Warwick Castle and Oxford 1/13/08

This Sunday there were nine of us as a caravan from the Southampton area commuting to Oxford. It was quite the adventure as Tom and I were in the back following with our 4-cylinder Toyota Yaris a Honda CRV and a Volkswagon if I remember correctly. So we were a bit nervous that we would lose our way. Yet, we made it to Oxford in one piece and proceeded to take in all the beautiful architecture awaiting us.

This is Broad street with Magdalen street to the right, or Oxford city center. Apparently there are always this many bicycles here due to the University's presence.

More architecture from the University area of Oxford.

I tired to find out the name of these buildings, but alas it remains a mystery to me. Oh well!

This building on the campus is the Radcliffe Camera, which houses the Bodleian Library. I read somewhere that J.R.R. Tolkein used this as his inspiration for one of Sauron's temple's, for all you Lord of the Rings fans.

After several wrong turns to Warwick castle, we finally made it. Here's the view coming from the nearby car park.

This is Queen Anne's bedroom, circa 1690 within Warwick castle. Seeing the bed in person loses it's magnificence as it's really only the size of a full bed, maybe slightly bigger, but not by much. Warwick castle was actually bought by Tussaud's (of Madam Tussaud's). Tussaud's was then bought by Merlin Entertainment, a large amusement park-like entity.

This is called the mound. You can walk to the top, and view the valley on the other side, and the Avon river. There is also a fully functional trebuchet that patrons can fire under professional supervision. Just like Leed's Castle, there is a full restaurant where we plopped down for lunch.

Here is the view of Warwick castle from the top of the mound. To the left, just out of view they have a video presentation of the myth associated with Warwick castle.

Leeds Castle 12/1/07

OK, it's time to get back in the swing of things, and post all the photos of the great places we've visited since Prague. However, as soon as I finish this we'll be off on another trip to Greece and Italy.
Well, on the first of December Tom and I drove to Leed's Castle in the county of Kent, and it was the best December day I can remember in recent history. Apparently we were in for one of the mildest winters in England, but we didn't know it all those months ago.

Here we are heading to the right past the castle and the moat heading for the hedge maze. Also, they opened they're ice skating rink on that day, which is enclosed inside a makeshift tent-like building. They also had "Santa's Grotto" open as well.

Unfortunately photographs are not allowed within the castle itself, so you'll only get to see the obligatory shots of us striking a pose.

This is the hedge maze with the lake behind. The moat drains into this lake. I'm surprised we got as many photos as we did without anyone in them, because the grounds were packed with couples, families and friends.

Here is the exit to the maze, through an underground grotto which starts from the center of the maze....

...and ends here

Here's another shot after we left the maze and the aviary. They also have a café and a full fledged restaurant.

Here's another shot from the north side of the castle. There were black swans walking all over the place which were quite huge. One approached me as if I had it's next meal. They were large enough for me to consider that I was the meal.

I know I didn't have to include it, but it was such a nice shot I had to share it.

Here are some peacock (actually peahens, the females are this color) on the grounds of the castle. We saw many all over the grounds that you could walk up to without being caged. The grounds are sanctuary to all types of water foul as well.

Before we left the castle we came across this hot air balloon, and I recently found out that Leeds castle hosts a balloon festival every year. I highly recommend this spot if you have kids.

Here's a little fun I had with Google Earth and Photoshop. This way you can get a feeling of just how big this area spanned. Also the castle grounds continue the the left of the picture to almost double the area. There's also a golf course on the grounds.