhabited castle in the world.

Windsor and Warwick

This week I went to 2 castles: Windsor (where Her Majesty the Queen still lives--it's one of her 3 primary residences, in addition to the many secondary ones) and Warwick (pronounced war-rick). Both trips I took with my friend Robyn and her family.

The day we went to Windsor Castle it rained torrentially, so I didn't take much time to photograph it. But it's absolutely magnificent! The castle was originally built by William the Conqueror back in the 11th Century. But the real highlight was the State Rooms, very poshly furnished and decorated. It must be nice to be the Queen!

The guards at Windsor (and all the royal residences) are super-cute in their big black fuzzy hats!

Warwick Castle was also originally built during the time of William the Conqueror in the 11th Century. Part of it also served as a very lavish residence of the Earls of Warwick. We also got to hear an interesting (and true) little ghost story told in the form of a haunted house--very spooky!

Other than a few little showers, it was a beautiful, sunny day. You can still see a few autumn colors and the glistening of the swelling Avon River in this photo from the top of one of the castle's towers--breathtaking.

(Jacob will be back this weekend to fill you in on the last of his Turkish adventures.)