Last full day in London: Discovering my new fav castle & the importance of ‘rot days’
Hi everyone! Today was a great day, and a bit less crazy then the ones just gone. To think today doesn’t even mark a week away is wild and also mind boggling… I’m not starting uni until September. I don’t know how I’m going to survive another 2.5 months of an itinerary like the last 4 days (jk I’ll be fine).
But on that topic I’ve been thinking about, and seeing a lot of content about this on social media, ‘rot days’. It’s basically time set aside to do nothing (or very little). I think I’ve got a bit of a complex about doing nothing that I can’t perceive doing nothing as productive. But turns out it absolutely can be. And I inadvertently do it at home all the time. I’m definitely more of an introvert, and though I love being around people and socialising, I need my alone time to recharge more. Guaranteed if I’m in a bad mood it’s due to 1 of 3 things: I haven’t had some popcorn snack in a while, I haven’t had enough sleep, or I’ve been around people for too long. Often after work on a Saturday, or after I did meal-prep on Sundays I would spend a couple of hours holed up in my room. I would either paint my nails, do a lil face mask, or watch a movie. If it was a therapeutic activity that didn’t really require many braincells, it was perfect.
I’m starting to see how rot days can also be helpful whilst travelling. I think everyone would agree that travelling is a very extroverted activity; exploring new places, meeting new people, and learning, are all amazing and very exciting things I am privileged to get to do on a daily basis. It does, however, take a lot more energy and effort than anything I would be doing at home. And being introverted means my energy around people drains a lot faster when so much is going on. Staying with our family friends in London has been good at delaying the need for a rot day I think. They’re not people I feel I have to particularly ‘present’ for. If you mask a lot, you get it. I know I can relax, and they’re fine I’m here, I’m just hanging out like I would in my own home. So that’s been amazing. They also don’t mind if I do spend the night after dinner in my room just vegging out. But I can also recognise finding alone time has been really easy whilst in London. I expect my travel plans throughout August (hint hint I’ll be hostelling) will be harder to carve out that time to myself.
With how much I need that time, I need to remind myself that taking moments to be still and be ‘lazy’ are actually vitally important to stay in love with travelling. A burnt-out traveller is not someone who will enjoy their activities, or get anything from them. They will probably end up resenting the travel itself. I’ve seen many solo travellers on Tiktok experience this and end up wanting to cut their travels short simply because they’re not enjoying it anymore. Wearing yourself too thin is a very unsustainable way to travel, and because I don’t have the option to just return home when I’ve had enough, it’s something I need to keep aware of. Though I understand it’s important for me to rest, there is that little demon in the back of my mind which tells me I should be ‘making the most’ of the location I’m in. I often consider myself lazy and unproductive, like I’m wasting time or not being grateful for being able to travel extensively. Usually this feedback is something that those who haven’t travelled project onto backpackers. The honest truth is that travelling is tiring, and if you did the same amount of trains, social interactions and walking in your home city as you did overseas, no one would say a thing when you complained of being fatigued. It’s because travelling is put on such a high pedestal (and rightly so) many people close their minds to the fact that not all of travelling is sunshine and rainbows. And sometimes all you want to do ditch the baroque churches and watch some Netflix for a bit.
Anyway I’ll leave that little rant there, just something on my mind a lot the last couple of days.
Today was a wonderful day, and being our last day in London we thought it would be a good idea to keep the day free of pre-booked plans. We wanted to see if the Londoners we’re staying with had any local recommendations, or if they were free to do something with us. Both turned out to be true! Yesterday evening whilst walking around South Wharf, it was suggested we visit Windsor Castle today, which was a great idea and lovely to discover something a little out of central London. I also hadn’t considered going to Windsor Castle, so I didn’t have any expectations, just happy to go along with plans someone else had made for once!
We got going around 9am so we’d have some time to get a coffee and wander around before our admission to the Castle at 10:30am. It was only a half an hour drive from London so a very convenient day trip option. The town of Windsor itself was so cute, and boarded Eton by the Thames. We walked to Eton to find a cute café, and the coffee was very nice (a lovely surprise for UK coffee). With just enough time we walked back through Windsor to find the castle. It was easy enough to find: it towered over the whole place, right in the middle of town. We did have a bit of a situation right when we were going through security and the fire alarm went off, prompting the entire castle to be evacuated. I was a bit surprised about how serious the alarm (which ended up being a false alarm) was taken, until we were told about a major fire in 1992 where a portion of the original ceiling collapsed, and the Queen herself grabbed paintings off the walls in an attempt to save them. So maybe fair enough. It was not the best timing though, it had started convincingly raining, and we stood like sorry little rate huddled under an umbrella trying not to get soaked for probably 20 mins or so.
When we were let back in I was dismayed to learn absolutely no photography was allowed inside the castle at all (major sad face). Initially I didn’t seem to think anything of it. I assumed there wouldn’t be anything of note to photograph then. Unfortunately I was very wrong. I did manage to sneak in a selfie which I’ve included in today’s gallery, but it wasn’t really anything special. The first rooms we were able to explore were actually for Queen Mary’s Doll House, which again I assumed would be quite dull. Again, I was proved very wrong. It was a replica of her rooms within the castle, complete with copies of all the furniture, books, even cutlery in the kitchen. It was just insane! This is when I realised not being able to take photos would be at a bit of a detriment to my camera roll. And I would be correct.
After visiting Versailles, Buckingham and Kensington I really thought I’d seen my fair share of cool palaces and castles, but I reckon this one takes the cake of my favourite so far. Every room was so fully decked out, and though we opted to skip the audio guide, there was still enough info within the halls to get an idea of what was going on. The ceiling that could be just slightly glimpsed in the selfie was definitely my favourite of all the rooms and halls. It was easily 20m high, completely supported by timer in an apex kind of shape in the centre, covered with flags of different counties, honestly not too sure. It was unique to the other rooms which were with flat ceilings, often decked out in either paintings, or gold detailing. Honestly it was so cool, that trying to explain what it looked like would always fall flat. To put simply, if you’re in London and need a bit of a city break, Windsor Castle would be my top pick. The town of Windsor is also quaint, and though substantial, definitely has more of that classic British village kind of feeling.
On the drive back into London we stopped by Ascot to try to get a peak at the racecourse, which honestly was a bit lacklustre. For somewhere with so much history the grandstand seemed a bit too modern and sterile for that to make sense. But it was still cool to see, and we were in no rush to get back.
I’m writing this as dinner is cooking so I’ll go help in a second, it smells amazing!
Tomorrow we leave London mid-morning to head into northern England. Itinerary reveal: we’re spending the next week hiking 120km in the Lakes District! This area has been on my travel bucket list for several years now, so I’m really looking forward to it. I’m hoping to still post daily, although I’m not certain on the state of reception/wifi, so we’ll see how we go.
Exciting times ahead!
Currently MIA,
Lauren x
