Chirk Castle

On our way back to London we made one last stop at Chirk Castle and it was definitely worth the detour.  Since we were traveling on the off-season (can't imagine why more people don't brave the icy rain :), many of the sites were open, but not manned.  At Chirk Castle we got the entire tour and thanks to the quiet day, Robert the Blacksmith spent almost an hour showing the boys the ropes of dueling and all the twists, turns and secrets of the castle.  

Long Sword VS. Short Sword-Tough Choice

Working on their form.

Going through their paces.

He may look innocent...

Moving onto the Staffs.

En Gaurde!

Double checking the lethalness of a dagger before testing the effectiveness of Chainmail. 

Me too! Me too!

In the Dungeon

In honor of Sir Thomas

During our tour of the dungeon, Robert very cheerfully noted that they had a friendly resident bat who was currently missing.  Needless to say, I booked it out of there.  Imagine our delight to come upon said bat outside Sir Thomas' room. Castles have excellent acoustics.  

Enjoying the view.

And that concludes our Great British road trip.  It was a crazy idea that turned out fantastically.  Reed did an excellent job with the planning and execution.  He even pre-picked movies for the kiddos to watch while we drove between destinations.  The kiddos favorite part?  Swimming pools and room service (Matts did say his life was complete now that he had seen the northern most boundary of the Roman Empire).  Reed's favorite part?  A true break from work-cell coverage was spotty at best (wait, maybe that was my favorite part :).  When all was said and done it was an amazing and memorable glimpse into the beautiful and sometimes brutal landscape of this 'little green island' that has such a rich wonderful history.