Warwick Castle

See my Tabblo>

I didn't intend to make a tabblo for this entry at first, however pressed for time, this is the fastest way I could think of to upload the plethora of pictures.

In the UK at the moment, many students have completed their studies and
are having their graduations.  This is also the time when many parents
are visiting . If you are thinking where to bring your parents then may
I suggest one; Warwick Castle.

As the name suggests, Warwick Castle lies in Warwick, in the Midlands. The price of admission at GBP 15 is indeed hefty, and may deter many. Despite being expensive, the visit was surprisingly well worth it.

This is because, not only is Warwick Castle beautiful and well preserved, there are many attractions and shows inside the castle itself, to make a complete medieval experience.

Among the attractions and shows inside the castle are:

• Archery - where a person demonstrates the art of using a medieval bow and arrow to hit targets.
• Falconry - a trainer and his majestic looking hawk doing various tricks, it was amazing.
• Wax mannequins sketching how the royal would live in a castle. The quality of the wax mannequins are akin to the ones in Madam Tussauds and looked extremely realistic. Enough to make the little one cry! The mannequins are scattered in many chambers around the castle and looking at the various scenarios were awe inspiring and educational.
  
• A rose garden, a green house with beautiful tropical plants
  
• A peacock garden
• An eagle barn - various hawks, eagles and vultures from around the world are shown here. They are beautiful creatures.
• Artillery - where an ancient real size catapult is shown to shoot metal balls.
  
• Exploring inside the castle, and the castle grounds. We climbed up to the tallest spire - and (this is a confession -- I'm afraid of heights!). A vomit and vertigo inducing, dizzying experience, but fun.

Many people were employed to masquerade as knights (on horses, with proper chain mail and swords), peasants, jesters and maids around the castle to provide an authentic medieval atmosphere, and they were extremely friendly. For example, a knight on a horse came and stopped near where we were enjoying icecream, and he allowed little children to touch the horse and kindly answered the childrens' questions no matter how silly.

Every single attraction above was interesting and we spent upwards of 6 hours at the place! Even then, we felt that we haven't fully explored all the grounds, fatigue being the limiting factor here.

In the tabblo above there are pictures of the castle, the castle grounds, the wax mannequins in their various rooms, and views inside and on top of the castle. All in all, Warwick Castle is a beautiful place, is very educational and therefore well worth the admission price. My only complaint is that there is a limited number of restaurants and the choice of meals are very limited.

Having said that, seeing Macdonalds or Starbucks in the castle would have desecrated the place.