Tuesday 18th June
Peter arrived in Warwick this morning at 9-15 am —— and at 10-45 am he phoned us to find out exactly where we were! Apparently the signs for the right road had ‘disappeared’ when he came off the A46 and his sat nav was trying to send him to somewhere in Scotland, so he had been driving around Warwick for an hour and a half. Ken went and stood out on the road and Peter was literally 30 ft away from the entrance to the Canal Centre!
I said it was a good job he hadn’t turned up at 9-15 am because we hadn’t been up long by then. Anyway, he recovered with coffee and sandwiches and got settled in then we took a walk into town. That is a euphemism for – we went to the pub, obviously!
As Peter had come armed with cakes (and wine) when we got back from the ‘town’ we sat out on one of the tables and chairs provided here and had tea and cake. Later we went to The Thomas Lloyd (Wetherspoon’s) to avail ourselves of their steak night menu and jolly good it was too. We all had steak (me – sirloin, Peter – rump and Ken 14oz rump) and ordered sides of scampi and onion rings to share. However, I think I actually had all the scampi and two thirds of the onion rings!
We had a stroll back, going the scenic route. That is a euphemism for – I went the wrong way!
As it was 10% cheaper if we booked the tickets for Warwick Castle 2 days in advance we decided to do just that and booked them for Thursday.
Wednesday 19th June
After breakfast this morning Peter took us to Sainsbury’s (just up the road) in the car so we could have a stock up of bulky and heavy items (tins of fruit, beans and tomatoes, loo roll and beer for example) which was very useful.
When we got back from Sainsbury’s we went to Kenilworth Castle and Elizabethan Gardens which is a short bus ride from Warwick to Kenilworth and then a 10 min walk from the clock tower. It was very interesting, even though the castle is mostly ruined, apart from Leicester’s Gatehouse. The Elizabethan Garden was fabulous and the weather was fantastic (see photos).
We stopped off in Leamington on the way back and went to The Jug and Jester for refreshment.We would have gone round the Spa Baths but we had done enough walking already and with the prospect of more tomorrow at Warwick Castle we gave them a miss.
We had a nice evening in watching football (Brazil and Mexico) and had a sort of buffet dinner.
Thursday 20th June
This was our day at Warwick Castle and what a brilliant day it was (lots of photos!). We walked to the castle finding the short route just in the nick of time before we went the long way round again! We started off with the Dungeon Tour which was worth every penny for the entertainment value. It is a series of stories about plague, witch trials, torture etc and is an interactive show where we were made to join in. In the torture chamber for instance I was locked in a cage and Ken nearly got suspended by a hook up his bum hole after having his other bits severed with the ‘chappie chopper’! It was hilarious in parts and really scary in others. At the end we were all in a dark room, supposedly haunted by a witch. There was thunder, lightning, chains rattling, doors banging, wind howling and the seats were rippling under your bum making you jump, it was brilliant. I would recommend it to any one. Even Peter enjoyed it ——- err I think!
The excitement of the dungeons was followed by watching the trebuchet being fired on the river island which was really interesting as they explained what was happening from start to finish. Then we had a look at everything else there was to see, pretty much. This included the Ramparts and Towers walk which once you start it you have to keep going because you can’t go back the way you have come and it includes 530 steps! You can go at your own pace, although you don’t want to cause a blockage on the spiral stair cases in the towers! We did it near the end of our visit before we did the Royal Weekend Party exhibition but it may have been better to have done it earlier!
After our exertions we called in to The Thomas Lloyd where we partook of the waters and had a lovely curry before walking back to the boat and collapsing!
