Niagara University Europe Trip: Warwick Castle

First of all, it is pronounced "Warick." I don't understand why. It's the same reason that Leicester is "Lester." Weird.

Anyway, the castle was awesome, and we spent four hours there. We watched them launch the trebuchet. It's the largest trebuchet in Europe (I think). It was pretty sweet. It's one thing to see them in Lord of the Rings, but it's another to see it in real life. Guys have to pull the arm back by walking in a wheel that winds the rope down. After it's fastened, they have to go the other way on the wheels to unwind the rope (so it lets go). Then it's a matter of letting it go. It was awesome.

We also went through a haunted tower. It was supposedly really haunted, but it was basically the coolest (but shortest) haunted house I've ever seen. It was only a couple rooms, but it was awesome and scary (though haunted houses don't phase me. Seriously. A guy came up behind me completely unexpectedly and yelled, and I didn't even flinch. I was more surprised by my lack of reaction than anything. Especially because Trevor basically did the same thing later and I jumped out of my skin.)

There was one point where we climbed through three different towers. There was something like 500+ stairs. It was really cool, though the heights made me a little squeamish.

And lastly we watched a bird show. It was fun. It's not very often you get to see birds of prey up close, flying around and catching food. The last bird he showed us was really young and fairly new to flight, so we got to actually watch some of the training process as they got her to fly to the top of the tallest tower and then back again.

Now for some pictures: