Cardiff proper
Trip Start
Jul 27, 2012
1
3
Trip End
Jul 30, 2012
Where I stayed
Austins Guesthouse
Cardiff, Wales, United Kingdom
Monday, July 30, 2012
Though, come to think of it.. there was quite some time traveling involved..
Of course, our journey towards Cardiff started with a nice drive over the big Severn bridge. For once I didn't really mind paying toll for a road, because I could see they had put the money to good use.
We made a quick stop at Caerphilly, a little, small, tiny village with a huuuuge castle, that is also used in lots of BBC shows, like Doctor Who and Merlin. Unfortunately, we weren't the only people there... at all! We happened to have picked the weekend of the "Big Cheese" festival, a "look at our castle" meets "kiddy carnival" meets "medieval fair" thing. This meant that we could only look at the outside of the 30 acre fort, which was crowded over by families celebrating a day out in the sun. I did like the south-east tower, which is cracked in half, but still standing. Much more impressive than the tower of Pisa!
Trying to get to our B&B in Cardiff wasn't easy.. We'd picked a B&B with a view, right next to the Millennium Stadium. But the stadium hosted the women's football for the Olympics, which meant that half of the city center was closed to traffic, while the other half was buses and taxis only..
We did get there in the end, right in time for a lovely sunset, and a big burger with a draught in a nice (Irish..) pub.
On Sunday, we enjoyed Cardiff Bay first. Did you know that Roald Dahl was from the outskirts of Cardiff, and that he got baptized in the Norse Church? I didn't either.. But that's basically why there's a big open square called Roald Dahls Plass. The rest of the Bay is pretty cool, too. Some touristy boat tours, but also some nice views of the other side of the bay, a guilded theater (Millennium Center.. what's up with the Welsh and the Y2K??), and a very futuristic Senedd (Senate).
The afternoon was reserved for the old City Center and Cardiff Castle. The Castle is pretty cool, layers upon layers of history! Historians had always assumed it was a Norse fort, untill the fancy Marquis of Bute discovered Roman foundations under his property in the 18th century. Little boy that he was, he decided that he wanted to live in a proper fort, so he rebuilt the wall, and renovated the living quarters so that he could live with all modern comforts. The old keep they kept as a garden ornament.. The view from the castle is really cool, with the spacy Millennium Stadium hovering over it!
Sitting in the sun made us thirsty, and drinking beer made us hungry, so you know how the evening went.. We counted Hen Party numbers 12, 13 and 14..
On Monday we drove to the suburb Llandaff. We had a valid reason (except for the geeky stuff), because that's where the region's major Cathedral is. A nice volunteer lady explained some stuff about bombings and rebuildings and financing a new organ (they still need some piping to finish it). It all looked very nice, except for the 50s piece of "art" in the middle!
We still had some time to kill, so we drove up the mountain (hill..) to Castle Coch, the summer house of the Bute family. Our friendly marquis wasn't done when he'd renovated Cardiff Castle, so he built a fairy tale castle up in the hills. I want one of those when I grow up!
And they lived happily ever after.. We drove back to Bristol, I had my toothpaste examined by an overzealous customs guy, waited a bit, bought a new book because my book ran out, and flew back home..
