Finally, I'm getting the chance to write about our trip this past weekend to Cardiff, Wales! As a birthday present, Ben planned the trip as a surprise.
DAY 1
Saturday morning we woke early and caught a First Great Western train and headed to the southwest corner of the United Kingdom. Two hours later we were in Cardiff, Wales (Caerdydd in Welsh). But the trip wasn't quite over yet. We still had a short train ride to Tongwynlais a small village not far from Cardiff (we headed back to Cardiff later).
As the train approached the next station through the rainy window I was able to spot a castle far up into the hills. It was a castle out of a fairytale. The walk to it...not such a fairytale more an epic quest.
CASTELL COCH
After leaving the train the guidebook directions on how to get to the castle were somewhat vague.
But since the largest hill around was the one with the castle, we knew the general direction. It was a cold, rainy, and windy day. We crossed a motorway and traffic circle (not so pedestrian friendly) and then made our way into the village. With the castle in sight we followed a footpath along the edge of town with the castle cresting the hills in the distance. The footpath soon became a narrow muddy path that if you straddled you could avoid the mud, that was as long as you could avoid the thorn bushes that lined it. Emerging from the thorns and mud we discovered we were on the same road we had started on! Ah- the path less traveled. From there it was all up hill! Literally! It was a steep climb. We were wondering the whole way how the little European cars managed their way up.
Reaching the top of the hill we came upon the Castell Coch (which means 'red castle' and is pronounced Castle Cork') built in the 1870's for the 3rd Marquess of Bute and designed by William Burgess. The Bute family brought a lot of wealth to Cardiff with their coal mining industry in the mid-to-late 1800's. The castle was built upon the ruins of an actual 13th century castle. The 3rd Marquess taste and Burgess' designs were so lavish. Every room was painted to every corner with extreme detail of wildlife like birds, monkeys and fish. We were able to tour most of the castle, since no one lives there any longer. Then we made our way back down the hill to the village, by way of road- not footpath. For a small village Tongwynlais had several bus stops. We were wandering from stop to stop reading all the signs to find or next destination when a small man in his 70's with a long gray beard crossed the way from the fish and chip shop to help us out. Ben said I had to remember to mention him and his kindness in the blog (if we'd only got a picture) Gandalf helped us find our bus stop!Climbing aboard the bus we were heartily greeted by a bus-full of singing French rugby fans and snickering old Welsh women. One of the old gals was 'taking a piss' out of them and telling them France was going to lose (she was right). Still it was all in good fun and she left the bus safely with her shopping as the Frenchmen cheered "Au revior!"
CAERPHILLY CASTLE
Our bus stopped just a few hundred feet away from a massive medieval castle! The sky was still dark and overcast, a fog hung over the rolling green hills in the distance- the weather certainly set the mood. These were the ruins of Caerphilly Castle built in the late 13th century situated on 30 acres of land it is the largest castle in Britain next to Windsor. The grounds were immense, the inner wall and the moat could hold a whole town.The Southeast tower is in ruins and has split vertically at an angle producing a leaning tower that out-leans the Tower of Pisa!
We were able to climb three of the four remaining towers and the last one gave us a great view of the main inner gatehouse and the moat around it.As you might imagine...I have loads of pictures of the castle grounds and you can find them here. After a day of train rides, lots of walking, hill climbing, and a lot of tower climbing we were ready to head back to our hotel in Newport.
The reason we were unable to stay in Cardiff was because there just happened to be a rugby game that same weekend. And since the building if the Millennium Stadium in 1999, any rugby event pretty much occupies the entire city. Especially a Grand Slam, which packed the stadium to capacity at 74,500.
Fortunately, for our feet, our hotel was a short walk from the train station. Since Newport is rather close to Cardiff there was some ruby overspill and we were luck to snatch up a room.
We found our room, dropped our bags, and feel asleep for a few hours. Amazingly, even with a two hour nap it was only sever o'clock at night and we needed to find something to eat- which in Newport turned out to be nearly impossible. The High Street (main shopping area of most towns) w full of every place I've even seen to shop but was shut down for the night. You would have thought after all that shopping some one would be hungry, but we walked the whole of Newport and found three 'sit down' restaurants. McDonalds, KFC, and an "American" restaurant called Rocky's that looked (pardon my British) a bit too dodgy to try. Everything else was literally take away, which the city seemed to love. Fried chicken, fish and chips, pizza, kebabs, and burgers were on every corner. We settled on pizza. Afterwards we went back to our room to watch the remainder of the rugy game. And that was our first day in Wales.
DAY 2
After enjoying my version of a Full English breakfast: three cups of tea, a round of toast, an egg, hash brown and some tomatoes, we left Newport for Cardiff. It was a lot less rainy but a lot colder as we made our way to the National Museum Wales. The Museum boast a French impressionist collection only second to the Louvre. The collection of French art assembled by Margaret and Gwendoline Davies, granddaughters of the wealthy industrialist David Davies bequeathed to the National Museum. It includes paintings by Honoré Daumier, Jean-François Millet, Monets, Van Gogh, and Cézanne. The two most famous works in the collection are La Parisienne by Pierre-Auguste Renoir and a version of Rodin's Kiss cast in bronze. The Museum holds not only holds the art of Wales but the Natural and Scientific history of Wales. I personally enjoyed the Welsh Ceramics Gallery of NantGarw and Swansea porcelain. Diane we thought of you the whole way through!Next we were off to yet another castle! This one was also purchased and lived in by the Bute family (for about 6 weeks out of the year for just under a decade).
CARDIFF CASTLE
It is believed that two Roman forts may have occupied the site as early as the 2nd century. The castle keep, which you see in the picture, was constructed in 1091 by the Normans and is not part of the Victorian mansion that the 3rd Marquess of Bute and his family lived in. Inside the castle walls were the keep and the mansion. While we were free to walk the inside of the castle walls, we had to take a guided tour through the mansion. Like the Castell Coch, Burgess was commissioned to create a fantasy medeival castle in the Victorian Gothic Revival design.Every room Burges designed had a sort of theme. The Winter Smoking room had a theme of time. The ceiling was painted with the astrological signs, the eaves of the walls were cornered with the four seasons of the year, the stain glass windows were the Roman gods the days of the week were named for (excluding Sunday), which was named for the sun. Even the times of the day, morning, noon, evening, and night were sculptures in the corners. The children's nursery was painted with familiar fairytale characters as well as the lesser known Invisible Prince...can you find him?
(Hint: look at the bird, follow the twig in it's mouth until you see the profile of a man. Use the negative space of the branches from there...)
The rest of the castle was just as intriguing. The rooftop garden was beautiful, Bute was not only the heir to a coal mining fortune but an industrial magnate, antiquarian, scholar, philanthropist, architectural patron, and linguist (who could read and write in 20 different languages), and he had a favorite story of his written in Hebrew painted on the garden wall because that was the language he was learning at the time! Every little detail of every room had a reason, a story. It was a fascinating tour.
CARDIFF BAY and the rest...
Next we started our walk to Cardiff Bay, which turned out to be a long walk. The Bay area is known for the Millennium Centre, shopping, and dinning. Since there was a fun-run going on it was impossible to get too close to the Millennium Centre, so we just searched for a place to eat.
After a lunch overlooking the bay, we walked around taking in the sights before heading back to the other side of Cardiff to do some souvenir shopping in the Castle Arcade. We rounded back up by Cardiff Castle and walked the pleasure gardens. Lastly, we passed by the Millennium Stadium, which was now deserted as the rest of Cardiff was likely at the pub celebrating.
On the river walk was a series of mosaics of the Nations who participate in the Welsh Rugby Union. It was interesting to see how in each of the mosaics the icons of the Nation were represented, especially the States.
For all the planning Ben did, everything had gone so smoothly (aside from the weather, but that's out of our hands).
We arrived back at the station for our 6:41 train at 6:30. As we climbed the stairs to the platform there was a train leaving for London Paddington (our destination). We thought it was a little curious that two trains would be leaving from and to the same place 10 minutes apart. But we were too late to realize why...that was our train! It just decided to leave early. The next train wasn't for another hour, so we had to wait and check to see our route home would stay the same- but it didn't. The train we missed was the last one that would continue into Oxford. We were stuck waiting an hour and would have to take a bus from Didcot Parkway to Oxford. Apparently, they were planning rail work and rerouted the train passengers to buses. Seemed simple enough until all 40 of us got to the Didcot Parkway stop and discovered they did not have buses waiting. In the cold and at 11:30 at night 40 of us were kept waiting without much explanation. The loan Great Western employee left for the night was paying for taxis for families and other people, rather than keeping them waiting. Finally the bus arrived and we all climbed aboard for the 30 minute ride home.
We were home a little after midnight and despite the 'rerouting' the enjoyment of the trip and excitement made it seem like midday.
Wales was really enjoyable. The people were friendly, the castles were amazing, and trying to pronounce anything in Welsh was amusing. Thanks Ben!
The rest of the castle was just as intriguing. The rooftop garden was beautiful, Bute was not only the heir to a coal mining fortune but an industrial magnate, antiquarian, scholar, philanthropist, architectural patron, and linguist (who could read and write in 20 different languages), and he had a favorite story of his written in Hebrew painted on the garden wall because that was the language he was learning at the time! Every little detail of every room had a reason, a story. It was a fascinating tour.
CARDIFF BAY and the rest...
Next we started our walk to Cardiff Bay, which turned out to be a long walk. The Bay area is known for the Millennium Centre, shopping, and dinning. Since there was a fun-run going on it was impossible to get too close to the Millennium Centre, so we just searched for a place to eat.
After a lunch overlooking the bay, we walked around taking in the sights before heading back to the other side of Cardiff to do some souvenir shopping in the Castle Arcade. We rounded back up by Cardiff Castle and walked the pleasure gardens. Lastly, we passed by the Millennium Stadium, which was now deserted as the rest of Cardiff was likely at the pub celebrating.
On the river walk was a series of mosaics of the Nations who participate in the Welsh Rugby Union. It was interesting to see how in each of the mosaics the icons of the Nation were represented, especially the States.
For all the planning Ben did, everything had gone so smoothly (aside from the weather, but that's out of our hands).
We arrived back at the station for our 6:41 train at 6:30. As we climbed the stairs to the platform there was a train leaving for London Paddington (our destination). We thought it was a little curious that two trains would be leaving from and to the same place 10 minutes apart. But we were too late to realize why...that was our train! It just decided to leave early. The next train wasn't for another hour, so we had to wait and check to see our route home would stay the same- but it didn't. The train we missed was the last one that would continue into Oxford. We were stuck waiting an hour and would have to take a bus from Didcot Parkway to Oxford. Apparently, they were planning rail work and rerouted the train passengers to buses. Seemed simple enough until all 40 of us got to the Didcot Parkway stop and discovered they did not have buses waiting. In the cold and at 11:30 at night 40 of us were kept waiting without much explanation. The loan Great Western employee left for the night was paying for taxis for families and other people, rather than keeping them waiting. Finally the bus arrived and we all climbed aboard for the 30 minute ride home.
We were home a little after midnight and despite the 'rerouting' the enjoyment of the trip and excitement made it seem like midday.
Wales was really enjoyable. The people were friendly, the castles were amazing, and trying to pronounce anything in Welsh was amusing. Thanks Ben!
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