Cardiff

As it turned out, there was rail work between Cardiff and Reading last night. This meant our train was diverted, so what would normally be a two hour trip lasted three and a half. We got home around 11:30 and after two days of running all over the place we pretty much just fell into bed.

The exhaustion was worth it, though. We had a great time in Cardiff (though we could have easily devoted another day or two to it.) We got off to a slower start yesterday so we arrived in Cardiff around lunch time. After eating, we went to the central attraction of the city: Cardiff Castle. Cardiff Castle has been around a very long time. It was originally built over a Roman stronghold and has been added to and expanded since then.

To give a sense of the layout, when we first entered the stone walls surrounding the grounds, we were met with a view of the keep on the hill. This, as you can see from the picture, is the most "castle" looking building on the grounds. To the left was the much larger Cardiff Castle itself. I'm sure you can guess which one was lived in by the king/nobleman, and which one was lived in by the imprisoned older brother who was rightful king.

The keep was fun to walk through. There was an endless flight of steep stairs that took us to four or five rooms stacked one above the other. For the most part, however, the keep is just a well maintained relic. The real attraction is Cardiff Castle. I rather like how Wikipedia put it: "In the early 19th century the castle was enlarged and refashioned in an early Gothic Revival style for John Crichton-Stuart, 2nd Marquess of Bute by Henry Holland. But its transformation began in 1868 when the 3rd Marquess commissioned William Burges to undertake a massive rebuilding which turned the castle into a 19th century fantasy of a medieval palace."

"Fantasy of a Medieval Palace" is an understatement. Burges was apparently known for his extravagant architecture, and for going over budget. Way over budget. It was not uncommon for a bill to come to 10 times the bargained amount. Apparently, a good number of Burges' works were cut short because the patron simply couldn't afford the growing expense. Luckily, however, the Marquess of Bute had a fortune that could keep up with Burges, and the result is stunning. We weren't allowed to take pictures on the inside of the castle, so I'll just have to give a few meager descriptions and encourage you to someday go see the castle for yourself.

We went to the smoking room, which was a strictly men's only room with the days of the week depicted in each stained glass window, the four seasons painted on each of the four walls, an intricately detailed cathedral ceiling (in gothic style). It also boasted the face of the devil coming out of the ceiling above the door to scare off any women who might want to wander in uninvited.

Next we visited the children's nursery, which had beautiful paintings encircling the whole room depicting fairy tales and lanterns that hung from the ceiling with reliefs of nursery rhymes illuminated on each side. The paintings on the walls were a common theme revisited in the great hall. These paintings, however, were being refurbished, so several of them were hard to see. Apparently within the last 30 years, someone got the idea of varnishing the paintings in hopes of preserving them, but used a terrible varnish that almost destroyed the paintings. That varnish is now being removed (its suppose to take 2.5 years.)

We also saw the women's tea room, with high Turkish ceilings and wooden window panels (I've forgotten the name of such panels) that are so intricate no one can see in the room, but anyone inside can see out. There were also carved parrots encircling the room to remind the ladies not to gossip.

The Marquess (John)'s room was not to be overshadowed by the rest of the building. It featured an ornate ceiling with a grid of dark wood surrounding rectangular mirrors. On each beam of wood, the name "John" was written in various languages so that when he was in bed he could look up and see his name reflected thousands of times in the mirrors. The room was also surrounded by carved guardian angels' faces. They were done so that none of them, no matter where you stand in the room, ever focus on you. However, the eyes of one in the corner follows you wherever you go in the room.

The castle kept going and going and becoming more and more ornate. We went up a left-handed spiral staircase to get to a roof-top garden patio with drains (for the almost constant rain) in the shape of a Celtic cross. There was also a dining room that featured a gorgeous round table with a hold in the middle that was apparently designed to allow a grape vine to grow up through the middle. In the dining room there was also a carved monkey along the wooden wainscoting. It turned out that if you pressed the nut in the monkey's mouth, it triggered a bell to call the servants.

Finally, we finished the tour in the library. While the overall library seemed more sedate a first glance, the bookshelves were intricately carved and each featured an exotic animal from one of the countries the Marquess had stakes in. This included a duck-bill platypus from Australia, Beavers from Canada, some large lizard from Australia, and a variety of others.

To help imagine these rooms, think of how ornate Victorian architecture could get, then imagine putting a fanciful architect, who is smoking a great quantity of opium, in charge of the design. I'm so glad we got to see it.

After the Castle, we tried to visit the Natural History Museum of Cardiff, which I had heard very good things about. It was open, but many of the displays were closed to the public because they were preparing for their centennial and a visit from the Queen. We wandered through what was open and then collapsed into a highly comfy leather couch in the lobby and took turns trying to convince each other to get up again. At this point, we were both very tired from all the adventuring and we considered just heading home early. I still wanted to at least see the bay, though, so we looked up the bus schedule and hopped a bus.

The bay was beautiful. We didn't have the energy to really walk all around it, so we just kept to the more touristy "Mermaid's Quay" which hosts a great deal of fancy restaurants and up-scale shops on the water. In the picture, you can see Russell standing next to a tower of steel with water cascading down it. It made a very impressive centerpiece at the entrance of the waterfront. We ducked into a fancy, fancy pub and each had a pint of the local Brain's beer. Russell had the bitter and I had the dark. Both were among the better beers we've had in England. The dark, especially, gets very high marks. It had a nice round stout taste but was more the consistency of a heavier ale.

We ended our day at a Turkish restaurant on the water. We both had outstanding meals, and got to try honest-to-goodness Turkish delights for dessert. Let me assure you, they are FAR tastier than the suspicious little candies Cadbury makes of the same name.