Warwick Castle

One weekend left with the car, one more adventure, one more crazy jester hat for Abbey to try on, and another medieval castle to add to our list of: been there, done that's!

We woke saturday morning (the 16th) to beautiful sunny skies, despite the weather man predicting earlier in the week that it would be dark and grey. (not a bad 'guess' for english weather mind you, except the past ten days or so i'm pleased to report we've seen plenty of blue skies - makes for a crunchy frosted walk across the field on my way to work in the mornings). Seeing the blue skies - we were all go for visiting Warwick Castle, which is about ten minutes closer to Nottingham than Stratford upon Avon that we visited last weekend. Great day out - we were there wandering around from about 10.15 in the morning till 5pm in the afternoon, taking in all the displays, and all the vitamin D we could! Abbey seemed to enjoy it too and was only slightly scared by the knight that plucked her from her mother's grasp... or could it have been that her fright was caused by looking at what happens to her mother when fitted with a medieval knight's helmet! Anyway, she was sufficiently interested in what was going on around her to avoid her usual 2 hour midday nap, opting instead for an hour in the car on the way there and back, and only about 30-40 mins after lunch, while Mez and I strolled through the beautiful grounds.

What to say about Warwick. Historically there has been fortifications built there since a mound was built (with a fort on top) in 1080. It's possible there were fortifications there as early as 500 though. The majority of the stone work and the impressive towers you see and climb today are from the 14th century, the first built in 1350 by Thomas someone, the second finished off in 1395 by his son, also Thomas someone.

Basically the Castle was inhabited mostly by those loyal to the crown (in London, rather than the upstarts from York thattried to usurp the crown back in ??) They had the title of Earl of Warwick and the most famous of these Earls was also known as 'the kingmaker' for his diplomatic role in securing the Crown for Henry VI (who was apparrently a bit of a weak monarch!). Ultimately he quite enjoyed his reputation as 'the kingmaker' which is what led to his downfall (Pride as they say, goeth before a fall...) and in trying to secure the Kingship of another royal he was fatally wounded in Battle. Probably against more upstarts who were later quashed in a ruthless and bloody fashion (if my sense of British History serves me right!!!).

In 1979 the Castle was sold by the Earl of Warwick's family to the Tussaud's group and it's contents went to auction - most of it being also bought by the Tussaud's group to create the period furnishings that tourists now see. Evidently the castle's most famous recent inhabitant was a Victorian lady named Daisy someone who was something of a socialite and liked to entertain the Royals among her other esteemed friends. Ole' Winnie Churchill was also a guest as a young man. Really Interesting day out though - could easily have spent a few days digesting it all in greater detail and really taking time to admire the displays - we tended to skim a lot of the Wax work models and furnishings etc, but spent a bit of time admiring the gardens and the views from the towers and ramparts.

There were a few particular items that were quite amazing - The gigantic stone vase thingy came from Rome as a gift to the Earl of Warwick and is bloomin' old - it was originally stored in the castle courtyard but someone decided it was too valuable to keep outside so built a gigantic glasshouse in which to store it. It's not like you could just walk up to it and steal it anyway. Mez and i both tried and discovered it exceedingly heavy!! In that glasshouse was easily the warmest place we visited on the weekend and it is dedicated to tropical plants like the flower on the right. They even had a money tree! (i'd never seen a money tree before so this was quite exciting. Shame the money tree doesn't actually produce money though. Was glorious to wander around in the pleasant humidity and think of what will be our norm in just a couple of short months! The peacocks in the garden outside the glasshouse were also pretty cool, though none decided to show off his pretty feathers to us. Such is life.

This Solid marble table (the one with the statue on it) had the most incredibly intricately inlaid top, (which you can kinda see) made from all different colours of marble. Incredible craftsmenship when you consider how hard marble is and how crap the tools were that would have been used for the work... Notably I guess the one piece of furniture that I thought was especially striking was actually Italian! Actually that is a lie, there were some other quite cool serving dishes that sat on these pillars that had come from asia somewhere. Completely useless i'm sure, but looked damn cool. The queen was there, striking a pose, but we couldn't justify the five quid or so for a picture with a waxwork model so opted for the long range shot instead!

The other things i thought looked quite cool, were the AMAZING plastered ceilings. Incredibly ornate, and having had a dad that was a builder and that raved about such ceilings I think I could in some small way appreciate them. Very cool. I think i'd like to have silk on my walls too - gives a nice feel to the room. Loved the library too - I will surely have such a room in a house one day. If I ever own a house. Completely pretentious I realise, but for some strange reason I really like the thought of having a grand library. Especially if it's full of books i've read - something of a record of what's gone in I guess. I'd like to hope that there is some correlation (however small) with what goes in, coming out... which is my main purpose for reading most of what i read.

The castle sits on the edge of the Avon river (note beautiful decrepid old bridges which no longer span the river!) and as such the castle from the 18th century onwards was powered by its very own hydroelectric system. Hugely inefficient of course but pretty cool I thought. Also pretty cool was this eel trap thingy which kept the kitchen supplied with eel which was evidently a bit of a delicacy. Hmm not totally sure i would have enjoyed it as a regular dietary item, but would like to try it one day. I remember as a kid going eeling with my firends and brother and dad, and on one occasion we actually caught one big enough to fillet and eat. It got filleted, but then sat in the fridge cos no one was quite willing to cook and eat it. Another day i guess. Anyway the water wheel and engine room was pretty cool.

Abbey seemed to enjoy trying on the hats and making bear noises with the rather smiley (rather than fearsome looking) stuffed bear. As nice as he was, i don't think i'll have a taxidermist stuff me one of those - would much rather see them in the wild than with a wild expression in the tameness of a parlour! (not that I plan to have a parlour either!)

The Dungeon wasn't really worth the 20-30 steps down to it. Just a dark damp room. I'm sure it would have been horrible to live in such a place with your only water supply and waste disposal via a small gutter in the middle of the room. But I guess it's hard to imagine such a state when you live in the lap of luxury. Was vaguely interested in the cage thingy. Evidently this was a particularly cruel death - people were literally measured up for these things which were tailormade for them (or i guess blacksmith made) They were literally strung up in them and left till there was nothing left of them - A grim reminder to all who passed the place where they were hanging of why you shouldn't do bad stuff.

We also managed to come across these wee helmets in the kingmaker exhibition dedicated to a particular Earl (see above for story) . I guess that was one of the cooler things about the castle - the fact that you could interact with some of the exhibits and try stuff on. Oooo speaking of intereacting - they had this ghost walk thing called ghosts alive where they had actors throughout who you initially thought were waxworks until they jumped out at you. Somewhat disturbing... it told the story of one of the rich folk who was murdered by an ungrateful servant who later went on to kill himself after feeling somewhat remorseful for stabbing his master. Gutted. So to speak. Scary-ish though. Abbey wasn't allowed in either so Mez and i had to go through it separately which i think got Mez's heart rate up , and me putting on my best tough male impression.

There were also a couple of these leper type people wandering around - this woman was giving out free snog vouchers and seemed to be enjoying herself immensely! All in all a great day out - great atmosphere, and a great way to finish off our wee travel bits and pieces in the UK. Onwards now with only a few weeks to go in the UK... Hope you're well, whatever you're up to!