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A weekend in Warwick 18 June 2007 ~ 12:34 Mum, Mark & I just had a weekend break in Warwick.I had enough points from my Priority Club (Holiday Inn) from staying at the HI in Boca Raton, that we could get a free night in a Holiday Inn Express in the UK. So I picked Warwick as I had been to Warwick Castle on a day trip 10 years ago and I knew what a beautiful castle it is and that Mum & Mark would enjoy it. We took the train up from Marylebone Station (tickets were �15, less for Mum with her Senior Rail Card) and the journey took about 1 hour 30 minutes. The train passes through some really nice countryside and villages and we saw rabbits, cows, horses and sheep in the fields. It looked like it might rain but it didn't. We had taken umbrellas in case. We got there and caught a cab from Warwick Station to the hotel, a 10 minute ride. We had a chuckle about the taxi drivers sitting outside the cab office. They reminded us of the guys in 'Deliverence' because they seemed real bumpkins with bad teeth. We checked in to the hotel. It was very nice, we like Holiday Inn because they are always so clean. And we decided to walk to the castle, about 25 minutes' walk. The sun was shining which was more than we had hoped for. We got to the castle gates but it was another long trek round winding paths to get to the entrance. We had to sit in the cafe and eat first because there hadn't been any sandwiches for sale on the train. It rained while we were eating but soon stopped and the sun came out again. Unfortunately, when we went to buy tickets, we were told it was closing an hour early at 5pm because of a function! (This was 4pm). However they only charged us �7 each (normal adult cost is �16.95). We went and took photos of each other with the castle behind us, then we went and watched someone having a go at firing a crossbow. They always have several activities going on at Warwick, like ghost tours, archery, jousting, hawking etc. We walked up to the castle and went to where there were displays of horses in full armour with knights on them. They were pretty magnificent and we took pictures. Mum loved the river behind and the little bridges that you could see out of the window. Mark wanted to climb right to the top of the highest tower so Mum & I let him get on with it because we knew we couldn't manage it in the short time we had. So we went in the Armoury Gift Shop. I got Mark a nice dragon key chain and some postcards. They had a lovely dragon pen & book set I wanted to get but it was �20. When he came back (we waved to him at the top) we went in the 'Kingmaker' exhibition, a waxwork display of characters that would have lived in the castle. (Warwick Castle is run by Madame Tussauds). The most fascinating thing was the garderobes, medieval loos where the effluent would have just gone down the side of the walls, into the river. But they had proper seats and lids. Imagine all the long-ago bums that sat on there! When we got out, we went to see the peacocks that strut around the grounds. There are also people in medieval costume walking about and you can ask them questions. After we got out of the castle we walked around the small town and went for dinner at The Roebuck, a pub that is the oldest serving pub in Warwick, over 500 years old. Many of the buildings were as old or older, although according to our taxi driver the next day, they were lucky to survive as Warwick had a great fire the year after The Great Fire of London of 1666. All in all, a very enjoyable weekend with better weather than expected 
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