A wet day in Warwick

Wednesday 28th May 2014

Blog post by the mother

We were up early this morning and on the road by 8.30am.  Although we were a little sad to be leaving our lovely little Peacock cottage we are all looking forward to the next few days in Windsor. The traffic on the motorway was flowing well but it was definitely worth paying the toll to take a more direct route down to Warwick.

The plan for the day was to stop off at Warwick Castle for a few hours and then continue on down to Windsor in the late afternoon.  Unfortunately the weather was not ideal today for walking around the castle grounds but we did not let that deter us.

Around the castle grounds there are several 'Horrible Histories' areas depicting various eras in English history.  The children were all given activity packs at the entrance with information and questions that they needed to find the answers to plus stamps to be collected - this helped to keep them motivated and was also very interesting for the adults. 

Our first stop after arriving was to visit the "Gorgeous Georgians" (or Gorgeous Gorgons as Miss 9 insisted on calling them).  They were hilarious!  Miss 7 had a great old chat to the lovely ladies and introduced our whole group to them.  The ladies in turn were quite taken with her and insisted that we were their absolute favourite visitors.  They were definitely my favourite Gorgeous Georgians.

 After the Gorgeous Georgians we went to stand in the rain and watch the firing of the flaming trebuchet. I'm assured that it was spectacular but I was so busy trying (and failing) to get a photo that I missed it entirely.  The next stop was to see the Measly Middle Ages.  The kids are still singing their little ditty "Dumb English Kings" and we played along with that great family game 'Guess the punishment' for various crimes committed during the Middle Ages.  Below is a picture of the kids emptying their slop buckets out the window.  Nothing like a bit of wee, guts and poop before morning tea.

 We had booked in to do the Merlin's Tower experience which is loosely based on the TV show Merlin.  This turned out to be the highlight of Miss 9's day as she was identified as having magical powers and was given the title of Dragon Lord.  This meant she got to lead our tour group through the rest of the tour and to wake the  dragon with the staff of power.  The two 11 year olds and the little cousin were identified as being druids so they were pretty happy too. Unfortunately we were not allowed to take any photos inside Merlin's Tower but we more than made up for it when we walked through the main rooms of the castle.  Miss 7 made a couple of new friends.

 Mr 14 and Miss 9 were invited to tea.

 As were the parents.

 After a quick trip to the Bear Pit and up to the castle ramparts we went to watch the Slimy Stuarts - we now have "Ohh King Charles the First, ohh King Charles the first" to the tune of the Hokey Tokey stuck in our heads forever.  The rain continued to come down and Mr 11 and Miss 7 were put in the stocks for their crimes on the way to see the Vicious Vikings and the Smashing Saxons.

 Eventually the rain got too much for us and we decided to call it quits for Warwick Castle and we headed off in search of a bit of (late) lunch to warm ourselves up.  As luck would have it we stumbled across a fabulous tearooms which Aunty L. had been recommended by a friend.  Fabulous lunch, wonderful staff and one of the best cream teas ever! 

The Thomas Oken Tearooms is housed in Thomas Oken's home which is over 500 years old.  It is wonderfully preserved including the incredibly uneven floors upstairs and is apparently home to three friendly  ghosts - one of whom is Thomas Oken himself. 

 Although I could easily have curled up for a snooze after our lovely lunch we drove on to Windsor instead.  Arrived in Windsor around 5pm and settled into our hotel on the High Street then went out for dinner. Hooray for Italian pizza and pasta specials!