Kenilworth and Warwick
| We arrived in Kenilworth in late afternoon, with enough time to walk around the familiar parts of the town. After walking past St. Nicholas' Primary School, where Alida had gone to fifth grade, we stopped in Abbey Fields for the children to play on the playground where Alida had spent much time, many years ago. |  |
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Going up Alida's old route home took us toward the castle. It was too late to see it that day, so we settled for a good dinner in the pub. |
The next day was a super castle day. At Kenilworth Castle we rented a couple of audio boxes, to follow a tour from numbered spot to spot, learning about the history of the castle. Andres avidly found all the spots and listened carefully.
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About lunchtime, we drove the few miles to Warwick Castle. Its history isn't as exciting as Kenilworth's, but its distinction is that it has been continuously lived in and kept in repair. It is now a tourist enterprise, but very well done. We entered through the impressive gate, and then went off to find a bench to eat our picnic lunch.
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Just as we finished, a soldier on a horse rode by, and we followed him. A crowd gathered, and he (a member of the Yorkist army, in the Wars of the Roses) told of a battle that had just taken place against the Lancastrians.
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| The soldier then led us down through a gate to the tilting grounds, which were filled with activities. There were booths for trying one's skills, hoping to score and win a prize. Andres did valiantly, but just barely missed. |  |
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We sat and listened to a funny woman called the "Rat Catcher" (it turned out that the rats were her husbands) and then watched a knight dress a volunteer boy in armor (many layers!).
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| The boy knelt (with difficulty!) to be dubbed a knight -- and then suddenly another knight appeared, to challenge to a duel over the boy's mother. Great fun! |  |
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We climbed to the top of a tower, and looking down we saw a man demonstrating longbow archery. We scrambled down quickly, to watch the show. He had already finished, but he was then talking about the uses of archery through history. (Some parts of his talk were quite grisly, especially the details of an arrow in Henry V's cheek!) After he finished, Andres chatted with him, and he told Andres about bows and arrows in Bolivia. The man was exceedingly knowledgable and pleasant.
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That was the end of our castle day, as we left Warwick to drive to London.
