Wandering Around Warwick Castle

Hello everyone!

As most of you know, we just got back from out trip across the pond to England.  It was a great experience for everyone.  We all got to do a bunch of stuff we all wanted to do.  We got to see some great museums in Liverpool, visit a castle, meet Thomas and his friends, see both a rugby and soccer game, and spend some great quality time with family.  The weather held out nearly the entire trip, raining only on the last 2 days.  Luckily, it was warm and we were able to avoid most of the rain, as it only came in small spurts.  The beer was great and abundant.  I tasted a bunch of different ones, but was convinced that John Smith's was the best.  Even the fish and chips were tasty (we had that 3 or 4 times).  I never got around to eating a pastie (a calzone-like pocket with meat and sometimes potatoes inside), so I'll have to get one on our next trip down the road.

I took more than 375 pictures.  Obviously, I can't post all of them, so I'll have to post the highlights in batches.  Here's the first batch:  Our trip to Warwick Castle.  What a great place!!!  We spent the entire day there and probably could have spent another few hours checking things out.  They had a princess (and knight) dress-up activities, the sword in the stone, tours of midevil English history, torture chamber, jousting and fighting displays (they didn't have any when we were there), and archery/trebuche shooting (we missed the trebuche demonstration though).  I'd definitely go back.  I hope you can enjoy some of our pictures and videos to get a taste of what we experienced.

Stay tuned for more postings of our other adventures!

Love,

Doug, Jess, and Shea

Warwick Castle includes fortifications that date back to the 11th century, but most of it dates from the 1300s.

If you look closely, you can see the 30' deep and ~60' wide ditch surrounding the castle.  It was pretty impressive at first sight.

These were the towers surrounding one of the gates barely visible at the bottom-center.

Here's the portcullis (main entrance) to the castle that goes over the gully mentioned above.  The entrance leads into a ~80' tunnel before you get into the courtyard.  Behind this is another tower much higher (see picture below). 

Here is looking up at some more of the walled fortifications from the courtyard.

Here's a view of the courtyard and main residence part of the castle from atop the hill in the picture above.  You can see the back of the portcullis at the far left of the picture.  

View of the side gate from atop the righhand tower in the first picture.  The tower dates to 1350.  You need to walk up 535 or so steps to access the 3 main towers of the castle, often climbing up steep spiral staircases not much wider than my shoulders.  It was harrowing, but well worth the efforts for the amazing views!

Here's a view of the portcullis from the same tower.  Note the higher tower behind the first entrance and bridge over the gully mentioned above, with the town of Warwick in the background.  What a view!

Here's a view of the boathouse along the Warwick River that runs along one side of the castle.

Here's the back side of the main residences that borders the river that turns a mill connected to the castle.

Here's Shea, Paka, and I in front of a real working trebuche.  Unfortunately, we missed a demonstration of this, but I could only imagine how impressive it must be to witness - note the man-sized hamster wheels used to crank down the catapult arm.

Here's another instrument of warfare, a balista.  Shea wanted to fire it at the castle. 

Shea next tried to steal a sword he saw sticking out of a stone.

It wouldn't budge and he got caught trying to steal it.

The authorities threw him and his accomplice in the stocks for his attempted larceny.

They released him under his own cognizance, but were forced to put all armaments up on the wall so he couldn't steal them.

A knight stood guard at some within arm's reach though.

A mounted knight stood guard just the same.  Is it me, or is the horse's eye REALLY creepy here.  I'd hate to stumble across this in the dark!

A ghost also prowled the great hall to ensure nothing was misplaced...just for added measure.

As if all that wasn't creepy enough, since the castle is run by Madam Tusseau's, they felt the need to include really lifelike statues throughout the castle illustrating activities in preparation for battle.

Here the Earl of Warwick rallies his forces just before dying in the decisive battle nearby.

Here's a clip of Knight Shea Shea defending the realm from evil forces.