Day 4 in England - Off to Warwick Castle!
Royce was our fearless navigator. He drove us in Matt and Morgan's Mini Cooper the 2.5 hours to Warwick Castle. Through every roundabout intersection, with oncoming traffic on the right. Left handed stick-shift and all. He was a rock star and kept us safe.
Warwick Castle is HUGE. It's so very neat to think that some of the original parts of the castle were formed in the 1000s, with some of the current structure that still stands being built in the 1400s before America was even discovered. Several fires happened through the years and there were major renovations through the 1700 and 1800s. None the less, the hill used as one of the first lookouts still stands and the age of all of the structures just amazes me.
This is an enormous buffet built over a 10 year span by a single oak tree. It was amazing. I though Royce and I were pretty crafty but sheesh, this is amazing.
Horse's armor...I can't even imagine them wearing this. And a formal dining room. Looks like the size of table I need in my house!
This is an actual Queen Anne Bed. Queen Anne was scheduled to stay at Warwick Castle so about a month ahead of her visit she had a bed sent for her stay. She never actually ended up staying at the castle, but seriously, can you imagine sending a bed ahead of your stay? Wow!
We watched a neat jousting reenactment as well. Complete with a heckling jester!
This place was so neat. There was beautiful room, followed by beautiful room, followed by beautiful room. And because of the age and purpose of the castle there were also hidden staircases everywhere, secret passageways for servants and for escaping, and of course dark areas for torture and for captivity. Wild animals included!
We walked every stairway and looked through the guards towers. It was just a fun, make-believe place to be, even though it was very real all the same. There was so much to do... you could honestly spend three days here watching all of the demonstrations and seeing all of the side shows.
We did go to the top of this tower shown below. It is the same one as seen in the picture below it. The picture on the right is a lookout tower where they had cannons and extra supplies for an attack.
The library had original books. There were many issues of The Times from the late 1800s. It was so neat! The second picture is of the library also. They had wax figures in there to represent the clothing, age, look of those who lived and visited the castle. Tough in pictures to tell who is real and who is wax.
Pictured below is the hill that was first formed in the 1000s.
The last stop of the Castle was doing the Dungeon Tour. It was SO FUN! It was not for the weak-stomached or easily scared. You could think of it as an entertaining haunted house. We first visited the castle cook, who was in charge of dissecting the latest victim of the plague, as he was supposed to see if he could find out the real cause or effect of the plague by what happens to the body. He was sickly himself, and rather enjoyed ripping into the dead body on the table. We next moved to a torture chamber where there were still many tools any gadgets in the room and we got a demonstration on how they were used. We then proceeded to a trial room, where I was ordered to take the stand as I was being tried for "running about the public square while naked and showing all of my wobbly bits.". Luckily I was let off by reason of insanity. As the crowd was ordered to BOOO me I'm quite confidant Royce's Booooos were the loudest. You never knew when someone was going to jump out in front of you, if your seat was going to be jerked in a different direction, or if you would see any remnants left in the torture chambers. It was an entertaining end to the day.
We left the castle, very tired, but decided to take advantage of Stratford Upon Avon only being 15 minutes away. This is the birthplace of Shakespeare. It is a beautiful little town (Stratford) sitting on a river (Avon)...... thus.... Stratford Upon Avon.
Royce drove us safely back to Bury St. Edmunds where Matt was waiting up for us with a fresh batch of homemade ice cream. Morgan had to fly this night. God Bless Them for their service.
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Day 5 -- Staying home!
Our lovely hostest with the mostest knew that we would be exhausted at this point so Morgan scheduled a local day for us. We walked their little downtown market, both stores and street vendors, and had a proper breakfast. I can handle baked beans in the morning but they can keep their blood pudding. We put a dent in our souvenir shopping and really enjoyed the day.
Royce even had a drink in The Nutshell. This pub started in 1867 and is 15' x 7' in size. It was a fun little stop and we are glad we have been in Britain's Smallest Pub!
Matt flew this night so Morgan made tacos for us at their home. Speaking of their home....
Pictures of the front and back. They have off-street parking. Morgan's Ford Escape is shown and Matt is a champ and moves it every night he gets home last and parks the Mini Cooper in the closest spot before pulling the Escape back into place. What a guy! Not only that he does it but that it's a crazy parking maneuver!
Their staircases are all stacked in one stairway except for the third to fourth floor staircase. And they have 12' ceilings on each floor. The crown molding is beautiful, along with everything else. They have two rooms per floor and the fourth floor is a big studio.
Our window on the second floor looked over a school playground. We could hear the kids playing each morning. By day five we even missed our kids a bit.
While Morgan and I enjoyed a beautiful walk in countryside this evening Royce enjoyed two more pubs. His final pub in England was called The Mason's Arm.
Good-bye England -- train ride to Scotland is next!
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