canals 7

Day 7
Friday
July 26, 2002

     Jed picked us up at 10:00 A.M. as prearranged by an earlier cell phone call from Sara.   The ride to Warwick Castle was short and when we paid our friendly driver, he refused, in the true tradition of English cab drivers, to accept a tip, urging us to spend our money at the Castle instead.
     Warwick Castle is truly historic, dating from 914 AD when Ethelfleda, daughter of Alfred the Great, ordered the building of an earthen rampart to defend the small settlement of Warwick from Danish invaders. Eventually, wood replaced earth and finally, in 1260, the stone castle was completed.

Click here to go to the excellent Warwick Castle website
                Lots of pictures and history.

                    http://www.warwick-castle.co.uk/

Now, over a thousand years later, Warwick Castle is a living history lesson. As the Castle becomes older year by year, it also becomes an increasingly wondrous portal to the past. Within the central courtyard a "knight" in full authentic armor sits mounted atop a well-behaved horse and talks in a practiced but engaging manner about battles, chivalry, and medieval politics. On most Friday and Saturday evenings, Ł39.50 per person will gain admittance to The Kingmaker's Feast. 'Kingmaker - a preparation for battle', a five-course feast which includes unlimited wine and beer. Historically, a last bash for those who were about to die. The Castle offers a rich number of culturally historic activities throughout the year.
     This citadel is replete with the finest authentic furniture and other appointments. Room by room, the Castle expertly and exquisitely spans 11 centuries of English and local history.
     We left the Castle and followed a short path that wound around behind the fortress to a footbridge leading to a sizable island, which split the River Avon.   In 1890 The island was used to keep Japanese deer, a flock of Chinese geese, an emu, assorted racoons, an ant bear and a baby elephant.
     A number of gaily-colored medieval style tents were set up on the island. They sold light food items, soft drinks, and metallic foil medallions that were really disks of chocolate. In a clearing amongst the trees two men were demonstrating swordplay, archery, and the intricacies of body armor.
      While they were obviously quite good at these skills, they talked nonstop throughout the demonstrations, their discourse sprinkled with attempts at humor, some more successful than others. Their "safety talk" preceding the archery demonstration contained such gems as "Don't run in front of the arrows!"
    That evening we finally made it to the folk festival itself. The actual festival grounds were sited on the campus of historic Warwick School, which was founded during the 11th century reign of William the Confessor. Despite its long history, many of the buildings of Warwick School are quite modern. The vendor and food tents were set up in a large grassy area behind the school's buildings.    There were two main stages, one being in a large high capacity tent set up near the food tents and the other was a fine school auditorium stage. Additionally, there were performances, workshops, and related activities in other campus buildings and even in some of the pubs nearer the center of town.
     There were also three bars offering a wide assortment of ales, lagers, wine, and distilled spirits. Most people seemed to be drinking and it was not unusual for performers to have a glass in hand onstage. Throughout our visit to England I saw lots of people drinking but almost no public drunkenness, a notable and pleasant contrast to the brew festivals and Octoberfests of American experience.
     It was a comfortably warm and mild evening. We leisurely walked around, had a couple of pints, and ended our day by listening to Tom Lewis make good music.