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Published: November 11th 2007
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Warwick Castle
This is my take on the Lonely Planet shot from the top tower. We’ve been fairly good at keeping everyone up date with our travels to Continental Europe, but we’ve been a little slack with posting stories of our travels within the UK - so here’s our West Midlands blog!
Three weeks ago Mark and Fiona, mates of ours from Newcastle, came to visit us. During their time here, Mark was keen to see a castle and with Warwick being just a short train ride away from Nottingham it was the clear winner!
On a sunny autumn morning we took some annual leave, scored a bargain group rail fare and headed off to Warwick. The train trip involved typical midlands scenery including views of some of the world’s oldest industrial cities and green patchwork countryside complete with plenty of black faced sheep (we call them Wallace and Gromit sheep).
We were fortunate enough to be visiting while the castle was hosting the world’s largest trebuchet (basically a great big catapult!). We watched as its counterweight was raised, a concrete projectile, medicine ball in size, attached to its firing arm, and then with a countdown from the crowd the great wooden contraption fired. As the counterweight plummeted, the catapult arm flung around
launching the concrete ball through a 150 m long, 70 m high arc. Straight out of Lord of the Rings (just minus the trolls…)
Inside the stone walls we found the main residence which had been decorated in precise detail to give the visitors an insight into what life would have been like to live in a castle 150 year ago. The Madame Tussauds wax figures completed the picture and we wandered around the house marvelling at the beautiful costumes, expensive rugs and period furniture. The grand hall was a highlight as it showcased all kinds of real knight armour and swords. There was even armour for horses and tiny ceremonial armour meant for a 6 year old!
The ghosts in the horror tower put on a great show and even made Lachlan jump a couple of times. After leaving the ghost tower we climbed down underneath the main guard tower to where the dungeon was as it would have been it medieval times. Damp, dark, and depressing.
One real highlight of the day was seeing Mark in his trebuchet debut- he had the chance to walk inside the wheel of the trebuchet to make if fire!
All in all, our Warwick Castle experience was exciting, scary, educational and interactive. We loved it!
On the way back to Nottingham, we went through Birmingham where we stopped for dinner. Our brief encounter with Birmingham, England’s second largest city, had left us hanging for more so we booked train tickets to return.
So on a clear Saturday morning two weeks after our Warwick trip we were again on a train heading west.
There are actually more canals in Birmingham than in Venice so once we arrived we headed straight for the marina, keen to find a canal boat ride to experience them first hand. They were originally used to transport coal from the mines in Wales to the heart of industrial England.
As we cruised around the canals we witnessed a testimony to Britain’s love affair with roundabouts - smack bang in the middle of a four ways in Birmingham’s canal system there sat a roundabout! Complete with signpost, flowerpots, and one big fat goose that was doing its best to eat what autumn flowers remained.
Needing a spot of culture, our next port of call was the city museum and art gallery where
Waxed royal
One of Madame Tussauds' lifelike historical wax figures we were most impressed by the architecture of the building as well as the art on display. Now to check out the shopping…
The main shopping centre in Birmingham is enormous. With a huge brass bull planted firmly out the front it retains its name, The Bullring, to remember what the market area was used for hundreds of years ago. Apparently during the medieval times a bull was tethered up and baited before slaughter to ‘make the meat tender’. Ironically we now know that it’s best to keep the cattle calm before slaughter. Poor medieval Brummies…they would have been better off leaving their bulls alone.
It was a great day out, but one day wasn’t long enough to pack it all in so we’ll definitely go back soon to check out the redeveloped Custard Factory, which is now a trendy restaurant and bar area, and Birmingham’s Industrial Museum. The later should be a real highlight as Birmingham was where Scotsman James Watt invented the steam engine - an invention that can be credited with the birth of the industrial revolution. All things for another day…
We hope you enjoyed reading about our West Midland experiences and we
Swings and roundabouts
Who would have thought!? promise to try to keep you updated on our domestic travels as well as our trips across the channel.
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