February 24, 2008

• A Castle Called Norman
  
  I mentioned that the cathedral was only half of our day in Norwich. The real reason we went was to see Norwich Castle. The castle was built 900 years ago as a palace, but for most of its life it was used as a prison (from the 1400s to mid-1800s). Now it’s a museum.
  
  

  
  

  
  I’m going to sum up with “good reasons to visit this castle.”
  

  • It’s very child friendly. There was a whole floor of the keep just for kids with blocks and a play castle and a model of the castle. And, you could wear a crown and sit on a throne.
    
  • You can walk on a 900 year old original staircase.
  • You can certainly spend a whole day there with all the interactive displays and videos.
  • Generally speaking, it was cool.

  Now, for pictures and stories… (One caveat: flash was not allowed, so all of my pictures are a bit dark and blurry.)
  
  We opted to pay extra for tours to the dungeons (Little Miss’s desire) and to the battlements (Gockle’s dream). Both were neat in their own way.
  
  The first thing we did was check out the display on Boudica, the warrior queen of the Iceni, who took on the Romans and won (for a good while).  Most of the kids had just read a Dead Famous book about her (as did I), so we enjoyed the area.
  
  

  You could take a simulated chariot ride…
  
  

  
  

  Dress up in a toga…
  
  

  
  
  

  Or pretend to take on a Roman soldier with a really short arm
  
  

  
  Next we headed into the Natural History area. I’m not really sure why this part with stuffed lions and birds was in a Norman Castle museum, but it was.
  
  

  
  

  
  Finally, it was time to head to the main part of the castle keep where most of the displays were! There was so much there that we ran out of time. (Museums and castles have an annoying habit of closing at 4:30.)
  
  

  The Great Hall
  
  

  
  There was a dollhouse which was modeled after the castle as it would have been in Norman times. You could peek in the windows and see different scenes from life–from a grand banquet to someone making use of a garderobe! (That’s a medieval toilet, by the way.)
  
  

      
  

  
  

  
  

  
  The kids were intrigued by a giant hole in the middle of the castle. It may have been a well at one time, but now it is a place to drop money and watch it fall, fall, fall.
  
  

  
  

  
  The dungeon tour was interesting, but not for the faint of heart. Instruments of punishment (like the gibbet, dunking chair, treadmill, and this box filled with rocks with a handle you had to turn 1,000 times before you’d get a meal) were fully explained and exactly what it was like to be in this dungeon were told. They even turned all the lights out for a bit so we could see just how dark it would be. We also found out that prisoners would sit in about six inches of “fluid”–rainwater and whatnot. Plus, it was very cold down there. 
  
  They had displays set up inside some of the cells to give you ideas.
  
  

  Rats! He got the last bed!
  
  

  
  

  Not much hope…
  
  

  
  The battlement tour wasn’t TGD’s or Little Miss’s favorite, but they were troopers. I thought it was cool to be on a 900 year old, fully-functional spiral staircase.
  
  

  Norwich Cathedral on our foggy day
   
  

  
  Our guide said Hitler was so taken with the building below, City Hall, that he imagined himself giving a victory speech between the two pillars. (Of all the gorgeous buildings in England, he liked THIS one best? No accounting for taste.)  Anyhow, he instructed his fighter pilots not to bomb this building. So, they came to the castle (which was a “no bomb zone” and flew either right or left. The Caley Chocolate Factory (to the left) was bombed, and the whole town smelled of chocolate for weeks.  Interesting thing: Caley’s gave Norwich Cathedral a brass (bronze?) big bowl that had been used for melting chocolate. It is now the font of the cathedral.
  
  

  Little Man, Little Moustache, Big Pillars
  
  

  (That’s a permanent open-air market in front.)
  
  Another nifty story our guide told was that a man once jumped from the top of the battlements in a prison break. Even though it is easily 60 feet or more to the ground, he only broke his leg. The officials were so impressed with his bravery and hardiness that they didn’t kill him. Instead, they sent him to America!
  
  Back inside, we went to the lowest level of the keep where they had all sorts of nifty things for the youngest castle-folk. (And lots of benches for moms an dads.)
  
  

  I enjoyed the model of what the castle would have looked like 900 years ago.
  
  

  
  

  Little Miss enjoyed the castle toy and blocks
       
  

  
  We finished the day (but far from unfinished with the castle touring) with a demonstration of armor and weapons.  He explained how easy it was to move in armor and how nicely jointed it was.

  Gauntlet Man
  

  
  

  
  We got to try on real armor, handle swords, and more.
  
  The armor fellow told us that you couldn’t call it a “suit of armor” unless it was made for the same person at the same time. If it was not, you should call it a “harness of armor.” The harness bit comes from the straps on the under-jacket. 
  
  The under-jacket, a thick coat designed to both be extra protection from sword slices and padding for the armor is where we get the phrase “jack of all trades,” he said.  He also showed us a small, dinner-plate sized shield called a “buckler.” When soldiers went into a pub, they’d slide the handle of the shield over the end of their sword, and “swash” the buckler–swashbuckling.  Or so the guide said. (My research says that it doesn’t come from hanging the buckler but banging it around and making a lot of noise–swashing. This was a way for braggarts to show off and challenge others.)
  
  Giant kudos to you if you understand the allusion in my title!

  • 2:02 pm
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