Cheeky Travels

Good morning America!

It’s 5pm here and 9am there, but no matter! I’m becoming more accustomed with the time difference, although it is a bit frustrating that no one is awake to respond to Viber messages until the evening here *cough cough Sam*. 

I woke up to the sad score of the Superbowl this morning, sorry if I hit a sore spot Bay Area, as well as the Sharks are no longer the only undefeated team in the NHL 😦 but it is all okay because I have a new sport to love; rugby! It has the roughness I love in hockey, and lacks the yards and downs in American football which I never understood, making it the ideal sport for me!

Anyways, back to the main topic of this post! The past couple days Linda (my “British mom”) has taken me to the towns around Coventry to see what they have to offer.

On Saturday we went into Leamington to do some shopping, where I got a new map of the British Isles to add to the collection I’ve built up on my wall at home.

The main street, or as they call it here, the high street in Leamington.

The town hall of Leamington, but in the 1830s it was Royal Leamington Spa. It received the title of “Royal” after Queen Victoria stayed there.

 A statue of Queen Victoria out front of Town Hall

This morning we went to Kenilworth and visited the Kenilworth Castle! Castles are a bit more common in the United Kingdom, seeing as there are no castles in America at all, so my excitement is apparently amusing. Actually, I take that back– while college touring in the South over Spring Break I saw the Castle of Kentucky.

See! It exists!

Anyyywayyys… the castle was built in the 1120s and is quite significant, seeing as it was under siege for six months in 1266, what was believed to be the longest siege in English history. It is also where the Earl of Leicester a visit from Queen Elizabeth the First (who I have heard we supposed to have had an affair, seeing as she never married. But don’t take my word on that one!)

Kenilworth Castle

As you can see from the picture above, it’s not exactly in pristine condition. These are the ruins that are left over by Parliamentary forces in 1649 to keep it from being used as a military stronghold.

The view of the castle from another side

So cold!

 The strip of dirt in the middle of this picture is the Tilt Yard where knights would tilt, or as we know it, joust. (the area is a lot longer then appears in the picture)

Homes across the street, built at the same time as the castle, complete with a red phone booth and post box

 (from left to right) a guard station behind what would have been the moat, the Inner Court, and Leicester’s Gatehouse

Also in the town of Kenilworth, we visited a church, with a rather extensive name as you can see below

The church

The surroundings of the church

As pretty as the homes in the background are, I would never want to live in them. The cemetery looks like it’s straight out of a zombie movie.

 

 

Cottages from the 17th century that housed masons and builders employed by Robert Dudley (the Earl of Leicester) to work on the castle

Warming up at The Queen and Castle, a pub across the street from the castle

I haven’t been here a whole week and yet I have learned so much about England and it’s history! Although I can’t seem to keep all of the Royal names straight (there are so many Williams, Henrys, Elizabeths, Edwards, and so on) I have acquired so much knowledge, more then I would ever be able to handle reading about in a text book.

Cheers,

Michelle