Day Trip!

Yesterday, Saturday, I went on my first day trip and I went solo! My goal was Warwick Castle, my tools were me, myself and whatever I had put in my bag. I set off on my journey bright and early at 9am after I had a filling breakfast of cereal with dried banana on top. To get to my final destination I had to change trains partway. Now, only have done this once before I didn't know if I would be capable of it, but I succeeded in not missing my stop at Leamington Spa and I safely made it to Warwick. There was a lot of signs in Warwick which made it quite easy to find the castle.

On a side note, there was an old lady on a motorized scooter. Over top of her and the scooter there was a clear water proof tent so that she could go outside even in the rain which I thought was really smart. Back to the castle adventure! Somehow I still managed to miss the street I was supposed to turn down to get to the castle. I was enjoying my jaunt outside of Oxford and for some reason had gotten it into my head that a building in the distance was the castle. I quickly realized my mistake and it only took me a couple of minutes to get back on track! I spotted the top of one of the towers before I had found the entrance.

 

At this castle there was an entrance fee which I understand because it helps pay for the upkeep of the castle, but it did seem a little expensive at 18 pounds. Overall I thought it was worth it. First I wandered around the outside of the castle, through the gardens and other outlining buildings like the Mill and the Bird Avery. It was so pretty! It wasn't to sunny out, but it was warm and very lovely! There was also a peacock garden, but the peacocks were everywhere and not just in the garden! The Mill was watered powered, so on a river. Also on the river there was a boat house and a trebuchet.

A very nice man who works at the castle took this picture of me when he saw me struggling to try to take a picture by myself.

The Mill and Engine House

The Trebuchet

Boat house

Crowned Eagle

Grey Eagle Buzzard

Harris Hawk

Barn Owl

Steller's Sea Eagle

Verreaux's Eagle Owl

At 12:30 there was a show of some of the eagles flying! The bird-handler man brought out the Grey Eagle Buzzard who's name is Bruce and a Bald Eagle who's name is Alfred, I think. They were amazing! The bird-handler flew them one at a time and told us about how they flew, how he got them to follow his directions and about the birds themselves! He kept saying that since it wasn't a windy day it was harder for the birds to fly because they had to pull their own body weight instead of gliding on the wind. He brought out Bruce first who is a younger bird. He was doing circles around the crowd and at one point he went over my head so close that he brushed it as he was going in for food! The Bald Eagle is 16 and the handler says he has preferences on where he'll land, which is only uphill on the handler's arm. The man was telling us about one of his favourite bird's, the father of Bruce, and how amazing he is. The reason why he can't show us the amazing father of Bruce is that one day while preforming a show a group of ducks took flight and the eagle went after the ducks and caught and ate one. Everyone thought it was just a one time thing, but during the rest of the week the eagle caught 20 more animals including a garden snake! So the castle fired the bird. He went to a bird sanctuary the castle owns and they got him a mate and now they are the only breeding pair of Grey Eagle Buzzards in Britain. I tried to take some pictures of them while they were flying, but most of them are blurry. Here they are anyway! 

Bruce the Grey Eagle Buzzard

Alfred the Bald Eagle

 After I wandered inside the castle walls to the court yard. The inside was really beautiful too! I went into the Gaol, the old dungeon, I went up a couple of towers, on the mound and inside the Great Hall, State Rooms and Chapel. I enjoyed going up the towers and seeing the wonderful view! The inside was a little odd. All the rooms were done up which was fine. The thing that made me cringe was that there were wax statues of people in every room. I found that it took away from the experience and I kept going around corners and getting scared because there were these things lurking everywhere! Anyway, here are some more pictures!

That was pretty long because of all the pictures! I was at Warwick Castle for two hours and then I got back on the train and safely made it to my room!