week 25: Warwick castle

After 6.5 years in the country I have finally managed to get myself to Warwick castle. Initially I booked tickets for last winter to go with my sister - they have some fun tours and stuff. But our winter visit got completely snowed out. We spent 7 hours stuck on a highway in the snow 3 days earlier and wasn't willing to try that again - if only I knew  back then it was so close to the rail station, but then again with trains in this country and snow... hmm probably better we didn't go back then. Anyway, back to last weekend's visit. It was lovely day, if a little hot. My Mom in law went with me and we  made the mistake of going up to the battlements. Ok, so they warn you its one-way and that it can be tiring. What they don't say is that the bloody stairwells are twisty and barely big enough to walk in - quite problematic for claustrophobic people, but we survived with nothing worse than severely tight muscles from clinging to every hand hold. We enjoyed the audio tours quite a lot and seen several other bits and pieces, including birds of prey of which despite me setting my camera to continuous shooting I got no decent photos of.

This photo was one of the earlier ones I took and the only one with reflections of the actual castle on the river Avon. Towards the back of the river you can see the old mill house. The castle fell into serious disrepair before being refurnished and turned into a tourist attraction, but most of the repairs are almost invisible and this is well worth a visit if you come to England and have a day or so to spare.