Warwick Castle

October 24, 2009
Yesterday, we went to a famous castle called Warwick (pronounced War-Ick). It was built around 1066 CE (AD) and was abandoned and then renovated by a duke named Robert Dudley. Henry the 8th used it at some point as well, but never really lived there. My favorite part was being on the tallest front tower. You could see the entire village! It was not surprising that the archers used it to warn the castle. It was super windy and rainy when we went (English weather is very similar to Oregon) but it was still an amazing experience. The weather actually got nice in the late afternoon, and around 4:00, we went to my second favorite part, the trebuchet. it is the largest medieval siege weapon that is in the world today. Although it is not actually an original, it was an exact model. They even launched a fireball in the air for us! I definitely would recommend checking it out if you are ever in England, because it really gives you a feel for the history and how old England really is.

The Trebuchet (Trey-Boo-Shay)

This is where the moat used to be. There is a large ditch surrounding the entire castle that used to be filled with water.

This was used in the dungeons and was a form of torture. A person was hung in that thing and then left to rot inside it.... EW!

There were many rooms full of different manikins from the time of the duke. This was a room devoted to Henry the 8th and had all six of his wives as well

A boudoir for the ladies

This was a suit of armor. All of them were tiny! The men must have been very short! This is how it looks next to my 8 year old cousin.

 Here is the courtyard from the top of the tower. It took a ton of stairs to get there, but was worth it for the view. It was WINDY!

This is the view of the city below. All of the villages have their own cathedral.

This is the town we drove through to get home. It is called Stratford-upon-Avon (its on the Avon river) and is Shakespeare's home town. Beautiful place.


We stopped at a restaurant in Stratford called Strada. I had the BEST pasta in the world called Rigatoni speck e Gorgonzola. The ham on top was super thin and was northern smoked mountain ham. It had Gorgonzola and padano cheeses and garnished with rocket. It was extremely creamy (Probably because it had like three types of cheeses in the sauce that is under the pasta) and is making my mouth water right now just thinking about it. I couldn't order a dessert though because I stuffed the entire plate of pasta (the British say Pass-ta) down it was so amazing.

I took a video of the fireball being launched, but we had to trim it so I will add it later. Adios!