Tuesday- Norwich Castle

Weslee and Kevin outside the castle gates. Weslee had JUST woken up from a quick nap on Kevin's shoulder.

They had so many armour suits on display. This one caught my particular interest because it's what you picture when you read a fairy tale.

This was a REALLY DEEP well in the "keep" of the castle. This well serviced the inmates in prison as well as those servants that worked downstairs for the king. Seriously, this picture doesn't do it justice. You wouldn't want to fall down this well.

Weslee looking out at Norwich from the windows in the castle's medieval restrooms. They constructed a whole hallway of toilets for the inmates to use in medieval times (which I thought was rather humane for those times). There were four holes on two benches that faced eachother in each room (and there were several rooms) so that you could plausibly sit on the toilet facing someone else and pass the time just chatting it up. And, then I realized the toilets didn't flush and that there were probably rats...and I realized that maybe they didn't linger afterall.

We all "left our mark" on this piece of stone at the museum with a dull metal oval just like the inmates used to do. Weslee particularly enjoyed it and actually spent a good deal of time here while we read about the suits of armor and weapons. It was nice to get to read something.

Weslee and Kevin inside the toilet hallway. Notice how short the doorway is and how narrow the hallway is.

This was another thing that interested Weslee for a long time. Each of these silver things is a radio type device. You push the button and put the silver thing to your ear. A voice tells his or her story while they were in the dungeons. Weslee thought they were phones and listened intently while we read about the burial rituals of some of the Anglo-Saxons in the area.

Truthfully, we had meant to see more in Norwich, but there were several reasons this did not happen. First, we woke up late. We're still having trouble getting on a good solid sleeping schedule. Second, we had to rent a car, fill it up with gas, and find our way on streets that are alien to us. Third, um...well, we're driving on the wrong side of the street, for crying out loud. I am so glad that Kevin decided to drive today. I am still SO NERVOUS about getting in a car and travelling at 60 miles per hour past large semis on roads that are little bigger than a sidewalk. It's insane. I poked fun at Kevin as he ran over a couple of curbs and such...but I KNOW we would have been much worse off if I had done the driving. He did an excellent job of navigating round abouts in the middle of the freeway, tons and tons of pedestrian shoppers crossing the streets at random times in Norwich in the shopping district close to the castle, and in general getting us where we had hoped to go.

Once we parked in Norwich (which is a pretty large city...it used to be the second largest city in England, second only to London). Now, it has a reputation for being small and "back-woodsy". But the truth is, and any Norwich citizen will tell you, they are liberal. More so than practically anywhere else in the country. It is a metropolitan area that has all of the modern conveniences. It's within a 30 mile drive of Great Yarmouth at the beach...and it draws people from all over. We'll definitely be coming back...not just because our stake center is here, but because it's just a really cool city, full of history.

Today, we chose to see the castle, mainly because it was the building we actually found. We walked around the city for 30 minutes looking for it and finally found it. We got there late and were able to pay the cheap price to just "pop in" for a pound. We saw almost the whole museum, though we didn't get to read everything. But, then in reality...we probably wouldn't have gotten to with a child anyhow.