15-02-09 'Porchester Castle'

By -

Wow! History is amazing! We just visited Porchester Castle in Portsmouth. It was built in the early 1100's, though the original fort was built by the romans in around 270BC...amazing! It has housed many people, including Edward II, Henry III, Henry VIII with his then wife Anne Bolin. It has been a battlement, a prison, a hospital, a friary & who knows what else. The feeling walking throughout the castle was eerie to say the least. Can't begin to describe how it feels to walk over ground trod by so many significant people from times gone by. Makes you feel kind of insignificant in comparison. We climbed right up to the top (by various stair cases & finally a narrow spiral stone stair case). Could see so far...right across the water toward France.

The Neopolitan wars were fought from the castle along with the 200 year old war against France, which France won the first time. The castle was supposed to be burned to the ground after this but, obviously, this didn't happen and so history writes itself.


We are off the London tomorrow to see the changing of the guards & who know what else. Will keep you all posted. Kerry.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Starting a new life

By -
What a week! This week we left our comfortable life in Australia and began a new, uncertain life in the UK. Since leaving the hot dry conditions of Oz we have seen snow, rain, sleet, hail and (believe it or not) sunshine, all in 1 week. The boys (and Kerry and I) thoroughly enjoyed seeing snow fall and had our very first snowball fight. Although there have been a great deal of ups, it hasn't been without its downs too. Leaving family was hard but staying in a 1 bedroom, no private bathroom, B&B for over a week is starting to grate on us. We now know we are moving soon into a 2 bedroom, semidetached house in Waterlooville. This will be the highlight next week. So far we have had only one moment where the boys have become homesick, missing their cousins, grandparents and friends. No doubt this will happen regularly. They have assured us though, that they would not swap the experience for anything!! We will continue to post many updates, hopefully more than once a week. So
Read more

Tears, tantrums and triumph!

By -
Image
Today was one of those days in life that really threatened to bring me down! Matt and I set off with a group of hikers to head up Mt Warning today.  Having never done this track before we had no idea what really lay ahead.  The sign at the beginning warned that there were many steps and steep inclines .... but nothing could have prepared me mentally for what this really meant. The Wollumbin National Park, at Mt Warning, Summit track is NOT for the light hearted!  6 months ago there is NO WAY I could have made it up the 4.5km track (9km return) ... well, not in the 2:15 hours we did it in.  The track is listed as a 'difficult' climb, with many (many, many) steps, followed by a steep rock face (with a chain to assist the climb). By 2km I knew I had bitten off more than I really wanted to chew.... but refused to give in to the voices in my head.  I may have chewed poor Matt out for his attempts to support me mentally.  Definitely not in the right headspace for this today - bu
Read more