Afternoon in Cirencester

Well, I am trying to get all of my pictures caught up onto the blog . . . and I'm doing it in order. So naturally everything is several weeks outdated. But better late than never I suppose! A couple weeks ago we had a fabulous little Sunday afternoon excursion to Cirencester . . . which is the old Roman city of Corinium. It was apparently the 2nd largest Roman city in Britain, with London being the largest . . . and it was built throughout the first century. There is a fabulous museum there, featuring all of the things that they have found in the city . . . enormous mosaic floors, jewelry, column capitals, weapons . . . all in all it was loads of fun. There was even a section for the kids to try on Roman armour. (Although, is it just me, or does it seem a little funny to have the Romans wearing chain mail? I kind of thought they did the big breastplate and shin-guard jobbies.)

Here is Knox putting on his best fierce Roman soldier face.

Jemima testing out how she'd like to be a warrior princess.

Belphoebe . . . dressed like her namesake from the
Faerie Queen! (Although missing the
leather breeches.)

Hero looking very ferocious indeed.

. . . . and Judah, feeling exceptionally pleased with himself.

And finally, Daddy is incredibly authentic, don't you think?

Then we stopped and looked at the Abbey. It had just closed, so we couldn't get in . . . but we enjoyed the outside quite a bit. It almost looks like it has a flying buttress that has been worked in as a wall to another portion of the church . . . weird. We haven't seen any others like that.

Here are the kids, huddled in the corner and freezing to death . . . .

And here's what the picture looks like zoomed out.

There is also an old Roman amphitheater in the town, so of course we had to stop to see that. If you really squint there are small colored dots in the background that are actually our children, terry-hooting around on the far wall.

This is what the amphiteatre looks like as you approach it. And then when you crest that big hill you look down into the amphitheater itself.

All in all, it was a spectacular Sunday afternoon! And Knox is reading The Eagle of the Ninth right now, so he's hoping to catch a reference to Corinium.