Chepstow Castle

Well, hello! Sorry for the blog silence, but I've been studying for my drivers' test. "Wait," you ask. "Didn't you pass your drivers' test back when you were a teenager, like TWENTY plus years ago!?" Why, yes, yes I did. But as an American now living in the UK, I get to take it again. Despite the fact that I have been driving for over twenty years, with nary a speeding ticket, accident, or even a parking ticket to my name, I have to retake the written and practical tests to get a UK license. No, this does not have to do with safety. I can drive for a year on my US license, and American tourists come and go on the roads with no problem. But as soon as I have been living here for one year, even if I have had no road incidents, I have to revert to a learners' license, pass the test, or stop driving. If I came from Canada (or Zimbabwe, for the record) I could just exchange my license for a UK without the test. But we Americans have to take the test.

I will write more about this whole process and all of its incredible absurdity in a later post, but I just wanted you all to know that for the past week during the kids' computer hour (which is when I usually blog) I have instead been studying the 400+ page UK road safety booklet. I just passed the written test yesterday, though, so now I can get back to life-that-matters. (Also, you should all be quite impressed that both Eric and I passed the theory test on the first try--the pass rate is just over 40%.) Now we have to take lessons and pass our practical exam, which is even more ridiculous than the written. Fortunately, we can safely drive on our American licenses for eight more months (presumably rendering the roads unsafe and endangering untold thousands as we do so...) so we can take a little break from our driving practice for the moment as we line up our lessons.

Anyway, a few weeks back, before I started memorizing tire-tread depths in all my free time, we went to Chepstow Castle in Wales. Every castle we've visited has had some unique or especially interesting feature. This castle was the kids' favorite so far, and I can't say I blame them for feeling that way, as it was pretty cool!

First, we parked the car. Eric, having practiced his manoeuvers for the upcoming practical driving test, managed to parallel park perfectly in a tiny city spot, so we got free parking! (On the test, if you hit the curb, or park more than twelve inches from the curb, you automatically fail. They bring a tape measure. That's not a joke.) Then we walked down this cute street of row houses, the charm of which this picture fails to capture:

The castle itself is the oldest post-Roman stone building in Britain. It was first built by a Norman lord, and remained in use as a defensive fortification until the 16th century, when it was mostly used as a house. It saw more action during the English Civil War, and then fell into disrepair.

You can see why they chose the site for the castle, surrounded as it is on two sides by the River Wye, and perched atop some pretty defensive-looking cliffs. I took the picture below from a window that overlooked the river and was used for supplying the castle from the river. They lowered a bucket (or something like that) down to the boats and raised up wheat, ale, etc.

The kids loved all the dark passageways and winding stairs of the castle, but my favorite feature was this totally amazing and well-preserved door. This was actually the front gateway to the castle. Can you see the little small-sized door for one person to sneak in and out of when they wanted to make sure the main doors were still closed? How cool is that? The door is 800 years old, and is the oldest wooden door in Europe!

This is the inner courtyard of the front part of the castle. We went up some pretty great spiral stairs to the top of that building you see ahead.

Here's another door on an inside room. Something about the climate or wood used here must have been especially conducive to durability, because in most of the castles we've visited all the wood has been mostly rotted away.

Here are some more pictures from various rooms inside the castle:

These people have a pretty cool view from their backyard!

See the pretty yellow flowers growing way up there?

We are going back to Wales this weekend, but I think we are going to check out some of the Roman ruins this time, because I've been focusing on Roman Britain with the kids, and have ordered some books from the library. It's always so fun to read and learn about something and then go there in person! That's one of my favorite things about living in Europe so far!