Rasmus and I were back in the UK this weekend for a friend’s wedding, and also to catch up with lots of my family, since the wedding was close to my parents’ home. It was the first time we’d seen them since before we went to America, so needless to say there were big hugs all round when we arrived, and lots of catching up to do.
Saturday we drove up to Warwick, close to where my sister lives, and spent a chilly but fun afternoon at Warwick castle.
It’s a beautiful old castle set right in the middle of Warwick town on the River Avon. It’s mostly still intact, so you can walk along the battlements and up the old towers, or wander through the lavishly decorated hallways and grand rooms, imagining yourself at royal dinners and weekend hunting parties…
There were hundreds (literally) of steps to walk up and down and fantastic views from the top. I don’t mind going up those spiral stairways but coming down? I get dizzy within about 30 seconds and then spend the rest of them going down at snails pace feeling my way. Clearly I would have made a rubbish medieval soldier. Middle of a siege and I’m scooting down the stairs on my butt to fetch more arrows or boiling tar…!
It was a fun day and we even got to see the birds of prey show which was fascinating. They had an owl, a hawk and an eagle on display that day. At some point the wee hawk dived towards the food missing my head by about four inches which about gave me a heart attack! The eagle was the most impressive, such a huge huge creature and so beautiful to see him fly. I did find it funny when their handler told us that since it actually takes them a lot of energy to fly they’re much happier just sitting around in trees waiting for their food to come along. Sounds a lot like me sometimes!
Sunday we got to see some of my cousins and my aunt and uncle which was lovely. We somehow squeezed all 13 of us into my parents’ kitchen for a yummy lunch. In the interest of full disclosure (and because my cousin Allie said she would out me on my blog! Shocking!) I did have a tiny slice of bakewell tart, which is definitely not in the allowable foods list for our month’s detox! But since my aunt had brought along two delicious tarts and a chocolate birthday cake for my cousins’ little boy, I think one small slice is showing remarkable restraint!
I hope you all had a marvelous weekend too!
