Practice English Speaking&Listening with: 119. Windsor Castle by Narrowboat! Royalty on the River Thames

Good morning

Good morning

and welcome to Windsor.

YAYY!

Home of Barbara.

[Laughs] No.

[Laughs]

We've been here a few days and we've,

we've loved it because it's a nice place,

it's very very busy.

Yes.

When you saw us last time we were just mooring up on the other field

just as you come into Windsor after the railway bridge on the left hand side

and nice place very very busy with tourists and people walking past,

but worse than that it's just so shallow

Yeah

and we were like that against the mud on the banking, it wasn't very nice.

Like that.

and because it's a very busy river with like double decker tourist boats,

and little yellow motorized boats and

rowing boats,

paddle boards

and the duck boat which we'll show you in a little while.

It was just, the boat was just banging against the side it wasn't a nice place.

So when the mooring lady came to ask for the mooring fee

and they're very keen here in Windsor just so you're aware.

We haven't even finished tying the ropes up [Laughs]

and we asked is there anywhere better and she pointed us here.

This is Bath's Island, it's a little Island, it's right opposite where we were

It's just a channel that links the kind of north and south end

and it beautiful, it's quiet.

No motorised boats allowed on this channel

Listen.

unless you're mooring.

It is half past 4 in the morning but listen.

[Laughs] No it's not.

We're right opposite the Sydney Camm Memorial which is just over there.

It's a full full size Hawker Hurricane,

jet? Airplane? I don't know, what do you call it?

Fighter plane.

Flying thing?

Fighter plane.

and it's stunning when the sun's on it on the morning.

It's stunning, just want to get in it,

fly off somewhere.

It's a replica.

Barnsley or somewhere like that.

I could pick somewhere better than Barnsley.

Today we're off again,

we're off to Runnymede.

It always reminds me of some like having the squits,

doesn't it?

[Laughs]

Runnymede.

Don't remind me.

It's not far it's about 7 or 8 miles away, a couple of hours cruise

and we're gonna get some water, I've got a load of washing to do

because I bought a couple of new t-shirts while we were here.

So prepare for spinny things later while we're trying to talk to camera.

[Laughing]

Hang on a minute,

where's Otis?

[Music playing]

The plan was to come about what about 500 yards?

Yes.

from where we were moored,

to a water point just by the road bridge.

When we got here we noticed a motor cruiser that had been marred here over night,

so Shaun very politely

asked him to just move on a little bit, which he did.

He did yes.

Then we found the water point was a bit of a faff.

Faff?

It's like a drinking water tap for the people who use the slipway,

but we managed to get there didn't we? It's a good job we've got a box full of accessories

to convert it and we've filled up, it's taken us about half an hour.

The reason we wanted to fill up is we want to do some washing

before we get to the next lock where we can fill up again, so we can keep the tank full.

Side note by the way,

that slipway is used by the, I don't know what they call it,

it's like a bus and a duck.

[Shaun] It's called Duck Tours.

[Colin] Is that what it is?

[Shaun] I think so.

[Colin] Basically you get on the bus in Windsor and it drives on the roads

down to the river here, drives down the slipway

straight into the river and then takes you up and down the river.

It's so cool and then it says because it just kind of comes out of the river again

and just drives out and and drives off.

It's amazing.

Weird.

[Laughs]

It's done my head in.

[Laughs]

[Music playing]

Do you miss the Peak Forest Canal?

If you could be there or here now, where would you be?

Peak Forest.

Yeah, I would.

Do you remember New Mills and we went to see that Torrs Hydro?

Yes.

the big reverse Archimedes Screw

and it's on the weir on the River Goyt

and the water coming down the weir is diverted through it

and it produces electricity, which the co-op in the town buys and uses.

Sustainable energy.

Yes.

Well, we're just coming up to Romney Lock in Windsor

and the weir has got two of exactly the same thing,

like a reverse Archimedes Screw

and it's exactly the same principle as the one in

New Mills, but there's two of them each one weighs 40 tons

and there's a cable from them, an 11,000 volt cable

and it goes underneath the river up the hill that way,

to Windsor Castle and it powers, its supplies Windsor Castle with electricity.

If it didn't, there's enough to generate power for 600 houses.

That's a lot isn't it.

That's a lot.

Windsor Castle is 600 hours as big though.

It is isn't it, yeah.

Or two items in my secret cupboard.

[Laughs]

[Music playing]

[Music fading]

The speed limit around here is 8 kilometers an hour,

Which we're doing, we we check it out on our little GPS speed checker don't we?

Yeah.

But the very intimidating big cruisers

like to push us along, this one's trying to overtake us

with the boat coming the other way,

It's quite a narrow channel.

and now he's having to slow down, which is quite funny to watch isn't it.

[Music playing]

On our right side, our starboard side

is Home Park, part of the Windsor Estate.

It's huge. it stretches all the way from as we come out of Windsor at Romney Lock

all the way down past a couple of bridges towards Albert Bridge which we're just approaching

and you would think by looking at it

that they're amazing mooring,

but it's actually a criminal offense.

No mooring, no landing, no nothing.

It borders Windsor Castle, it's a huge estate isn't it?

[Shaun] Yeah, absolutely massive.

[Colin] and you can see the castle most of the way around, it's huge.

It was built back in the 11th century to protect us from the Normans.

Do you remember the like spat between William Waller

and Charles the First?

I remember.

The battle of Cropredy, stuff like that.

I remember.

Well it all came to a head here, they actually caught him, they caught Charles the First.

After how long?

About 500 years?

and the slung him in Windsor Castle, they imprisoned him in winter castle but he escaped.

and when they caught him again, they sent into the Isle of Wight.

Yeah, try swimming off that one Charlie

[Laughing]

So Windsor Castle is the longest occupied palace in Europe.

The Queen still likes to come here for a weekend.

Yeah.

I prefer Brid, don't you?

Scarborough.

Yeah, you can get some nice chips, and waffles with cream on it.

Ooooh!

I bet you can't get that in Windsor Castle.

[Laughs]

[Music playing]

He's woke up.

He does really well, because he sleeps all the way through the night, like eight hours a night

and we get up in the morning, no mess, toilet training is going brilliantly isn't it?

as soon as we take him out, he does everything

and then he has a mad hour

after his breakfast and goes back to sleep for a couple of hours,

which is good for our early cruising.

But he's just woke up because it's his second feed time now.

He's hungry.

On our left hand side you notice that the river, weir bears off again

and it actually meanders for a couple of miles,

so they built this new cut to shorten the trip for boats and it takes us up to the next lock.

It's called Ham Island.

[Shaun] Ham Island?

[Colin] Do you fancy a ham and cheese sandwich?

[Shaun] Oooh Yes. Can we have that today.

and it's a bird sanctuary, well sewage works but a bird sanctuary sounds nicer doesn't it.

It does.

Is it time for your dinner?

It is.

Otis

give us a kiss.

[Music playing]

That was Old Windsor Lock,

so we're kind of out of the Windsor Estate now.

The little island is called Friary Island and there's some lovely houses on our port side.

Did you see that really nice one with the thatched,

the three thatched little conical, I nearly said comical,

conical roofs.

That little cottage with the three conical thatched roofs

belonged to a really famous english actress called

Beryl Reid

and she lived there for years and years and years

and she used to adopt stray cats

until she died, quite a few years ago, about 20 odd years ago I think she died

and I was trying to think what she was in and and I went on wikipedia and it's like hundreds of things.

Hundreds and hundreds of TV programs and movies

and she did a lot of comedy too, but yeah she lived in that lovely house.

[Music playing]

Between the busy towns of Windsor and Stains is the National Trust jewel of Runnymede.

Now property prices around here

are amongst the highest in the uk outside London

and the landscape around Coopers Hill and the water meadow is just stunning.

Nestled between the trees on the lower slopes of the hill is the Magna Carta Memorial.

Over 800 years ago King John

met with a group of Barons here and sealed the Magna Carta.

It's a document which is seen by many as the first step towards modern democracy as we know it.

It's still cited by politicians and campaigners today,

even though neither King John or the Barons stuck to the original one back in 1215.

[Music playing]

Further up the hill after climbing some pretty steep steps is the JFK memorial

It's set in an acre of land which was given to the United States by the Queen back in 1965.

The memorial itself is a seven ton block of Portland stone

and it commemorates the life of President John F Kennedy after his assassination.

[Music playing]

Up on the top of the hill is the Commonwealth Air Force's Memorial

and it's inscribed with the names of 20,456 men and women

of the allied air forces who lost their lives during the second world war.

[Music playing]

This whole estate is just really spiritual

and when I was walking back down to the bottom of the hill I found this place,

which it looks like one of the old pillbox lookouts from the second world war.

It's called the Writ in Water and it's quite a new art installation.

You can meditate, or just enjoy the peace and reflection in there.

When you walk in it's all dark but whichever way you go,

the corridor opens out into this central chamber

where the light comes in from above and there's a pool of water

which reflects a section of the Magna Carta.

It reads. No free man shall be seized or imprisoned

or stripped of his rights or possessions or outlawed or exiled or deprived of his

standing in any way.

Nor will we proceed with force against him or send others to do so except by the

lawful judgment of his equals or by the law of the land.

[Music playing]

One word you can't use to describe us

is predictable.

One minute we're in Windsor,

then a few minutes later we're in Runnymede.

Still sounds like something you need an anti-diaretic tablet for.

[Laughs]

and then the next minute we're in,

well in front of a blooming great palace.

Beautiful.

It is a really nice palace.

It's Hampton Court Palace, we're about 10 miles further downstream from Runnymede

but there's been no footage really, which is a bit weird

and there is an explanation.

It's been a bad week.

It has, he's had a bad week.

I had a bit of a downer to be honest,

so I've been taking a few days off

and we thought rather than all the work that goes into producing a vlog to go from

Runnymede to here, we'll just enjoy a chilled cruise.

I hope you don't mind that we left you behind.

[Laughs]

We did lay some buses on.

You're gonna have to run and catch up.

The other reason is that I do need a bit of a break because we have got something

humongous.

Well that's not really humongous is it, I've had bigger than that.

[Shaun gasps]

There's something humongous on it's way.

I'm not going to tell you much, I will give you one clue.

Double whammy.

Does that mean anything?

It does to me.

You do not want to miss

the double whammy

next week's episode. Honestly, set a reminder for 4 o'clock U.K. time

on YouTube, you do not want to miss it I promise you.

But that's it for this one.

Look at that, I think we need to go have a walk around that.

It's a right mooring, this.

We hope you've enjoyed this episode, if you have and you're not already,

please help the channel by subscribing, hit the subscribe button.

Then hit the thumbs up button and give the video a like

and if you hit the notification bell

YouTube will let you know every time we release a brand new video which is 4 o'clock

in the U.K every Friday.

Ohhh, do I need to keep saying that.

I need to change that a little bit don't I?

Well, they should know by now.

I think they should know by now.

You've been round our gaff enough to know that haven't you.

If you'd like to help support the channel,

it would be much appreciated, there's a join button on the homepage of our YouTube channel.

Or you can do it via Patreon, the link is

up above Shaun's head.

Otis is fast asleep by the way.

Yes he is, that's why he's not here.

We've just had a four and a half hour cruise, so he's fast asleep

and then when he wakes up he's gonna have his dinner.

A bit like you.

It is.

Take care of yourselves and we'll see you next week, bye-bye.

Ta-ra.

[Music playing]

It was built back in the 11th century to protect us from the Normans

Wisdom?

Well I thought let's see if we can have a laugh with the Normans and I only found one famous Norman.

Wisdom.

Apart from Norman Reedus who plays Daryl on Walking Dead and he's not that famous.

On our on

on our starboard side.

It was built back in the eight

Ooooh look, here he is again.

Another one speeding past us.

Really wanted to know that didn't you.

If Shaun budges this way a bit,

you can just see.

You'll sleep tonight knowing that.

I will.

this is only 89 20 21 22 23 24 25.

[Beeeep]

[Beeeep]

[Beeeep]

Errr, that weir by the way is by Lions Island

and

He's forgot.

There's no footage, there's no stories, no GoPro back folder,

no drone.

No.

I was waiting for that one to click.

[Music plays to the end]