9th June 2006
After being back in Merry Olde England for a few days and doing some of the more boring chores one has to do, like washing our clothes and going shopping we decided to go on an outing in our little car.
We decided to go and visit some historical landmarks in England, and we started off by going to Castle Rising Castle in Norfolk. It was quite a long drive and I spent most of it either asleep or looking out at the English countryside with my headphones on. We arrived at Castle Rising and paid to get in as you do in England. The castle was very intact and it had been one of the only castles in England to survive the ravishes of Oliver Cromwell who blew the rooves off most castles.
The castle was surrounded by large earthen ramparts which could be climbed onto via the gateway stairs. I did this of course, determined to make the day an adventure. I also decided to climb down the ramparts instead of doing the full circle around the castle and coming back down the other side of the gate. It was a very steep climb, and I was a little worried about making it, but I had seen something interesting down below. It was some foundations of another building servants’ quarters probably, or stables I thought. On the other side of the castle there was the remains of a much earlier church which compared to the castle was in ruins. It was also much lower down in the ground, clearly this part of the complex had to be excavated.
I entered the castle itself, which was actually quite small compared to most English castles and went upstairs and viewed what used to be the great hall. I also went in some of the main rooms which were more intact and habitable looking than some of the houses in Parramatta I had lived in, the previous year. The rooms were painted white and had small doorways with thick wooden doors and massive arch patterns in the ceiling. I went right down to the bottom floor which used to be a storage area and noticed that it was wet, I then went outside and sat on the fresh green grass and stared at the castle wondering what sort of function it had had. I sat there for ages just trying to imagine the castle in its heyday, until mum and dad finally emerged.
We then decided to go to Hunstanton, an English seaside town quite near to Cambridgeshire. We got there and everything appeared to be closed, the place stunk like God knows what and the sea was a good mile from where we were. The sand was a dirty brown colour and I realised for once how lucky we are here in Australia to have such beautiful beaches. This place was where most of my family came to spend their holidays, it was cold and windy by my standards and didn’t look like somewhere I would holiday at all. We had lunch at Hunstanton and then proceeded back to Huntingdon.