We were able to get up early, in fact, I felt I barely slept all night, to get to the ferry boat on time to go over to the Isle of Wight. The car trip is just a little over two hours and the ferry boat was only about an hour. I have to say I was extremely nervous about the boat ride over. See tomorrow's blog as to why I would be a bit hesitant. Makenna really enjoyed the boat ride over and was able to sit up against a window on the third floor, looking out. She gave us a bit of trouble when she decided to throw her Cheerios all over the floor and then later spit out her drink. She's picked up the throwing of Cheerios from Hannah and I think she picked up spitting her drinks out from watching us brush our teeth. But their both habits that are extremely annoying right now.
Anyways, we got over to the island, and it was only about a 20 minute drive to the Carisbrooke Castle. Being that it was a very rainy day, we were unable to see the whole castle, as the stone steps and stone wall, or rampart, were very slippery so they closed them off. T
his of course would've given us a really good view of the Isle of Wight and we would've been able to see some more of the ruins and the Shell Keep. The Shell Keep was just the last place of refuge of the castle if they were being attacked and losing.
his of course would've given us a really good view of the Isle of Wight and we would've been able to see some more of the ruins and the Shell Keep. The Shell Keep was just the last place of refuge of the castle if they were being attacked and losing.But we did see the well that was used by the castle and it's grounds. We've seen other wells at other castles but I have to say this was really impressive. It's 161 feet deep and the top part is lined with ma
sonry, and then they had to cut through chalk as they dug down. It has a huge wheel attached to it to lower the bucket and bring it back up again. They say the wheel (imagine a huge hamster wheel), must have originally been worked by prisoners but then they started to use donkeys. So now the castle is known for the donkeys that they house and take care of. For the demonstration, they brought in an actual donkey and had it walk on the wheel to bring up the bucket. Makenna loved just watching the "horsie" and just kept saying "horsie" the whole time. One other thing they did was to actually take a scoop full of water and drop it down into the well so you could see how deep it was. You could actually count five to six seconds before you heard it splash. When I looked down into the well, it was crystal clear water.
sonry, and then they had to cut through chalk as they dug down. It has a huge wheel attached to it to lower the bucket and bring it back up again. They say the wheel (imagine a huge hamster wheel), must have originally been worked by prisoners but then they started to use donkeys. So now the castle is known for the donkeys that they house and take care of. For the demonstration, they brought in an actual donkey and had it walk on the wheel to bring up the bucket. Makenna loved just watching the "horsie" and just kept saying "horsie" the whole time. One other thing they did was to actually take a scoop full of water and drop it down into the well so you could see how deep it was. You could actually count five to six seconds before you heard it splash. When I looked down into the well, it was crystal clear water. They also had a small museum in the castle which used to be the Great Hall, We got to see some of the bedrooms that housed Charles I who was actually a prisoner at the castle in 1647-1648. He first went to the castle as a visitor but when they found that he intended to start another civil war, they kept him there as a prisoner. He tried to escape twice and the first time he was caught because he got wedged between the window bars. He was moved to another room and again tried to escape through a window, but two the guards who he thought were going to help him escape actually betrayed him, so he just stayed where he was. Charles I was eventually executed in 1649 (not at the castle though). He also had two children that were kept as prisoners here and his daughter Princess Elizabeth died at the age of 14 here from pneumonia. Her brother Henry was a prisoner for 3 years and then was released.
Princess Beatrice (daughter of Queen Victoria) then lived here as her summer residence. She was the last to use the castle as a residence. The castle has a lot of prior history to what I wrote above and some in between and after. Most of what is in ruins was from an area that was George Carey's Mansion. He was the cousin to Queen Elizabeth I. He knew he was a prominent person so in order to show that he was high in status, he built a mansion within the castle walls. I'm not sure why it's all broken down and in ruins now - you just see a shell of things that used to be.
There was also a chapel of St. Nicholas within the castle grounds and is now a memorial to the island's dead of the First World War. The guardhouse is turned into an area where you can watch a short film about the history of the castle. It had an animated donkey in it so Makenna was happy to sit and watch it. She kept asking for the "horsie" every time it stopped showing him in the movie.
We then ate the lunch I packed, in the car and went onto the Osborne House. NOT Ozzy Osbourne mind you! It was the house of Queen Victoria (the one mentioned above as mother to Princess Beatrice) and her husband Prince Albert. They wanted a private house wit
h "beach front" away from court life in London. We went on a tour of the first floor of the house. In the winter months, you have to go on a scheduled tour and the other floors, the Swiss Cottage, summerhouse, and some of the gardens are closed. The tour guide said that they bought the house in 1845 and that the house that was there at the time didn't meet Prince Albert's needs as it only had 16 bedrooms! So they had it knocked down and rebuilt it in the style of Italian Renaissance. Prince Albert designed a lot of it himself.
h "beach front" away from court life in London. We went on a tour of the first floor of the house. In the winter months, you have to go on a scheduled tour and the other floors, the Swiss Cottage, summerhouse, and some of the gardens are closed. The tour guide said that they bought the house in 1845 and that the house that was there at the time didn't meet Prince Albert's needs as it only had 16 bedrooms! So they had it knocked down and rebuilt it in the style of Italian Renaissance. Prince Albert designed a lot of it himself. There were a few interesting things to note in this house. One, they had a lot of sculptures that they had given each other as gifts. I was saying to Chris, wouldn't it be nice to just give each other these huge sculptures - but then we'd need a house big enough to put them in too. One of the sculptures was over 2000 years old. Another thing was the ceilings. They were painted in 1850 and haven't needed to be re-touched since then. They've been cleaned but not re-painted. Chris thinks it's probably the good lead paint they had back then.
Prince Albert also had certain things painted to look like marble. The hallway where the staircase was and some of the columns in a room that were actually support columns. It was pretty convincing - it did look like marble from a distance. After Prince Albert died, Queen Victoria had another wing built onto the house (which balanced it out more,) and it was done in an "Indian" th
eme. the "Durbar Room" was absolutely amazing. There were wooden moulds than they were plastered over and also had a material on them similar to paper mache. The whole room, including the ceiling was done this way. The ceiling was done as one big mould and it's actually a drop-ceiling. The bolts that hold the ceiling in place are hidden by lights. We weren't allowed to take pictures in the house (although I snuck a few). So this was taken off a website.
eme. the "Durbar Room" was absolutely amazing. There were wooden moulds than they were plastered over and also had a material on them similar to paper mache. The whole room, including the ceiling was done this way. The ceiling was done as one big mould and it's actually a drop-ceiling. The bolts that hold the ceiling in place are hidden by lights. We weren't allowed to take pictures in the house (although I snuck a few). So this was taken off a website.I have to say Makenna was a "dream" during this tour. Of course, it helped that she was asleep. She woke up the last 10 minutes of the tour. We then walked along the gardens outside of the house for a bit. I was taking pictures of some of the sculptures in the garden when I realized after the second or third picture, that they were all covered up and I was taking pictures of sheets on top of the statues.
Then we got in the car and we had an 1.5 hours until our scheduled ferry boat trip back. We decided to go there anyways in the hopes that maybe we could get on an earlier one. We got there about 5 minutes before it was taking off and they did let us on. Which is nice because that meant we got home earlier. The ferry trip back was fairly uneventful. She was a bit anxious at times. Chris and I had gotten Hot Chocolate and of course she wanted some. It was way to hot and she was quite upset. When it was finally cool enough (and near the end of the drink) I tried to let her drink it but by then she was too scared that it was hot. I got childish and stuck her hand in the drink to show her it wasn't hot and she then promptly dried her hand off on my hair and scarf. Chris laughed and said it served me right...it did.
No comments:
Post a Comment