31Jan2009: Day 250: Carlisle Castle and Cathedral

We did go back to the Liverpool Cathedral and got to see some more of this amazingly huge place. They were having some kind of ritual dance which was interesting to watch. I wish we could’ve gotten up to the tower but knew that wouldn’t have been possible with Makenna. I think I read that you could take a lift (elevator) up but then had to climb another 108 steps.
We then left to go further up North to Scotland. It was going to be another 4 hours to get to Edinburgh where we had a hotel reservation. As we were driving we realized that we were not going to make it in time to see anything in Scotland today. We then made a quick decision to see things where we were at which was Carlisle, and found that there was a castle and a cathedral.

The castle is a bit different than some of the castles we’ve seen in that it was a rust-red color compared to the grayish-brown ones that are typically built. They believe that the castle was built in 1092 by King William Rufus and that it was probably a wooden structure. Than in the early 12th century it was replaced by King Henry I & King David I of Scotland. It’s also known as Queen Mary of Scots was in prison here and had her own tower but that is now demolished.
The castle kept being taken over between England and Scotland during their different fights. It was also a prominent place during the Jacobite Rebellion of 1745. In the 19th century, during the First World War, the castle was used to train recruits. In fact a lot of the buildings are considered “private” as it’s still used to accommodate soldiers today. I think the most amazing thing about this castle was the area it incorporated. I think, if I remember correctly, it covered over 60 acres. It looked literally like a town inside a castle wall.

Of which the cathedral was inside this area. The cathedral is over 900 years old and while we were there, people were practicing to sing “The Messiah.” They sounded really good (brief video of them at the bottom). So we had to quietly walk-around and look at things. This place had some more crypts than the Liverpool castle did. They also had some really old paintings on the back of the choir stalls which date back to the 15th century. One of the paintings was of the Twelve Apostles.

One thing that Makenna did in both the Liverpool Cathedral and this cathedral was to ask for bread (sacrament). She would hear the people singing and then assume that sacrament would come. So she kept saying, “bread, bread?” It’s hard to explain to a two year old that she wouldn’t be getting sacrament in a church.

Makenna did fairly well until we tried walking to the cathedral. She just wanted to be carried and we didn’t bring the pushcart out of the car. She kept crying, falling to the ground, and saying that she was a baby that needed to be carried. I thought kids don’t regress unless there’s another sibling that they get jealous of. We finally decided to walk ahead of her, let her have her fits, and then when she got up to where we were, we would carry her for a bit. This process happened three or four times.

She also wasn’t up for dinner after we had ordered it for her. She decided that her water was “delicious” enough. “Mmm, this is delicious” she said as she drank her water. Well, it offsets yesterday’s lunch where she surprised us and ate the whole meal from KFC, albeit a kid’s meal. Right now she’s trying to bargain with me to have a snack, even though it’s bed time. I told her since she didn’t have dinner she couldn’t have a cookie. She seems to be trying to tell me that she had lunch therefore she should get a cookie. At least that’s what it seems like she’s trying to say as she keeps mentioning lunch.