London day trips, especially castles
 

Daughter and boyfriend in 20's taking a short trip to London on Memorial Day weekend. Boyfriend especially eager to visit a castle. What's an easy day trip? They are staying near Euston and St. Pancras stations, a location they chose in the belief that they'd have rail access to most anywhere they'd want to go. Suggestions?

Well from Paddington Station - just a bit west of Euston station you can take trains to England's most famous castle - Windsor Castle and Windsor the town is cute too - check out posh Eton and its famous college and playfields 'where wars in the past have been won' - see future prime ministers in the fancy quads you can look into. About a 30-minute train trip - you can of course tour Windsor Castle.

Well those stations basically service the north, they would need to us other stations for other areas...so whether that is convenient depends on what the want to see. I personally would prefer to be closer to the river.

There is a castle in London called the Tower of London http://www.hrp.org.uk/TowerOfLondon/ I think it is the best tourist site in London and not to miss.

Hampton Court Palace is an easy day trip from London http://www.hrp.org.uk/HamptonCourtPalace/ reachable from Waterloo train station south of the river.

Windsor Castle is also easily accessible from Waterloo station or Paddington http://www.windsor.gov.uk/things-to-...-castle-p43983

Also check out a good guide book. There are lots of options!

Www.walks.com does great guided day trips and other walks they may be interested in.

As castles and palaces goes I think Hampton Court is much more interesting than Windsor - the presentation here is oriented to visitors seeing the castle as it lived during King Henry VIII's heyday - the Tudor kitchens look like they are preparing a fest fit for a king - a very fat king.

There are folks in period costumes in various rooms playing music

The Great Vine is a grapevine propogated by Capability Brown when he designed the gardens (well think it were Brown)

The Maze in the garden is amazing

And the Thameside location romantic - stroll down to the Moseley Lock to see a real old-time lock being worked - a poub overlooking the river is famous for its gourmet pub grub (no not an oxymoron!)

Plus you can take a boat on the Thames here, either from central London or Kingston. I walked on the Thames Path the 3 miles of so from Kingston - a great walk if into that.

Windsor tours are much more typical and structured - well there are some royal jewels I believe but I think most folks will enjoy Hampton Court a lot more - read up on it and Henry VIII's machinations here and have history come alive.

One area of the palace is still allegedly haunted by a headline ex-wife of Henry!

https://www.google.com/search?q=hamp...=1600&bih=1075

Fish, barrel, shotgun.

From St. Pancras they can reach Dover Castle, which has a significant history (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dover_Castle). It's about 85 minutes by fast train. Not far away is Deal Castle, which is less a castle than a fortress erected by Henry VIII to protect England from the backlash against his . . . well, let's say foreign policy.

Hampton Court Palace is about 60-75 minutes from them when accounting for (1) Tube to Waterloo, (2) ticket purchase, (3) local train to Hampton Court. It's a great place to visit and subject to the 2for1 offers on www.daysoutguide.co.uk. Have them print a voucher and just by showing the train ticket and voucher, they'll get two admissions for single-admission price.

The Tower is in London.

Windsor is about 50 minutes or less from them by fast connection: Tube to Paddington, fast train to Slough, shuttle to Windsor.

There are far more (many many many more), but with just a weekend trip, they'll need to pick and choose.