UK Travel Journal - Day 4 4/24/05 (Part II)
WARWICK CASTLE
After having yet another Mickey D’s lunch, the six of us headed off to the ancient
While we were on line purchasing our tickets, we noticed that there was a family rate and decided group ourselves together (saved a whopping £2). Richard, Ben, Joe and I were “the family” and Ching became the single mom to Sam. As soon as we got to the entrance, our brats bolted and disappeared on us. Since Ching was also nowhere to be found, I knew they couldn’t have gotten too far. Then I heard some giggling coming from above…the hooligans were hiding in the overpass above the gate. Ching yelled over, “What kind of parents are you? You’ve lost all of your kids!”
“Let them be lost so I don’t have to feed them!” – People were a little taken by my sarcastic remark…but really, we’re such a dysfunctional lot, aren’t we? Now how do a Chinese mom and British sod have such good looking children who look nothing like either of the two?
So we enter the Castle grounds and started to fumble around the map. No more than a few seconds passed, Joe sprinted off, along with Sam and Ben following after him. They barreled through the entrance of the Infamous Dungeon where the prisoners were tortured and locked away. Unfortunately, they cut and shoved through the long line of visitors. I was mortified as one of the girls on line had gotten reamed out by her father over the lads and seeing the disappointed expression of these visitors.
Ching, Richard and I turned beet red since we had to wait for our turn on line to get into the Dungeon. Not only were we separated, I was hissing that I’d rip them a butthole if they didn’t come out in a few minutes. Wow, they must’ve heard me psychically because they emerged from the entrance as soon the thought crossed my mind.
Although they appeared to be overjoyed, I reprimanded them over their behavior and put their moods to a damper. I hated yelling at the boys, but seeing someone else getting blamed for something that was clearly not her fault put me at an unfavorable position. I took away their fun privileges: no treats, no souvenirs, nada. I coined myself the title, Linda the Tyrant. I wasn’t especially keen on chastising my friends’ kids and I'll trade with their parents to do the job!
I felt bad because I knew that they wanted to do more, but it was hard since the castle/museum is hardly a place for them to break free and run around. Plus, Ching was so enthralled with taking scenic pictures (girlfriend bought a $400+ digital camera just for THIS trip!), they were having a tough time staying still for more than 3 minutes.
We all went through the entire castle going from one end of the Tower to the next. The medieval castle was fantastic and remarkably well preserved. Ching was completely blown away with the scenery and the antiquity of the castle. Walking the stairs proved to be a bit of a challenge as they spiraled narrowly, were horribly steep, and worst of all, completely dark. My sneakers were scuffed from trying to feel my way going up and down the continuous stairs. There are signs plastered everywhere stating that those individuals who are not in the best of health should not be taking the stairs. The boys, however, had the best time since they loved climbing up and down and tried to count the 503 stairs going up the
I wanted to deck Richard in the face when he mentioned how we could create a really cool domino effect if we slipped and fell down the stairs. NOT! He actually managed to walk those stairs with the camera in hand, so I gotta give him four stars for this magnificent feat!
When we reached the highest tower, we parked our butts for a little bit since we were out of breath. With all of that work getting up there, dammit, we’re gonna soak up the atmosphere! Of course, the lads were getting bored again.
Sam suggested visiting certain areas and whenever I approved, the three were ready to dash off again. I had to rein them back in by reminding them that we all had to wait for Ching as this was her favorite attraction and needed more time to appreciate these surroundings. To ensure that I had the proper body count, each child was referred to as 1, 2, & 3. Every 10 minutes I’d be counting heads and so did Richard.
To reward them for their patience, Richard treated them to some ice cream and dammit, the stuff is awesome. Why can’t we have that stuff here in the
Afterwards, we headed home for Ben’s little birthday party. I strategically placed Sam next to me and I passed out on the way home. Because of the darned headrest on the seat, I couldn’t lay my head back (disadvantages of being vertically challenged). Without the support, my head kept rolling around like a pendulum and occasionally knocking into Sam’s head. I would wake up for a moment with Sam in hysterics as my head would continue to loll back and forth. At least it provided the lads some form of entertainment during the hour-plus drive!
At home, mum and dad eagerly asked how their kids behaved…I had to break in the bad news. So Ben lost his mobile phone privileges (he argued that it was his birthday, but mum shot down the notion), while both Sam & Joe were both grounded. It was bad enough getting yelled by me and then by their own parents, so I didn’t add any more salt to the wound. I didn’t tell mum about how they were touching the displays (when they weren’t supposed to) poking out the eyeballs of the life-sized wax figures, and trying to pick up the accessories adorned by the figures (Sarah & Andy, now you know!).
Next: Shopping at ASDA