Warwick Castle

Town Gate, Warwick Castle

Castle Entrance

Warwick Castle

Guard

Barb and I visited Warwick Castle today. We took the bus to Coventry, then switched buses to go to Warwick. Jan took the day off back at the B&B. What an amazing sight! It's hard to believe that anyone would build such a huge place for ANY reason. They've done a great job of presenting the castle fully furnished and decorated as it would have been "in the day"- from dungeon to state rooms. Even the smallest details- like the wood carvings on the walls was very beautiful. The first sight of the castle is pretty impressive- you walk around a corner of shrubbery and there it is- massive! It sits on the River Avon- but no moat is in evidence. I don't know if it ever had one. It doesn't appear like it now. Throughout the displays they dressed very realistic looking models in the clothes/ armor/ or tools of the period. It oftened seems like their eyes were looking at you. With the complexity of the armor it was very surprising how impressive even the armor for the horses was. Just across from the main buildings of the castle is a place called the "Mound." It is excavated dirt from a re-build of sorts that took place hundreds of years ago which was then incorporated into the castle wall.

Knight

Horse in Armor

Even the outbuildings have been restored- boat house, conservatory, gardens, Trebuchet, and mews.
During the afternoon an owl and a vulture were brought out to display the skills of a hunting bird. When the owl was sent off to a tree for his big finale, he decided to turn his back on the whole scene and ignore his handler- no reward for him.
Many of the small artifacts have been uncovered in archaeological digs around the castle thru many years of work- from the helmet below to tiny pieces of jewelry. We saw one beautiful tiny gold ring that had originally been painted with enamel colors- seemed like an odd treatment for a 24 carat gold piece. The outside grounds were all groomed within an inch of their life and full of many flowers and birds.

Helmet

Peacock in the garden

Exiting the grounds we had to take full advantage of the presence of the stocks with one final silly picture.