Batering ram

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Originally uploaded by lorill vining

These large things are to knock down castle wallls.

A ruin of a wealthy house

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Originally uploaded by lorill vining

This is a ruin of a wealthyy house used long ago. If you look closly and the back wall, you should be able to see large squares carved in the rock. That's where they used to store their food and put candles to light up their house at night. Now look up to the left hand corner of the picture and you should see a line of six squares carved deep into the rock. That tells us that there was a house here. What they did was put a log into each hole making suport beams for a roof. Then they would stack grass ontop so the rain couldn't get inside.

Stuck in a pilory

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Originally uploaded by lorill vining

This old torcher machien was used to punish crimanls and prisoners. Long ago, they would put someone in the pilory for one houre before letting them out. I was in there for only two minutes and my neck hert.

A one man rock througher

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Originally uploaded by lorill vining

Anciantrock throughing machiens

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Originally uploaded by lorill vining

This is a very large trebusher which was used to defend castles, and to knock down giant castle walls. To load and fire this large anciant machien, you need six to eight men to do it properly. As you can see in this picture, there are two very large weels at the base of the trebusher. What happens is, four men, two on each weel, wind it around in a circle so that it spins toward them. Atachted to the weels is a thick rope while the other end is conected to the top of the tall poll. As the men turn the weel, it winds up the rope causing the huge weight at the back to lift up and the tall poll to lower. When a man gets tired spining the weel, the spair man behind him takes over. When the weight is raised up high as it goes, and the the tall poll is just about tuching the ground, someone will clip the tall pull down so that the weight stayes up in the aire. Then you put a water balloon inside the net. When it's loaded someone will pull the rope that's atached to the clip so the weight swings back causing the oposit end with the balloon to fly forward. With eight men working one machein, they will fire the trebusher five times in one houre.

Fire...

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Originally uploaded by lorill vining

In the south of France in a town called Arle, we went to explore a castle called Les Beaux Province. On that castle, I got to fire a trebusher which is kind of like a catupolt. But instead of fireing a rock, I got to fire a water balloon!

A good Italian resterant with the best home cooked food

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Originally uploaded by lorill vining

Like in Roma, we stayed at a campground. But instead of a nice warm bungalo with a stove and fridge where we could cook our own food, we got a tent! It was kind of like a hunters tent with the canves for walls, and the steel poasts holding it up. It was a nice tent, but that doesn't mean it's going to be warm. There were a fiew holls in the canvas so the night was pritty cold. Another thing we were disapointed in, was the fact that there was no stove or fridge inside to cook our food. Come to think about it, there was only three beds, three blankets, three small lights above each bed, and nothing to heat up the tent at night. So, without a stove or fridge, we spent some time looking for good resterants. From the campground the the city isin't a far walk, but when your absalutly starving, it's actualy three time longer. Lucky for us, there's a bus that stops right at the enterens to the camground and it goes right to the city. It wasn't long before we stumbled apon the resterant you see in the picture on you right. It looked Okay but it didn't open for another houre and a half. Infact, almost all the resterants don't open until seven O'clock.

One and a half hours later we came back the this place and had a fantastic supper. The deal was this. If you orderd of their special menu, it's only twelve euros for one supper which includes: firts cours, second cours, dessert, and a glass of wine and it was all the best food I'd ever had. So, for the travellers who are going to Florance this place it the place to go. One tip on this place. If you plan to eat hear for supper one night, come back again the next day for supper and they will lower the price a bit. And if you go there three times, they give you and extra good deal. Believe me, I know from experience.

Directions to the resterant:

It's about one hundred meters away from the train Station heading down the road going south. When you get to the bottom of that road, cross over to the other side of the street. Turn righ, then walk a fiew meters and your there.