Warwick Castle

Warwick Castle

The next day, we kind of got a late start because we didn't have anything planned and wasn't sure what we were doing. We had talked about doing either Warwick Castle or Blenheim Palace--a must see according to our guide book. But, we opted for Warwick Castle--and I have to say that we definitely made the best choice. This place was tons of fun. It was very touristy and almost like a theme park of sorts, but we all enjoyed it immensely. It closed at 6 and we got there around noon, so we didn't get to spend as much time as we would have liked. We still can't figure out why they close everything so darn early. Throughout the day at the castle, they have "shows" that they put on, whether it's sword fighting, jousting, a bird show... etc. So, when we got there they had two guys play acting and also educating about fighting back during medieval times. They talked about weapons and life back then. It was really entertaining. At the end, each guy was trying to convince us as to which weapon was better. One guy had a sword and the other had an axe. The first guy would say something about his sword and the second guy would reply back, "It's a big axe!" over and over. So when they started fighting, well... you can watch the video.

We got a kick out of that!

After that, we went into part of the castle that they had redone as it would've looked back in 1898. They had a tour of the place and they called the tour, "The Royal Weekend Party". This is a description of the tour:

"In 1898, Daisy, Countess of Warwick hosted a weekend party at which the principle guest was the Prince of Wales, later Edward VII. Once inside the former private apartments, you'll step back to a time of the most lavish and extravagant parties at Warwick Castle. Meet the beautiful Daisy, Countess of Warwick and her friends preparing for their weekend party."

They had hired the people at Madame Tussaud's Wax Museum to create characters to be displayed in here (and in other parts of the castle). They were so realistic looking! I was expecting one of them to jump out at me as I walked past! :)

After that, we walked through the great hall and state rooms and we saw Queen Elizabeth II; King Henry VIII and his six wives: Katharine of Aragon, Anne Boleyn, Jane Seymore, Anne of Cleves, Catherine Howard and Katherine Parr. Maggie liked the horses in the great hall.

Queen Elizabeth II

Henry VIII

Six wives of Henry VIII

Maggie and her Knight in shining armor!

After the great hall, we went to watch a jousting tournament. It was really neat--they had two guys fighting on each team. The side of York and the other side was Lancaster--from the War of the Roses. King Henry VI was there to rule over the jousting tournament. It was fun to watch!

After the jousting tournament, we got some lunch and then waited on a grassy hill to watch the next show. This one was the launch of the trebuchet. For those of you who don't know what a trebuchet is, I got this description off of the Warwick Castle website:

"Siege machines were developed in the 13th century to attack the solid Castle walls. As the defences of Castles improved so did the weapons of attack and siege machines were developed to attack the solid Castle walls. The trebuchet was the largest and most formidable of the siege machines and was, in essence, a huge catapult.
The trebuchet was used to fire huge projectiles to breach the Castle walls. Large rocks and stones were the main ammunition but there is evidence of more unusual material. Manure and dead animals were also hurled by the machines into the besieged Castle to spread disease - pigs were the animal of choice as they were thought to be more aerodynamic!"
See the world's largest trebuchet at Warwick Castle – weighing in at 22 tonnes and standing 18 metres tall, this massive machine will fire twice daily between 17th March - 26th October 2008.

Trebuchet

Close up of Trebuchet and Warwick Castle in background.

Lydia took this picture of us waiting for the show to start.

I think they said that it took 30 minutes to load the trebuchet and get it ready. They lowered the arm to load it by having men walk in the circle (kind of like hamsters do) which wound up a rope and pulled the arm down. Then they had to secure it in place and then load it and then were ready to fire it. For our show, they loaded it with a large rock that was supposed to be on fire, but I think the fire went out as it was flying through the air. It was pretty cool. The guide also said that in order to transport these things they had to be taken apart into various pieces and then reassembled there--it required a lot of work! But, they were effective!

After the trebuchet show, it was close to 6, so as we were leaving the castle, Garrett stopped to shoot a bow and arrow. I guess he used to do this as a scout.



This is us at the end of the day! What a fun time!