Coyote's World Travels, Part 2: Warwick Castle

Oh, the joys of a scanner! It's been a long time since part 1, but now that I'm fully ensconced on Flickr, I can now upload and share to my heart's content, so it makes scanning all the more worthwhile.

The summer I turned 17, which was 1991, my parents sent me off to Jolly Old England to see the relatives. I can't remember what I did to merit such and honour, though I do remember my dad selling off some of his Costinko shares and buying a sailboat, and sending me abroad was part of that deal. I mainly stayed with his mom, my dear old England Grandma. She lived in a tiny cottage that was part of a seniors complex, and she slept on a bed from a friend's caravan that was "ever so comfortable."

I was in England 7 weeks and it was a busy trip. Apart from visiting with Grandma (who smoked like a chimney) and getting to know her better, I also stayed quite regularly with my godparents, Will & Jenny. Will is my dad's oldest friend, and he and Jenny took me all over the place. I also visited my mother's very large clan of...um, interesting...relatives who all hail from the Coventry area, as does Mom's mother.

The second day trip (the first one was to Cheddar - another story for another time) Gran and I went on was to Warwick Castle. This involved a walk, a bus trip, and a train from her home in Solihull to Warwick. The first picture above was taken from high up on the ramparts of the castle, looking down over the town and the Avon River. This excursion involved my first experience with Madame Tussaud's wax works. It was creepy. The second picture was taken from, I believe, the highest point tourists could go.

Gran wasn't one for walking lots, so I walked everywhere I could on the castle grounds by myself. It was totally awesome. We had lunch at the cafe there, and it was it a big vaulted room in the main part of the castle. I even remember what we had for lunch: Gran had a Plowman's and I had the turkey dinner. Apart from the Sainsbury's restaurant and a couple of pub lunches, this was my one of my first forays into British cuisine, and the menu items seemed so strange to me, and none of it appealed except the turkey dinner. What can I say? I was 16 and not terribly adventurous when it came to food. I mean, Tuna Mayonnaise? Puh-leez - I could get that at home!

Gran didn't want to go into the dungeon, and who could blame her? It was small and claustrophobic - quite unlike what I'd expected. I don't know; I had gathered from my voracious reading of historical fiction that dungeons would be large and cavernous; this one was tiny and only a small number of tourists could fit in it. That was part of the point, I was told, as I inspected medieval torture devices; it was all about psychology, even back then. Still, I was disappointed.

I have created a photo set for this UK trip, here, and I'll be adding to it as I continue to scan photos. I just realized that I have nearly three photo albums full of pictures from that trip! I remember that my parents bought me a new camera, but it wasn't the greatest and the picture quality isn't great. Still, it's fun to reminisce.