Woke up at 8. Jeremy still sleeping. Was a bit embarrassed that he offered me his bed, and he was sleeping in a sleeping bag. He woke up at half past 8, and helped me check out the buses and route to Warwick Castle which should have been the itinerary for yesterday should we had arrived earlier. Typical stereotype of a good host. I should be like that too if my friends were to come visiting, Londoners included. That means I should splurge on a good sleeping bag, if I gonna use it often. Anyway, that’s another issue altogether.
I went to the bus stop to grab a bus to Coventry city centre. Supposed to meet the girls there. Guess what, the bus just left 10 minutes ago. Oh gosh, the worse news is the next bus comes 50 minutes later. Oh my goodness. Talk about how slack the Brits are. So for the next 50 minutes, I was out in the cold, shivering with hunger. And the girls are in McDonalds. What a temptation. Hell. Watch people come and go, buses which aren’t mine come and go as well. When is the bus gonna come? Even resorting to a countdown. Haiz. Finally the bus is here, so I grabbed a day return ticket. Thought I should be clever enough to know that we will be using this bus to the castle. Anyway, the journey to city centre is pretty short. Finally got to the McDonalds, and the ladies are all fed and comfy. Grateful that they had the grace to wait for me to finish breakfast, the coffee was good and bitter. Wow. We went to the gigantic Sainsbury’s, the buses were there. Took U1 again to Leamington, where we should change a bus to Warwick. Thought my day return ticket can be used, but what the fuck! I still need to pay the full return ticket to Warwick like the girls, no concession for me. £2.20 wasted. Or rather, McDonalds cost that much more. Haiz. But the bus ride was pretty interesting, watching the ladies nodding off. Took a picture of Yan Neng dozing with her head slanting to the right. Serene was nodding backwards, but I wasn’t timely enough to snap that one. She managed to straighten her head while I was snapping a shot, alas! Joanne was wide awake throughout the bus journey, which was impressive relative to the other 2. I had my fun watching horses on pastures and little black sheep that look so much like maggots. Haha, my new nickname for them: Maggots of the pastures.
Anyway, we stopped at Leamington just in time to catch the bus to Warwick. In fact, had we been slightly retarded, we would have to wait another hour more for the next bus. Getting on the bus, we realized that Leamington is actually quite a pretty place. It’s like an assortment of white houses in Kensington and Oxford Street mixed into 1 entity. Quite nice a town, but a pity it’s so far out from the city. Took us almost an hour to reach.
Warwick itself is like a town centred about the castle. Simply, most of the shops and establishments exist because there are flocks of tourists visiting the castle every moment of the year. Unless the usual tourists, we bought our tickets at the tourist information centre instead of at the door, there were loads of kids waiting to get tickets. Anyway, the entrance to the grounds was pretty interesting. The castle is located on a little hill, with shallow dried moats surrounding it. The landscape is then upwards sloping northwestwards, which leads to the entrance to the grounds. We passed through the gates, and took quite a bit of pictures at the doorstep. The view is pretty, so is the weather. Moreover, I had the company of 3 pretty ladies. Enough of the crap. But Serene seems pretty fascinated with the lonely tree that stood a few steps away into the castle grounds. And I had the honour to take the 1st picture with the tree, despite not appreciating the tree more than Serene do. Ha. While walking towards the castle, we just keep snapping pictures like never before. And this is particularly true of the ladies, who had the weird habit of shooting themselves rather than ask for help with pictures. Anyway, the entrance to Warwick Castle is just like how it is in Edinburgh. A metallic (or wooden) grid with spikes facing down, ready to pierce any enemy who attempts to invade while the gate is slamming down. Except that there’s no more enemies who is gullible enough to do that nowadays.
As we entered the assembly grounds within the castle, it’s pretty depressing to see the pitch in the middle avid of any grass at all. Despite the greeneries, the middle portion is an eyesore. Anyway, we decided to go clockwise and proceeded to the dungeon instead. It’s opening is like that of a cellar, with a low ceiling stairway down to the basement. It’s so cramp and small, and with only 1 entrance cum exit, people were literally packed in without anyone coming out. But the interior is very interesting though. Prisoners carving crosses and inscriptions detailing their life in dungeon. It’s also filled with torture tools, and a chamber for punishing prisoners who deserve more than pure imprisonment. Wet, cold, damp, cramp. A nightmare to be in there, absolutely.
From the dungeon, we went to the Kingmaker’s chambers, detailing his preparations for battle and his death. From tailoring and armour making to stables and crossbowman, every detail is simply medieval. I think the most memorable should be the stables, where a thick horse odour still lasts till now. Maybe it’s just a tourist tactic to implant some life into a building, but the smell is quite unbearable for people not used to it. But then again, another of my favourite places is the final showpiece of the exhibition. Not because of the showpiece, but simply because there’s a window that allows me to peer out of the castle. From there, the river is so pretty, coupled with a working water wheel and a broken down bridge, the scenic view is something not to be missed. Anyway, within the next few chambers, it’s just the dining hall, and various rooms of the Earls and their wives. Nothing much interesting, except that the girls like the tea room a lot. It’s true, the tea room is actually bright with sunlight and filled with sky blue décor. The artefacts stored within the castle are largely mediocre, and there is more that they can tell us, I think. Even the ghost tower isn’t exactly that ghastly, but maybe it’s because there’s no guide to lead us around.
The highlight of the trip to Warwick should be the views from the towers in the fort surrounding the castle. The first one we climbed up through was called Guy’s Tower. There is a warning that says it’s a one way passage lasting 530 steps! Well, courageous as we were, it’s time to climb. All we do was climb a flight of helical stairs clockwise round and round upwards. Seriously, as we climbed, there seemed to be no end to the stairs. The only hope we have that we were still alive on earth was the light from the little window openings on the cylindrical wall of the tower. Finally, we reached the summit. And oh my gosh! It’s drop dead gorgeous. Nothing like the city view I had from the top of Edinburgh castle, but the view that spanned towards the rural forested and hilly areas radially from the castle is simply cool. I don’t know if cool is the word to describe, though I did feel chilly from the strong wind. Checking out St Mary’s Cathedral and a couple of cottages, the blend of buildings from different era is a picturesque display. Undeniably, I think I paid the 11 quid just for this view. But this was yet the end. We descended the tower to the top of the castle walls and imagined walking along the wall without the railings that currently lined the wall for safety purposes. Centuries ago, there would have been no railings, and walking through a narrow path like this wearing heavy armour, weapons and shield marching along to guard the borders. At any point in time should you feel sleepy in the middle of the night, you deserve to drop dead at the bottom of the castle wall. Anyway, we crossed over to the huge castle entrance, which doesn’t really provide any interesting sight. It’s the tower on the opposite end of Guy’s Tower that the fun arose.
Again, we climbed up stairs, all the time warning that should anyone of them tumble down, my threshold would probably be 1 person, at most 2. If all 3 ladies were to fall together, we can all roll like Humpty Dumpy down the castle. Not that they are heavyweights, but given that the ascend and descend journey encompassed at most a railing along the stairway and no support at all along the mid within the helix, there’s no way I could have tahan all of our inertia on just one pathetic railing. We reached a semi platform near the top of the tower, but the summit is sealed I think. We tried to walk around anticlockwise and found only a small little opening. Acting smart, I squeezed myself through the opening while the girls were doubtful about it. I finally got through, and called out to them that there’s a platform here as well and the view is gorgeous. Then one by one, they all squeezed through the little opening too. Haha, a test to see if they have grown fatter. But unfortunately, or rather fortunately, they passed the test. How funny it is to have 4 grown adults squeezing through the opening. Here, we saw the river again with the running water wheel and broken bridge. The view is so scenic, I wish time could stop. Coupled with fine weather, it’s pretty dreamlike. Wow. Anyway, we found a normal opening and walked through it, only to find ourselves back to the original entrance up from the bottom. Ouch, we used the unorthodox way rather than the given doorway. Haha, talk about being silly.
Next, we decided to climb up the mound. It’s on the other side of the castle, supposedly the oldest part of the castle. At the summit, we were given the backyard of Warwick Castle, pieced together with nice forested landscape. Somemore, we got to take photos under a romantic withered tree. A guy with 3 pretty ladies, how blissful can that be, haha. We wanted to walk to the castle grounds, but it seemed pretty boring and we wanted to move on to Stratford-upon-Avon, perhaps. On our way out, we visited the rose garden. Of course, it’s supposed to be filled with roses. However, roses don’t survive winter and we were only given the thorns. Ouch. But the Victorian garden certainly live up to its Victorian image and aura within. We found an ice house within the garden, used to store ice blocks up to 2 months! Curious as I am, I went in for a little look. Meanwhile, Yan Neng and Joanne went to the other ice house. Serene came with me instead and asked what’s there. I suddenly had the urge to have a little fun, and told her about a little skeleton within the ice house. Dark as it was within, she took my words for real and pressed on to ask where’s the skeleton. As I continuously pointed to an imaginary figure within the darkness, I finally seized the opportunity to give her my scariest yell and sent her screaming out of the ice house. Muahaha, my childish mischief worked again after so many years.
Out of the ice house, my guilt began to overwhelm me. Despite my apologies, she seemed determined to make me pay for scaring her out of her wits. Haha, who knows what she’ll do. We went to Subway to satiate our hunger with the Sub of the day, teriyaki chicken. It was then that we realise Stratford-upon-Avon is probably uninteresting on a day when everything was closed. Perhaps, it might be better to shop along Leamington.
Reaching Leamington, we realise we might not have abundant time to shop around. Joanne and Serene showed particular interest in Clinton Cards, to find cards for their beaus. Quite some fun shopping with them, till we finally took a bus back to University of Warwick. The most unfortunate thing happened to me then. I was vaguely aware of the stupid signpost in my path on our way to the bus stop. Meanwhile, I walked slightly off my route to avoid the post, but disaster struck. I still hit it, a whack on my head. OUCH! Can’t help cursing and swearing like mad, while all the others behind were laughing their heads off. Talk about having no sympathy for the injured.
The bus ride back was not bad, at least for me. I sat with Joanne again, just like the journey from Liverpool to Manchester. However, this time round, we really chatted throughout the entire journey or 2 to 3 hours, non-stop. From siblings to common friends, to the boundaries of a scholar’s life, we simply talked our hearts out. At the end of the journey, even Serene had to take her hat off to me for being able to chat with anyone for long periods. Haha. Well, a famously talkative guy isn’t well-known in school for nothing. Haha.
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