Monday, July 21, 2014

Day 5: Built in 1018

Today consisted of visiting Carrickfergus Castle, which was built in 1018 by the Normans (Normandy). It is the most well-kept castle in all of Ireland. It is in almost pristine condition. There are a few stairwells that are blocked off, and you can't go underneath the castle at all (aka dungeons) sadly, but it was still amazing seeing it all.

The castle, when it was built, had a wall added later on in the 13th century, and also another wall extension added on in the 14th-15th century. The castle now only has the first of the two extensions, but there are illustrated photos and a small scale model of what the castle would have looked like back in the 15th century. 

One interesting thing about the castle is that all the doorways are so small! People were much shorter back then, and the doorways prove it. Either that or the people were fond of bending over every time they walked through a door. I have a hard time believing the secon theory...

There is one stairwell in particular that was fun going down. It's an old spiraling one that's very narrow and all the steps are uneven from age. You could only go down so far, which was unfortunate. I would have liked to have gone down further.

In the castle courtyard and up on the wall' sedge there are several cannons. Several are pre-World War I, and the larger ones up on the walls are WWII. The larger ones have an accuracy rate of 3 miles. Pretty good, all things considered. 

No idea what tomorrow holds.

A few differences noted today are that:

1) They don't tip in cafés and restaurants. If it's a really nice restaurant, you might. Some places add service charges to your bill.

2) Their windows and doors don't have screens. So if you open a window to let a breeze in, you're also letting the flies in. 


Quote of the day (Jim): "The problem with Guinness is it makes you think you can sing."

Word difference of the day:
USA: sleeping in
N. Ireland: lying in

Breakfast this morning.

The main second courtyard and main house of Carrickfergus Castle.

WWII cannon: accuracy range is 3 miles

See how small these doorways are?

Late lunch.

Ice cream for dessert!

A quick laugh.

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