Warwick Castle

I've never been to California's medieval times, but if I had, I would imagine it would be something like Warwick Castle.   However, where Medieval Times is only a replica, Warwick Castle is the real deal, at least construction-wise.

A lot of the traditional components are open to public viewing, like the dungeon, the battlements and one of the towers.  It was pretty awesome going up the narrow stone steps to the top of the tower and wondering what it would have been like to have been a soldier back then doing his rounds on the guard tower.  I'm kind of amazed that there aren't more stories about soldiers stumbling on a step and doing a whole domino effect down the spiral staircase, mail shields clattering.  That was probably the coolest part, and the part that I remember most from the first time I came in 2005 with my Arthurian English class after graduation.  Again, it's the history of all of it, and knowing that ages ago the footsteps over the grounds belonged to ladies, knights and princes instead of the tourists it draws today.

What I did get to do this time which I wasn't able to last time was go to some of the shows.  We saw the trebuchet launch as well as a show on birds of prey.  The first bird was a bald eagle, and don't worry, I represented the US well when they asked if there were any Americans in the audience.  I was exactly as they expected me to be, loud and rambunctious.  Steve was quite amused.  They flew the birds around for a bit anyway, and the show ended when one of the great falcons didn't come back.  I guess last time this happened, they got a call from the police saying that the giant bird was perched atop a petrol station leering at people.

After that, we saw a joust!  Knights in combat!  I was kind of surprised how quickly they set up France to be the bad guy and had everyone booing along, ready to cheer England to a noble victory.  It was kind of hard to guess at how predetermined everything was.  England had to win, of course, but they actually did things that required a lot of skill, such as lancing a small fiery ring, spearing a target, and also stabbing peasants' heads (probably feather-filled bags in this example).  And then they did actually joust with shields and lances and then fought with swords at the end.  It was very cool.

Oh, and I almost forgot my favorite, archery!  They had a guy outside the walls firing a longbow.  It was really cool to watch, and very different from the archery we think of today, just because the bow is so big.  It takes a lot of strength to draw, so the archer sights while he's drawing the bow and fires almost immediately.  There's no Hunger Games drama of stretching the bow taught and aiming carefully, it's just pull and release.  They were smart not to let me try it, I think.



Toward the end, we walked though peacock laden gardens and watched the final battle, which was actually kind of an explanation about how the sword fights you see in most movies is nothing like how things would have actually gone back then.  It was still neat because they had massive huge swords and axes that they hit one another with.  The little kids around us were impressed, anyway.  After the show, I overheard one head off saying, "Let's play knights!  I'll be Scotland, you'll be England and Derek will be America."  So the US is such a world power now that we're credited with having knights!  Despite the fact that in those days, the only men running around America were definitely not wearing suits of armour.

And at the very end, the kids were playing some type of game similar to basketball where you have this hoop instead of a basket, and rats instead of a ball.  Yup, you heard me, rats.  I guess they were pretty common back in those days.  Anyone could find one to play with.

And lastly, even girls can be knights!  If I had a little girl who wanted one of these, I would totally get it for her.  There's a matching pink shield with a unicorn on it too.