Warwick Castle- Monday, July 29, 2013

Like yesterday, we started with breakfast at the food court in the rest area where our hotel was.  Then we headed to Warwick Castle.  When we were planning for this trip, we had already picked it as a possible stop when we read that Rick Steves listed it as the best castle in England.  It's one part historic site and one part renaissance faire/amusement park, which is fine.  The emphasis is on show and entertainment, not history, which is ok if that's what you're expecting.   Certainly the enormous historic castle, which was largely built in the 1300s but has a long and complicated history, is the perfect setting for something like this.  Admission is a little pricey, but we used the card we bought in Hastings for a 50% discount, and another family handed us an extra coupon which we used for a free adult admission too, so we kept the admission costs under control.  Our biggest complaint is that there are several attractions and games inside the gates that cost additional money.  We didn't decide to play or see any of them, and still had a full day, but they did seem to be looking for money every time we turned around.  

The first thing we did in the castle was climb the 530 steps that take you up in the towers and through the ramparts.  The nearby town of Warwick has a pretty gothic church many half-timbered homes, and so there is a nice view from the highest tower.  After that we found a seat by the river behind he castle to watch the firing of the trebuchet.  It is a kind of siege engine like a catapult, and it's design was said to date from the War of the Roses.  Volunteers walked inside large wheels which lifted the counterweight (which weighed several tons) and lowered the main arm.  When the arm was released we watched an 18 K stone sail several hundred yards. 

We had lunch there- penne pasta for the girls, and the largest roast beef sandwiches we've seen for Julie and Scott.  Then we watched the joust, a demonstration with four mounted knights-- two from the House of York and two from the House of Lancaster.  Many of the demonstrations seem to say they are set in the War of the Roses in this way, and the good guys are always from the House of Lancaster.  There were some legitimate displays of skill, such as trying to pick up a bag with a lance from horseback, to stab at flaming rings while riding by, and trying to ignite bags that burst with rather dramatic flames.  There were also pro-wrestling types of fights that the House of York would cheat in.  The whole demonstration was quite fun to watch, even when a brief rain shower threatened to interrupt the proceedings.

After exploring the castle and its vast grounds some more, we watched another demonstration called the "Warwick Warriors."  It began with a fight between the good-guy Lancastrians and the bad-guy Yorkists again with a swashbuckling fight.  Then, interestingly, the three duelists broke character to address the crowd about the many things that Hollywood and similar demonstrations get wrong.  They pointed out, for example, how useless metal shields are and how wood is much better to absorb the impact of sword blows.  They showed several things about real sword fights, while keeping the demonstration lively.  

Apparently there's a children's book series called "Horrible Histories," and they had five stations set up throughout and around the Castle today.   Each featured a different period and group of people- the "Vicious" Vikings, the "Stormin'" Normans, the "Measly" Middle Ages, the "Terrible" Tudors, and the "Vile" Victorians.  There would be facts at each one like, "Warwick Castle's defensive ditch was never filled with water, but filled with poo and wee from the castle's toilets!"  There were costumed characters at each one.  The Executioner at the Tudors, for example, recited a poem and told some jokes about working for Henry VIII, but we don't think he was making them up off the top of his head.  There were kids games to play at each one, and costumes to dress-up in.  The activities seemed targeted at kids slightly younger then our girls, but they could get quite in depth and it seemed like a great program.  Emma and Anna each had fun collecting a stamp at each site to turn in for a special certificate at the end.  In fact, when they completed their stamps, it seemed to signal that our day at Warwick Castle was done.  Everyone seemed satisfied and ready to go.  It was about 3:00.

Warwick is very near to Stratford-on-Avon, but at this point in the day, we didn't have the time or energy to do the whole Shakespeare thing.  We'll leave it for another trip.  Still, we were this close, so Scott insisted on getting a picture at the back of Anne Hathaway's cottage.  It's one of the buildings used as a model for the buildings at Epcot, plus he said he liked her as Catwoman in the last Batman movie.

Tonight, we're sleeping in Nottingham.