Well, as promised on my other blog, Here is our trip to Orford Castle we took about 3 weeks ago.

Orford Castle sits on the furthest eastern coast of England. It has two marble spiral staircases (flashbacks of Pisa kept hounding me lol) and was built in 1165 AD. It remains in excellent condition to this day! Here are the girls exploring the castle canons on the grounds outside:

It was a really beauitful day, although very windy which made it feel colder than it was. The Castle overlooks the north sea, so wind off the water chilled everything quite a bit. This picture is of the girls and I walking up the steps to the front door. For those that have wondered, this is how i look with 3 kiddos lol. I had Joey tucked inside my coat in a ababy carrier so I could at least have my hands free to help the girls up...the steps went up pretty high before you were inside and they were worn and chipped in some places.

Inside the castle they had a giant illustrated book of how it would have looked in it's prime day, and how life was lived. it was very interesting, although I had to watch the girls closely as they almost managed to tear the pages several times. This page is showing the different ways people may have tried to overtake the great castle walls and you can see megan doing her usual "song and dance vanna routine" lol. she gets so excited. it is so funny to watch!

Here is what used to be the Chapel of the Castle. this room was very interesting. they had a place for a "Sink", a few cubby nooks in the stones served as storage for goblets or other things they may have used at that time. Here are the girls and i sitting upon the "alter"...i know, this is probably so wrong, but i couldn't help the picture opportunity lol! I told the girls to pretend they were drinking from the goblets. I can't help but think that Julia is looking at megan thinkinkg, "NOT in the mouth megan! eeeeew!" okay, maybe that is just what I was thinking lol.

And here is a modern day picture of the town of Orford itself. The church was also built around the same time. It was a cute little village. not much parking though...but alot of walking potential lol.

So that was our lasttest castle adventure! Joe and I want to take a trip to see Warwick Castle and that will probably be our last one. I think this had been the 5th or 6th castle we've seen and they are starting to all "look the same." Warwick is a 3 hour drive from us one way though, so that will be saved for when our more dependable vehical arrrives. Until then, here is an awesome site and history about Orford Castle! it has some great photographs and illustrations of how it would have looked in it's prime and with it's curtain wall! |
April 11, 2007 - Hiya!