George and Laura Bush's tea with the queen

It is an honor accorded only one other president -- Ronald Reagan -- and it sort of sailed under the radar here.

But Sunday, on his last official trip to Europe, George W. Bush got to sip tea with Queen Elizabeth not at Buckingham Palace, where most heads of state eat crumpets, but at the royal family's country estate at Windsor Castle.

"It's difficult to overstate the massive scale of Windsor, which dates to Norman times and ranks as the oldest occupied castle in the world," wrote the Washington Post's Dan Eggen, in pool report for the White House press corps. "St. George's Hall and many around it appear nearly new because they are: a massive fire in 1992 gutted the hall and many of the state apartments; all was restored by 1997."

No word on why the queen favored Bush with the honor. But for those keeping score: Unlike Reagan, who spent the night at the castle, George and Laura Bush were ferried back to their Marine One helicopter for travel back to London at the end of their royal-treatment tea.

-- Johanna Neuman

Photo: Saul Loeb  AFP/Getty Images