Day trip to (Old) York

Hiya Readers,
I treated myself to a rare midday movie this week, The Sweeney.  It is a British movie based on 1970's cop show of the same name starring the well known Brit actor John Thaw.  The Sweeney is a slang term for Scotland Yard's Robbery and Violent Crimes division based off of the nickname "The Flying Squad".  Pretty confusing huh?  I would explain more but it would get more confusing explaining "The Flying Squad" so I'll just include a Wiki link for the 70's TV show and for the movie another Wiki link.  Concisely put it is an action cop movie set in London.  I wanted to watch it to see if I would understand the Brit slang and cultural references plus Rotten Tomatoes gave it a fresh (good) rating.  (Rotten Tomatoes is a movie rating site for the uninformed.)  Overall the movie was pretty good although there were a couple spots that didn't seem plausible to me.  I understood all of the slang and other references although I have to admit I would have been pretty confused if I saw the movie without having lived over here for almost a year.  A bonus of the movie was seeing the excellent British actor Damian Lewis (Wiki link), who was also in Band of Brothers (played Major Dick Winters) and Homeland (playing US Marine Sergeant Brody).  This is the first movie/show I have seen him in with a British accent which was interesting since he is British.  Overall it was a nice break from my busy retiree lifestyle.     

Saturday was mid 60's and sunny which may be the last time for the year so we decided to drive up to (Old) York.  The temperatures are falling into the 50's now so a mid 60/mostly sunny/Saturday combination may not happen again until spring.  My weather fears were confirmed by the chillingly brisk wind in the evening at York so I am glad we checked it out now.  I forget the exact details but I read somewhere that York is one of the six or eight major Roman cities that have significant structural or archaeological ties to Roman times.  The others I remember were London, Bath, and Chester.  The city history was great - The Shambles date to 1400, the City Walls date to 1200's, some Wall structures date to First Century, the York Minster site dates to 600's, there are various Roman and Viking excavations around, it goes on and on.  The sights were worthwhile but this was one of those days where almost nothing went right for us.  The morning and drive up went well but it all started to crumble shortly upon arrival.

First up was the York City Walls (link).  The main wall sections date to 1226 although there were fortifications along/by the walls that date back to the Romans in the First Century.  The walls are over three miles long so we opted not to walk all of them.  What we did walk was amazing when I stopped to consider the sturdy construction and when they were built. 

 

Wall section showing a defence column and earten base support. 

 

Wall construction picture.  The day's plan is still looking good.

 

 

The York Minster in the distance.  York is mainly known for the Minster and the City Walls and they were both impressive.

 

Now that we've finished the walls and are at the Minster our day starts avalanching downhill.  Thanks to our impeccable timing we stumbled upon The Bishop of Beverly addressing a large clergy gathering in the Minster which closed the Minster for half of the day.  Also in York this weekend was an Armed Forces memorial/gathering/parade of some sort and a Food & Drink Festival which crowded the streets and businesses with people.  Yeah for jam packed streets!  To top it off Lori and I had a disagreement which dampened the mood for some of the afternoon.  What a day. 

 

Mulberry Hall from 1434.

 

Not sure who she is but I saw her on a postcard so she must be famous.  No her name is not High Petergate.

 

Next up was The Shambles (link), a famous street that was voted Most Picturesque in Britain 2010.  It is full of crookedly built shops and was as picturesque as advertised.  I think this may have been my favourite part of York.

 

Info plaque.

 

Looking down The Shambles.

 

How can you not love this street?

 

Off of The Shambles is The Golden Fleece (see the dangling sheep?) sandwiched between two character filled buildings.  The Golden Fleece is York's most haunted pub and is also York's oldest inn dating to 1503.  Since it is a pub we didn't try it.  For lunch we did try The House of the Trembling Madness but it was another pub so I failed again on lunch.  We ended eating at a forgettable place.

 

Since we were only in York for a day we missed a lot of the recommended attractions due to time constraints.  We missed any of the numerous ghost walks, the National Railway Museum, numerous Viking sites/exhibits, the Castle Museum & Prison, the Dungeon, and many more.  We also skipped a few houses/halls that were either English Heritage or National Trust sites since I forgot the memberships cards at home and wasn't sure if the places would be worth the time to visit and/or cost of admission.  <Sigh>  Just one of those days.

 

The Guy Fawkes Inn - supposedly the place where Guy was born (before the site was an inn of course).  Guy was one of the Parliament bombers and was mentioned in one of my first posts from Tutbury Castle (Guy Fawkes night blog entry).  Yup England celebrates a failed bombing attempt by shutting down businesses for the day and shooting fireworks off at night.  Am I the only who finds it strange that they celebrate the failed attempt by doing exactly what the bomber was trying to do?

 

Hall info board.  It was closed down for a private function.  Yup the luck continues.

 

Hall from placard above.

 

Plaque in front of Clifford's Tower.  This reminded the kids of Masada on our Israel trip - they are learning on our travels!  YEAH!!!! 

 

Clifford's Tower, completed in 1265 AD by King Henry III.  Another fail with me forgetting our English Heritage and National Trust cards.

 

After lunch we strolled York for a while waiting for Bishop Beverly to finish his long winded sermon.  We didn't have time to visit a larger/longer exhibition as it was mid afternoon now so we stopped at Valhalla which covered some of the Viking excavation finds in York.  Short and somewhat interesting. 

 

Info board about York during the Viking times.  The Vikings called York Jorvik.

 

The female skeleton 49 carbon dated to 870-980 AD.

 

Interesting info board.

 

Remember above when I said there was a few extra people in town this weekend?  We were told that we had to try this place but the five or six times we passed it the line was out the door.  Brilliant!   

 

Windy the Bishop is finally done so we split up.  I went to the Minster (link) while Lori and the kids went to a chocolate making class at the York Cocoa House (link).  The kids are done with cathedrals so they opted for the chocolate experience.  I wanted to see it since it is rated as one of the best in Britain.  It's website claims it is the largest Gothic cathedral in northern Europe which could be true because it is a huge cathedral.  From its website and pamphlets:  The site dates to 71 AD when the Romans constructed the headquarters of their legionary fortress here.  The first Minster is built in 627 AD for the baptism of Edwin, King of Northumbria, but the exact site is unknown.  The existing structure building started in 1220 AD and was completed in 1465 AD.

Standing in line outside the West End.

 

Interesting pictoral display of the cathedral's histroty.

 

The Five Sisters Window was completed in 1250 AD, this is in the North Transept.

 

Not sure what clock this is but it chimed while I was in there.

 

Chapter House built in 1270's & 80's.  Most of the windows in here were the original windows.

 

For the picture below.

 

For the picture above. 

 

And introducing a new feature - the Auntie "B" Word of the Week.  Iconoclasts is an easy one for you this week Auntie "B".  I'll try and do better next week.

 

Token stained glass window pic.

 

Stained glass close up.

 

Stone work close up.  The guy is wrestling/riding a mythical lion beast in the middle.  On the right is a blindfolded woman and a gazing man lost in thought.  Under them is a leaf ensemble.  On the left is a lizard crawling on a man's head and bandaged faced woman.  Under them are some dancing birds and more leaves.  These surrounded the room as you see two pictures above. 

 

Another stained glass figure holding a sword.  Maybe there are more swords in cathedral windows than I thought but just haven't noticed them.

 

The biblical King David.

 

Prince William of Hatfield, son of King Edward III and Queen Phillipa.  Died in the 1300's.

 

Another colourful stained glass window pic.

 

Tomb of Walter de Gray, Archbishop from 1215-1255 AD.  According to Wiki he was made Archbishop in 1215 and ordered a Gothic style cathedral comparable to Canterbury built.  Viola - we in it.

 

The omnipresent William the Conqueror.

 

The heroic King Richard the Lionheart on left, the scoundrel King John on right.  It was during John's reign that the English Lords drew up the Magna Carta which became the basis for many government documents including our Declaration of Independence (some of you may remember that from my Lincoln post last December).  Looks like John is about to whack him with his sword.

 

A screen of the English Kings who ruled during the cathedral construction.  The screen closes off the quire from the rest of the cathedral.  To make the day even worse there was quior practice in there so the quire was closed off.  York is trying really hard to be unlikable.

 

The (round) Rose Window on top, from about 1500 AD, in the South Transept.

 

View down the Nave.  Yes it is indeed a massive cathedral.

 

Another stained glass window pic, this one has a heart design at the top of the window.

 

The chocolate class ended early so Lori and the kids made it to the Minster for a cursory glance before it closed and they kicked everyone out.  The class ended up being a hit and the best part was the huge chocolate bar each person made and kept.  By huge I mean an inch thick by four inches wide by six inches long.  Kalle spotted the place and wanted to try the class.  Karl was presented with an option of Minster or class and he chose class.  Lori was the considerate parent who went along for the ride.  The Grinch chose the Minster.

 

The kids and Lori picking up their chocolate bars.

 

A final Minster shot on our way out of town.  It is so big and the surrounding buildings so close I couldn't take a decent outside cathedral pic.

 

The outside view of one of the gates along the City Walls.  Looking pretty good for being a thousand years old.

 

And the best part of the week?  FOOTBALL BABY!  For a Jeff Seppanen sports update we had a Sling Adaptor installed at the in-laws last year to watch US TV but after a lot of problems I just gave up on it.  So this summer the provider swapped out the Sling Adaptor receiver (after a little back and forth) and so far we have been able to watch US TV.  Fast forward to Saturday night and I was able to watch college football and Nascar.  On Sunday night I watched NFL with Steve and Todd.  Todd is our new US neighbour who works at Rolls and was just happy to be able to watch a game like me.  Steve was lucky enough to watch his boy Luck lead the Colts to a late victory although there were a few tense minutes as the Colts almost collapsed in the fourth quarter.  The only negative of the night was this week's "Dan Stine extreme self restraint in the face of surmounting adversity moment of the week" - the number of commercials while watching US TV.  The football games and race had commercials every ten minutes it seemed.  Brit TV has commercials every half an hour typically and their football games only have commercials at half time.  C'mon America, you can do better.

Finally a Carol Seppanen book update.  I breezed through The Silent Army by James Knapp, 372 pages.  It was as hard to put down as the first book so now all I have left is the conclusion of the trilogy.  But before I get there I will read The Castle by Franz Kafka.  Hopefully I will have a status report on the Kafka book next week as well as a school update from the kids.

Thanks for listening,
Jay

School Pics and Facial Hair

Hello Readers,
This will be a rare short post as this weekend was a scheduled non-activity weekend to allow everyone to sleep in and relax after our summer of travelling and the kids first week of school.  Tough weekend to stay home as it was 70+ F and sunny both days but we also need to recharge our internal batteries.

The Better Halves Club met last week at Blenheim House (link) in Etwall, a small village just west of Derby.  We had 4 members plus 2 half members show up.  One member cancelled due to a child's illness and Laverne and Shirley were out of town.  Sarah A's parting gift to the BHC was naming two of our members Laverne and Shirley because they act just like them.  I laughed so hard when Sarah said that, it just fits them.  It's all in fun, we call them Laverne and Shirley and they have even taken to signing their emails with their new names.  Too funny.  For lunch I had a fish and veg dish that was very good.  

The kids started school this week.  I don't have their schedules yet so I will cover their classes next week for the teachers and other curious folk in the audience. 

Super excited Kalle's first day.  She's in Year 6 or 5th Grade at home.

 

Happy go lucky Karl's first day in his smart uniform.  He's in Year 9 or 8th Grade at home.

 

 

And the Facial Hair of the Month winner is the Colonel Sanders!  The KFC Colonel (Wiki link) was born this month in 1890 in Henryville, Indiana.  In case you are wondering no I didn't know this fact, I am now starting to look up famous facial haired people for some of the months since all of the low hanging bearded fruit has been picked in the last twelve months.  Poor Lori didn't like most of the facial hairs (and there's another red mark on Aunt Joanie's monitor) so far so she's really not going to like the remaining months as I search for new styles. 

The somber Colonel sharing some sagely woodland advice.

 

 

One good thing about the Colonel is he delivered on my birthday cake while Uncle Sam and Vegas Elvis both epically failed on their attempts. Yeah cake!     

 

On Friday night we had dinner with one of Lori's Teledyne days co-workers.  Chuck was in London for business and after a chance email reconnection he modified his plans to check out Derby and see us.  A nice Italian dinner at the European Bistro with good company was a fun way to end the work week.  After dinner we walked around the city and showed Chuck some of the 16/1700's era buildings.

Finally another Carol Seppanen book update.  I finished The Jewish War by Josephus, 511 pages (Amazon link) .  It was a plodding read as Josephus wasn't a natural writer and at times contradicted himself which was mildly confusing.  For those that missed my Israel post, this is the book recommended to us by our tour guide.  Per our guide this book is the only first and/or second hand account of Jewish wars and life from a couple hundred years BC to about one hundred AD.  Because of this the Jews are grateful to Josephus for recording the history but on the other hand the writing is very self serving for Josephus so you have to take it with a grain of salt.  Plus Josephus is regarded as a traitor by some as he was a Jewish general who turned into a Roman suck up to save his life.  Jews in that time would fight to the death or kill themselves when total defeat was at hand to prevent the men from being tortured and/or killed by the Romans and prevent the women and children from being sold into slavery.  Not to get long winded but this was obviously a common problem then as the Jews had a system in place when victory or escape was futile.  Once all hope was lost the men would kill the women and children.  Then ten men would be selected to kill the rest of the men.  Those ten would draw tiles (examples of these tiles were found in a small room at Masada) and one of the ten would be responsible for killing the other nine then himself.  Josephus ended up being the last man at a fortress in northern Palestine but he didn't kill himself and instead surrendered to the Romans and weaselled his way to prominence in Rome which is why some Jews don't view him favourably.  It ended up working really well for him as he died a prominent Roman citizen with property which was extremely rare for a Jew; non-Roman people could live peacefully in conquered Roman areas but they didn't have any citizenship rights as an FYI.  As far as the book goes I am sure the Roman generals were not as understanding or noble or faultless as Josephus portrayed them to be but I guess that's part of why he was so well received by the Caesars.  He also prophesised to General Vespasian (Wiki link) that he (Vespasian) would become Emperor which came true so Vespasian thought he had some prophetic powers.  Overall the book was a tough read but informative enough to recommend it to anyone interested in biblical era literature.  Now I am reading The Silent Army by James Knapp, 372 pages.  This is the second book of the revivor trilogy that I started a while ago and the second book is as good as the first.  A balanced blend of present (FBI is the major crime fighting unit, cops use modern day weapons, cars and trains are transportation) and future (cops are implanted with an electronic eye that has a Wi-Fi link to the main computers, the eye basically does the work of a computer and monitor including projecting data in the person's field of vision, corpses are re-animated as revivors (zombies) to be used for manual labour jobs or as Army grunts) without a lot of gore.  A surprisingly refreshing change from my normal reading interests.      

On Saturday we went on a Treasure Trail (link) hunt. It's not an actual treasure hunt, it's a fun walk geared towards kids where you walk around towns looking for clues in the existing historical sites.  Once you find the clue you cross off a possible treasure location and move onto the next clue and eventually end up with the fictional treasure location.  It's designed as a fun way to explore cities although we didn't always enjoy it.  Lori and I let the kids follow the clues and helped as needed but it was a little rough at first as the kids didn't like the ambiguous clues.  We were all getting a little frustrated; Lori and I for the kid's lack of patience/willingness to explore a hidden meaning in the clue.  The kids were getting frustrated because everything wasn't immediately obvious to them.  I have to admit that they did much worse than I expected initially but did get better as we explored.  Maybe we need to do more of these ambiguous type activities to teach the kids how to think differently and branch out their minds.  We'll see.  We also had some interesting events on the walk.  There was the overly friendly Quaker lady who inadvertently helped us on a clue then seemed to be stalking us as we moved on to the next clue.  She wasn't actually stalking us (I think), we just happened to be on the path to her house so she strong armed us into looking at some Georgian era (late 1700's) houses.  There was also the gross sight as we walked upon a homeless man peeing into a storm sewer grate in broad daylight.  I have to admit I almost called it a day at that point as we had to walk past him/the spot to get to our next clue.  Yuck yuck yuck.  There was a fashion fail outfit as we saw a 20ish girl wearing a shear white top with cut out sides which showed her bare back and bra.  Not sure if teenage-ish girls all wear their bras on the outside at home but its common practise here to be showing their bras in public.  Not all of it was bad though as I learned a new word - Horologist.  One of the clues involved Horologist John Whitehurst (Wiki link).  I didn't know what a horologist (do you know what they do Auntie B?) was so I looked it up when we arrived home.  We capped off Saturday with an excellent home cooked Korean meal at our friend's.  I should have brought the camera but didn't so no pics of our tasty meal Dana.  Thanks Kuk it tasted great!   

Thanks for listening,
Jay

Warwick Castle

Hello Readers,
We are slowing down from our summer of vacations.  Catching up on the household chores, getting ready for school... all of the fun getting-into-the-school-routine tasks.  Feels kind of nice after all of our travels.  Before we cover this weekend's activity and all travel to Warwick Castle I wanted to catch y'all up on a few items I skipped over during the last few posts.

First is our Better Halves Club.  Our first meeting in August was at Hackwood Farms where we sent off a member and a half.  For our lunch there was 5 half members, 2 three-quarter members, and 5 members.  Goodbye Sarah and adorable little Anna, we'll miss you.  Our second lunch in August was at Ember Pub & Dining (link) where we again sent off a member and a half.  This time there was 4 members , 1 three-quarter member, and a half member.  Goodbye Tracey and curly haired car loving Andrew, we'll miss you guys also.  Andrew and I were the token male members so its just me carrying the torch again.  We were missing some people in August due to vacations so we'll see how we do in September.  Hopefully we'll be able to pull in some more recruits.

End of August means Vegas Elvis has left the building.  He enjoyed rockin-n-rollin through the countries with the family.  Stay tuned for next month's facial hair.

Smouldering Vegas Elvis bidding adieu.  Lori misses him already.

 

On Saturday we visited "Britain's Ultimate Castle", Warwick Castle (link).  Although we are almost castled out we were told by a lot of people we had to see place.  It is set up as an entire experience with most of the structures still in places, period dressed actors roaming the grounds, restored rooms, and exhibitions throughout the day.  Timing wise it wasn't great for us coming off of the month of travelling but Sunday was the last day of the season to catch the castle experience in its full splendour so it was either see it now or wait until the spring.  Plus I had purchased the tickets before we did all of the travelling so we weren't as tired then.  But we survived and here's our day.  

The castle grounds map.  Pre-bookers use the fast track entrance.

 

Some peacocks in the Peacock Garden.  They wouldn't show us their full plumage though.

 

A few early castle facts for the people who didn't check out the link. 

914 AD - Ethelfleda orders earthern ramparts constructed for the threatening Danish Invaders.

1068 AD - William the Conqueror builds a motte and bailey fort.

1260 AD - Stone construction replaces wooden castle construction.

1350 AD - Caesar's Tower and Dungeon constructed.  Both are still in place.

1395 AD - Guy's Tower constructed.  It is still in place.

And on and on.  Numerous kings and queens visit the castle, people imprisoned, trials held, castle is attacked... all of the old castle stuff we have seen so far.  Not to diminish the castle, some of it is just a repeat of the surrounding history we see in a 2000+ year old country.  I love the history here while the fam is a little less excited.

 

The main building and central courtyard from Guy's Tower.

 

Guy's Tower info board.

 

Barbican and Gatehouse info board.

 

Caesar's Tower info board.

 

View of main building, central courtyard, The Mound (left center) and ramparts from Caesar's Tower

 

The Mill and Engine House.

 

 

 Part of the castle experience were staged rooms with mannequins from 1471 as the Kingmaker is preparing to go into battle.

 

Teresa Robinett pic - horse being suited up for battle.

 

The blacksmith working on the weapons and armour.

 

For below.

 

The Porter standing guard.  You can see the murder holes above. 

 

The women gossipping (some things never change) and working on the clothing needs for the battle.

 

For above.

 

Treasurer (no pic) info board.

 

The arm wrestlers relieving tension.

 

Richard Neville gives the troops a pep talk.  Fat lot of good it did him.

 

After the battle preparations area was the Great Hall and State Rooms area.  Nicely decorated now they must have been really fancy back in the day.

 

The famous/infamous Oliver Cromwell standing under his helmet in the Great Hall.  The English regard him as famous as he has a regal statue outside Parliament in London.  The Irish regard him as infamous as his wax museum exhibit in Dublin was a pyramid of skulls symbolising death.  

 

Info board from above.

 

The frame mentioned here is below.

 

Ornate frame from above.  Yup that's impressive.

 

One of the many visits from a Queen for Warwick Castle. 

 

Cedar Drawing Room, read below.  Clue on "Pregnancy Table" - look at the legs.

 

For above.

 

For below.

 

Can you see the hidden door?

 

Clock believed to have belonged to Marie Antoinette.  The twelve stations of Christ are depicted on the clock.

 

Anne Boleyn on top, Mary Boleyn on bottom.  Mary was supposedly a mistress of Henry VIII before he married Anne.

 

Painting of popular King Henry VIII.

 

 

See picture below.

 

Read about it above.

 

Fine wood carving in Chapel.

 

Chapel from late 17th century setting.  All castles had their own chapels.

 

Crossbow, swords and maces on display.

 

See Robert below.  The deaf and dumb sniper was mentioned at least three times that I saw.

 

The unlucky Robert Greville from above.  

 

Bronze Egyptian cannon made about 1871.

 

1851 Kenilworth Buffet from below.  Beautiful carvings although the picture doesn't show it.

 

Carving detail.

 

Kenilworth Buffet above, arquebus below.

 

The enormous arquebus gun.

 

World's largest trebuchet per the castle literature.  We made it down in time to see it launch nothing.  They wound it up and released it but the sling was empty - a little anticlimactic.  Kind of like watching Justin Verlander warm up then leave before he pitches in the game.  There was a fireball launching later but we were done for the day by the time it launched.

 

The kids also shot some arrows, here's Karl.

 

 

Here's Kalle.

 

KJ just nicked the bullseye, the only one to hit the bullseye on the longest targets.  Way to go KJ!

 

They had a jousting exhibition that was more comedic than realistic so we didn't stay for it all.  The English hero is in red and white.

 

After the jousting was the lame sword fighting display so we went back to the castle.

 

Next up was the Secrets and Scandals part of the experience in the State Rooms where you were introduced to the castle residents and friends.  The S&S referred to how the wealthy socialites in the late 1800's slept with each other but no one talked about it as long as certain protocol was followed.  Basically it was alright to do whatever with whoever as long as the two people never touched or were overly friendly towards each other at public appearances.  And these people thought they were better than everyone else.

Kalle called this knife and fork combo a fife.

 

Creepy sloth collecting tips.  Embarrassing enough to shoot a sloth, then you stuff it?

 

What Daisy thought of Winston.  Daisy was the lady of the castle at one point, we'll meet her later. 

 

A young Winston Churchill.

 

Daisy has a lot to say.

 

Madame Clara Butt.

 

Random bedroom pic.

 

Daisy was a "very friendly" lady.

 

Lion skin rug in the lord's bedroom.

 

More Daisy info - see her below.

 

"the greatest beauty of the Victorian era"

 

Check out the size of the bath tub. 

 

The rules for the servants.

 

Great Hall from above.  There was a wedding being held here later in the day.

 

Stained glass window.

 

Photograph of Daisy.

 

Next up was the gaol (jail), a small dingy horrible place.

 

 

See below, I think this is a predecessor of solitary confinement.  I can see why they called it "the hole".  The hole was about two feet by three feet by five feet deep.

 

For the pic above.

 

For the wall stocks below.

 

 

Read above and below.

 

For the pic above.

 

 

View from on top The Mound.  St. Mary's church in Warwick.  From an info board - one of the tombs in the church is Richard Earl of Warwick who oversaw the trial and execution of Joan of Arc. 

 

From The Mound - Guy's Tower on left, Caesar's Tower in back, State Rooms and Great Hall on right, Central Courtyard.  People are gathering for the warriors exhibition.

 

A new feature this week is the Jeff Seppanen sports pic/update.  After seeing the Dallas Cowboys star on his tunic I instantly started rooting for everyone he was battling.  C'mon RG3, lead us to the promised land!  Or at least beat the stinking Cowboys if we aren't going to the big one yet.  American football is starting up again and all I have is fut-bol to watch.  At least fut-bol doesn't have commercials so life isn't all bad.

 

The warriors exhibition was three guys sword fighting and stopping periodically to explain the differences between Hollywood sword fighting and real sword fighting of the 1600's and later.  A few tidbits - sword fights on the battlefields typically lasted ten seconds and were between three and five moves, the broadsword shown in the Jeff Seppanen pic above was given to boys when they reached the age of six (meaning it's a child's toy not a man's weapon), swords were rare on the battlefields because they were very expensive (knights and noble could afford them but most others could not), and fights between knights and soldiers rarely happened because they typically meant a quick death for the soldier.  I actually knew the last one (yeah me!) because of the knights skill/training and better weapons and/or armour. 

 

A mace display.  Per the actor - Christians used maces and blunted weapons because they couldn't use edged weapons like swords that would spill blood.  (Maces killed just as easily as swords as they showed with a cabbage.)  This puzzled me because when we toured the chapel (pics above) they said all castles had churches and the castle people were very religious but the noblemen had swords.  I think he may have meant monks and/or ultra-religious warriors instead of Christians.

 

Now we are onto the fun display - a poleaxe vs. a great sword - you can see the height of the sword next to the guy on the left.  Per the actors most swords were of this size (William Wallace size swords from our Scotland trip) instead of the smaller child's swords as is popular in movies.

 

One interesting point to me from the fight is that the great sword was held two handed as shown in close quarters combat which is rarely seen in movies.  The big sweeping sword swings would have left the swordsman defenceless and were not used.

 

My favourite part of the day was the birds of prey exhibition.  We saw four birds - Archie the North American Bald Eagle, his son Merlin, Ernie the Milky Eagle Owl, and Stanley the Sea Eagle.  Not only were birds great the handler was funny as he told us about each bird's different character and training methods. 

 

The magnificent Archie.  This guy was the star of the show with his six foot wingspan and fearless flying.  He would swoop down within inches of the people as he circled the crowd.

 

The handler said sometimes Archie flys so high he disappears from sight then dive bombs straight down.  I guess birds do this to cool down, the handler said NA Eagles can reach speeds of 100 mph.  I think Archie just dive bombs because he's awesome.

 

Next up was Merlin.

 

Merlin is a little flaky and easily scared.  The other trainer let him out and he flew to the castle instead of our trainer.  Kind of funny.

 

 

Merlin the immature North American Bald Eagle.  The trainer said that when Archie swoops down and looks like he is about to hit you he never will, he has that fine of flying control.  When Merlin swoops down and looks like he is about to hit you he probably will so brace yourself.

 

Next was Ernie.  Ernie is six months old and was pretty cute.  The crowd went awwww when Ernie hopped out of his crate.  The trainer is still working with him and warned us that he wasn't sure what Ernie would do which proved prophetic when Ernie got spooked a couple times and flew off to his favourite tree.  Fortunately the trainer has a pouch of raw meat and was able to bribe Ernie with his favourite treat - a raw chicken head.

Ernie debating if he should fly to his favourite tree or not.

 

The trainer showing off Ernie's natural instinct to swoop down and pin the prey down with his huge talons.  The prey in this case is a piece of chicken.

 

Instead Ernie slowly landed in front of the meat, turned and looked at the trainer, then bent over and grabbed the prey with his beak.  The trainer was not happy but said it was better than a month ago when they did this trick and Ernie landed ten feet short of the "prey" and proceeded to leisurely owl hop over to the prey.  Ernie was just plain cute.

 

Last was Stanley.  Stanley doesn't like taking directions and doesn't like the trainer withholding the chicken pieces.  The trainer would position his gloved hand up if he wanted the birds to fly more (tricks for the crowd) or out if he wanted the birds to land on his glove.  Every time the trainer's hand was up Stanley would swoop by and hit the hand with his talons.  It made a loud click sound and the trainer said it hurt.  Stanley was not a good boy.

Stanley has a lot of 'tude.  He wouldn't give me a good profile pic.

 

 

 A long distance shot of Stanley landing when the kids were shooting the bows during the first bird exhibition. The other bird pics are from the second show where we had front row seats.

Last shot of Warwick Castle.  A fun experience even with all of the castles we have visited.

 

 

Thanks for listening,

Jay