England Trip, September 2009, Day 2
This was my first non-sleep-deprived day in England! My plans for today were to visit Warwick Castle. I had to take a train to get there, and this was the morning I mentioned on my Day 1 page where the hotel employee "got me a taxi". I had originally planned to take the tube, but the closest tube station was closed and I wanted to make it to the train station in time to take the first train out to Warwick. I was excited to see a real castle for the first time.
This is a not so great picture of Buckingham Palace. I tried to take this picture from the taxi as we drove by. I think this is the back of the palace; I'm not sure if I ever even saw the front of it. Buckingham Palace was pretty far away from everywhere else I was at, so I never took a trip out there aside from occasionally driving by it in a taxi.
This is super blurry, but it's the only picture I ever tried to take of the inside of one of the trains. Most of them looked more or less like this, except they were a little less blurry in real life. This was the train I took to Warwick.
This was one of my first decent glimpses of Warwick Castle.
This picture was of the garden at the castle. There wasn't much in bloom this time of year, but I bet it is beautiful in the spring and summer.
This picture showed the river that went by the castle, and you can also see part of the castle. In the very bottom right corner, you can see part of the water wheel they used to generate electricity back in the olden days. There was a whole little area you could go into where they showed machinery and stuff that they had used to generate electricity.
Yep, this is a peacock. There were a few peacocks roaming freely around the castle grounds and you could get pretty close to them. I even saw one walk right up to a family that was sitting on a bench eating lunch; I think it was hoping for some food!
This is a larger view of the inner section of the castle.
You could climb up on top of some of the towers, and this picture was taken of the nearby town of Warwick from on top of one of the towers.
This is another picture taken from the top of a tower, and this one gives some perspective of how high up I was.
This is another picture taken from the top of a tower, showing another part of the castle and some of the surrounding countryside.
This is another picture taken from the top of a tower. That section of the castle you can see on the grassy hill was called "The Mound". It's the oldest part of the castle.
This is another picture taken from the top of a tower. You can see some nearby homes and the river.
This picture is zoomed in to more closely show a couple of the homes from the previous picture.
This picture is of the stairs we had to climb up and down to get to the tops and bottoms of the towers. It looks like it is lit because of the flash from my camera, but it was actually very dark. The only light in there was the sunlight filtering through small cross-shaped holes in the walls. Because of the way the stairs spiral, the only part of the stairs where you have enough room for your feet is on the side closest to the wall. It was a neat experience to see how cramped and dark the old staircases were, and funny to hear the comments of other visitors echoing up and down the stairways. If I remember correctly, I think the sign near the first entrance said that it was 550 steps between the time you entered the first stairway to the time you got back outside. I enjoyed it so much that I climbed them twice!
I don't know too many guys who would be comfortable dressing like this!
There were a few people wandering around who were dressed in costumes from the olden days. This guy was actually playing music on whatever that instrument was. (A lute?)
There were a few people wandering around who were dressed in costumes from the olden days. This guy was actually playing music on whatever that instrument was. (A lute?)
They had a section in the castle with scenes showing people preparing for war, making armor and weapons and stuff like that. This is one of those scenes. They had fake people such as this guy in the scenes, and some of them looked pretty realistic.
We were able to go through some of the rooms in the castle, but I didn't stand still long enough for my camera to focus so most of them didn't come out well. I managed to take a few decent ones, though. This picture is of the little chapel inside the castle. I'm certain it was the room that was slightly tilted, and not my camera.
Below are more pictures from inside the castle. Don't forget you can click on them to view larger versions.
Below are more pictures from inside the castle. Don't forget you can click on them to view larger versions.
This picture is from inside "The Mound", which is the part of the castle you saw the outside of in one of the pictures above.
This is one last picture of the houses outside the castle, from a different angle.
After that, I don't have any other pictures from this day. I took the train back to London, and then I rode the Underground for the first time. I had to switch tubes at a couple stations to get back to my hotel, but it was surprisingly easy to figure out where to go.
The crowds were insane and there was no personal space whatsoever. I don't think I have any pictures of the Underground from my entire trip because it was always so crowded and rushed, but this Sunday night had the worst crowds I encountered. At one point in one tube station we had to take an elevator to get out, and everybody crammed in like sardines as closely together as they could get trying to get on the elevator so they didn't have to wait for the next one.
I got off the tube at one of the stations and walked around some, but it was just before 5pm which is when the shops closed and there were so many people around that you could barely move. I was tired of walking by that point, and I didn't feel like fighting the crowds, so I got back on the tube and went back to my hotel to relax for the rest of the night. After being on my feet all day, aside from the train ride, my feet were screaming.
After that, I don't have any other pictures from this day. I took the train back to London, and then I rode the Underground for the first time. I had to switch tubes at a couple stations to get back to my hotel, but it was surprisingly easy to figure out where to go.
The crowds were insane and there was no personal space whatsoever. I don't think I have any pictures of the Underground from my entire trip because it was always so crowded and rushed, but this Sunday night had the worst crowds I encountered. At one point in one tube station we had to take an elevator to get out, and everybody crammed in like sardines as closely together as they could get trying to get on the elevator so they didn't have to wait for the next one.
I got off the tube at one of the stations and walked around some, but it was just before 5pm which is when the shops closed and there were so many people around that you could barely move. I was tired of walking by that point, and I didn't feel like fighting the crowds, so I got back on the tube and went back to my hotel to relax for the rest of the night. After being on my feet all day, aside from the train ride, my feet were screaming.