Today we went to Warwick Castle. Warwick Castle is a medieval castle in the town of Warwickshire. The castle was built by William the Conqueror in 1068. It has obviously been standing for a very long time! The castle made it through wars and sieges. There is a moat circling the castle but it is empty. You have to cross a bride to make it into the castle and cross the moat. The castle was actually rebuilt because it was made of wood. It was basically the typical, stereotype castle. It had a moat, a dungeon where prisoners were chained to the wall, towers, a huge courtyard, a grand dining hall, there was a "fair lady" (I guess you could call her) that had an entire section of the castle for herself. They showed us Kings and Queens, battle armour, different weapons and even had people rein-act the lives of historical characters! The castle was surrounded by rolling hills and trees, not by Mcdonalds and gas stations.
It took us a while to get there, but Andie didn't throw up this time so that was much better! We couldn't find any where to park, so that was a problem, but eventually we found somewhere. We walked through a huge arch way to get into into the admissions for the castle. It was kind of wet, but it added a nice affect to the verdant walls. Admissions wasn't very interesting. Just waiting in line. Once we crossed the bridge into the courtyard, we first went to the towers. The towers were obviously very, very tall. The stairs were narrow, small, wet and the ceiling was low. We would climb, stop and look at the view, and start climbing again. We did that until we made it to the top. There were spaces in the wall so an archer could shoot during battle, and spaces in the floor so the towers wouldn't flood in case it rained.
We then went down to the dungeons. These weren't the real dungeons though, these were where the soldiers would have slept. It was kind of disturbing because they had people act it out. It was like an interactive play, set during the plague. When we got to the part where they talked about ripping the organs out and did an example on a very realistic dummy, I proceeded to pass out for a brief couple of seconds, wake up, and vomit. It was very dark, stuffy, claustrophobic and dank. I got out of the dungeons and just sat out. I missed the torture room (so unfortunate), and my mom, Andie and I just wandered around. We went to the dining hall were they were staging a party. The party was hosted by one of the countess', Daisy. They had people announce your name and show you around. People were dressed up and everything! It was very fun and realistic. After that me met up with Ben and my dad and just walked around the grounds. They had different interactive games, my dad even won a coconut!
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Going to Warwick Castle was amazing. It was kind of sad because of how commercialized it had become though. I'm not saying the were advertising things everywhere, but it was more like an amusement park. It was better than just walking around at looking at things, though. I thought it was kind of weird the way they did the real dungeon and the fake dungeon, though. The real dungeon was very small, and you read about how people would be chained to the wall or locked in cages to be attacked by crows or turkey vultures. I also didn't like throwing up in the fake dungeon. That wasn't very fun. Overall, it was a great experience. If you ever go to England, I would highly recommend going to Warwick Castle. It is an experience everybody would enjoy!
Today we went to the Royal Air Force Museum. The museum is dedicated to the history of aviation and the British Royal Air Force. In the museum, there are lots of amazing types of airplanes, some that are the only one of that kind left. The Vickers Wellingtons and Avro Lancaster S-Suger are one of two surviving planes of that kind in the world. Some of the sections in the museum are Milestones of Flight, that part of the museum has many of the first airplanes that were used in war. The Bomber Hall, obviously, has huge airplanes that were used for dropping bombs and warfare. Historic Hangars have some of the planes that most helped and made a difference in the war. The other three sections are The Grahame-White Factory, Battle of Britain Hall and a section that show's all different kinds of engines.
The museum was incredible. It may seem like it was just a museum with bombers and big airplanes, but it was also very historical. It talked about the war and everything that was going on in those wars. It was great being able to explore and sit in the cockpit. It was almost like being back in the war! The museum was a series of hangers. There were huge airplanes, there were small, compact airplanes. My dad, my mom, Andie, Ben and I went. There are many amazing sights to see in England, Royal Air Force museum is definitely a sight to see.
