Day 14 Adventures through Wales

Our next days adventure and the second to last on the tour took us from Llangollen to Cardiff, both in Wales.  Wales is truly one of the most beautiful areas I have ever visited.  It reminds me of if Oregon and Colorado were combined with sheep.  

Green hillsides, steep climbs, rivers and streams and quaint little towns everywhere.  On our way to Cardiff we stopped at the tallest and longest Aqueduct in the UK.  The water way was only about 5 feet across with a 3 foot walkway on one side.  These days you can hire a little boat for a day though the transportation waterway is Wales. 

Our morning and early afternoon was a lot of driving.  We again drove thought beautiful scenery. We drove along side or through a Welsh national park.  If I were driving I would probably stop every 10 minutes or so to take a better look at what was around me.  A very nice thing about the bus tour is that you don't have to worry about how you get there, where you stay and your daily timelines.  If I ever get the chance to come back in he future I will know better where to stop again, what to skip and where to base a trip around the area that I would like to see.

We arrived at Cardiff at 2 pm after another long day of driving.  Our hotel happened to be in the center of town next to all attraction.  Around town was a beautiful university, bell tower, large shopping area and a castle.  Another country and state capital down.

I met in the lobby 3 other people who wanted to go to the castle.  Yes another castle.  We walked along a park wall with stone animal sentries.  They were really cool but they had crazy eyes!

We started by grabbing the included audio guide and watched the most horrible introduction video of all time It was pretty much laugh put loud bad.  Past the video we were free to explore.  This castle had a fantastic keep in the center of a large green surrounded by a barrier wall.  Within the barrier wall there were tunnels that where used more recently as shelters during the air raids of WWII.  Those tunnels went along he emitted barrier wall.  Lots of distance to walk all of them but not a lot of space as they were very narrow.  

Most of the castle is a reconstruction from the late 1800s.  Along the wall there were red bricks that divided the original remains of the Roman castle and wall from the reconstruction done.  The Grand Marquis Butte and the following Marquis took it upon themselves to build it again but not without making themselves a very posh living space.  The living spaces were redone in an over the top Victorian living spaces.  They must have spend hundreds of thousand pound in the 1880 to create these spaces.  Ornate details from bible passages, specifically themed rooms, a library with busts of authors and an out of this world staircase. 

The keep at in the center of the green on an earthen mound.  To get to the top of the keep it took about 90 steps of very narrow staircases.  Castles in the UK and Ireland seemed to have been very keen on very narrow circular staircases with tiny steps.  I suppose when you think about it the people who built them 700+ years ago may have been a bit smaller than we are today.  Well needless to say I climes to the top to he rewarded with a pretty good view of the city.  My calves are in really awesome shape after all the climbing around that I have done.

After exploring the castle ground for almost 2 hours I headed out into Cardiff.  There is a huge shopping area right across from the castle so I went in for a bit to explore.  I found an Americana candy shop that had Tab soda, which I haven't seen in forever and tons of candy I'd never seen before.  I guess I don't know what candy is in America I guess. I also found a teacup that I really liked with the classic Alice in Wonderland style of art but the handle looked a little flimsy for traveling so I didn't purchase it.  That's what Amazon is for.

Shopping was not really what I wanted to do at that moment so I wondered to the Cardiff University area.  They have a large clock tower on a main building so it was easy to get to.  I ended up finding the national museum there but only had about 15 minutes to explore as they were going to close soon.  I found some weaponry from Welsh past, took an illegal picture and off I went to the shop.  I was hoping to find a reusable bag from Wales with the flag or a dragon on it but no such luck.

From the museum I walked around the campus to find a small rose and statue garden.  Again lots of tributes to those who were lost during WWI along with the other more recent conflicts.  I still cant get over the amount of statues and memorials in the cities and even the small towns.  I guess I need to enjoy KCs statues a bit more.

I then found a park that went along the outside of the castle, enjoyed a quick walk, took pictures from the outside of the castle and found my way back to our hotel.  But I wad determined to fin some little trinket to take back with me so I abet back to a little tourist shop.  I met the girls that I explored the castle with and one pointed out my name on a magnet.  That was he first time I have ever seen my name on anything that we did not have to get specially made.  Score! and purchased.

We had our final group dinner not to far from our hotel at a gastro pub.  I had fried calamari, which was ok, and a Mediterranean pizza which wasn't as good as other ones I've had in the States.

After the who group went to a bar nearby.  It was a Vodka bar so I only got one drink which was very weak and not that good.  Well I didn't feel like sticking around for too long so back to the hotel I went to get a good nights sleep for a very busy last day of the tour.