It’s a rainy day in Cardiff – we’re going to need those
umbrellas .. except that it’s more of what I’ve come to call a “Seattle rain”. It rains all the time there, but most of the
time it’s just a light mist (a mist that people from Missouri can’t even get
until you feel it – it’s like the mist that comes out of a leak in a kink in
the hose) – barely discernible. Our
average time out the door in the morning is about 10:30, we’re hitting a stride
– that’s how long it takes for us all to wake up, get showered and eat
something. No one is rushing, just going
at our natural pace. Our Cardiff hosts
have give us some food in the fridge – very considerate. We had a host in Rome that gave us the stuff
for a full spaghetti dinner at home, it was very nice. But here we have some cheese and crackers,
some traditional Welsh cakes (like little mini raisin pancakes), a loaf of
bread (and this bread is massive/tall – the top of it doesn’t fit into the
toaster).. seems like some other things.
So we have toast and nutella (that we’re still carrying around, vital
for a European vacation), and I dig into one of my cream tea kits that I bought
at Land’s End. I’m glad that I had the
real thing before I had this because I would have thought that the cream was
bad or wrong in some way. It’s just that
consistency of butter – but doesn’t taste like butter.
We walk down to Mermaid Quay again because we’re planning on
doing the hop-on-hop-off bus so we can see more of Cardiff, hear some history,
and save our feet a little. The bus is
on a schedule, and we’ve just missed the 10:30 stop – next stop at 11. We spot the Craft on the Bay shop (which is
also another stop on the bus tour) and decide to go in and kill time until
11.
It’s a collective of local artists who display and sell
their work. All kinds of things from
knitted items, pottery, paintings, leather working, jewelry… Britt picked
something up that was on a metal stand, and the stand fell to the floor with
quite a clatter -- people came from everywhere to check on her and make sure
that she wasn’t breaking anything. The
stuff in here was pricey – not saying it wasn’t worth it, but not just your
little trinket place – the shawl that I had Lauren put on was 95 pounds, the jewelry
and leather bags were beyond that. Patti
found some dishes that she like, pottery that had Welsh words on it – and
Lauren and I played the craft lottery.
You donate 1 pound and draw a pen out of the basket – the pen has a
message wrapped around it and you could win any item in the shop.. we both drew
and were no winners. But we got a
pen.
We catch the bus and we go to the top, despite it being
rainy and the seats being wet. We do our
best to dry them off with what we have – but essentially have wet butts. It’s a little chilly too (like 55 degrees) –
driving around in a tall convertible in the chilly rain.. and I’m still without
a jacket. I’m glad that we’re sitting in
the very front, the big windshield offers some protection. Thomas and Brittany are a little further back,
and Patti stayed downstairs (she was cold).
We think that wind is “god’s fan”… and he needs to turn off his fan
today.
We see all the signs in Welsh and English – and Thomas points
out “Ysgol” (School) – I wonder aloud how you pronounce that and he says, “School”….
Um yah. I know how to pronounce
THAT. The tour says that there are some
Welsh words that have been borrowed even by the English, and one of them that
many use is “cutch” – it means to feel or be secure and safe. So you can use that as a place that you keep
things, or a way that you feel when you’re all warm and cozy at home.. Brittany squeals when the tour talks about
the philanthropist that built most of Cardiff – Bute – he was a teetotaler who
ironically died of liver failure. Britt
loves that word since the day that Thomas Russell taught it to her, she’d never
heard it before – and we got to teach it to Thomas and Lauren in turn. It is a fun word. Say it.. and if you don’t know it, look it
up. J One other thing that we’ve noticed that we
like is that the English and the Welsh give you two yellow lights with the
traffic signals; one before the red (like us), but another before it turns
green again, so you get a little warning about when to go. I get that by looking at the lights of the
people in the cross traffic – but it’s really nice to have that information
right in front of you. We think America
should adopt this practice.
We get out at Cardiff Castle and go in – the outside is cool
(very castle like), but we step in and see the “Keep” and it’s even better; looks
like another little castle on the hill on the inside ground. We head in an upstairs to get our free audio
guide – and in that area they have a little “touch” area for the kids where you
can put things on and try things out (very Science Museum like) – and I make
Lauren pose with the helmet and mail, it’s very heavy. Patti converses with the welsh, no problem
and gets her audio guide in English – Brittany is next and says that she’ll
have the same thing, we’re obviously all together, and the guy has no idea what
she’s saying. We knew that we had a hard
time understanding them – but them understanding us hadn’t occurred to us, and
Brittany doesn’t get why he wouldn’t just know what she wanted because he had
just gone through the whole thing with Patti and the only thing he’s doing is
giving out these audio tours, so when you say “I’d like one in English” it
should be understandable (she’s little stuck on my he understood Patti and not
her). We all get our tours and go into
the room for the mandatory “film show” portion of the tour (we’ve done a few
tours now and they all seem to start with the visit to a large film room where
we watch an introductory video). But
this one is very weird, it’s obviously meant to be able to be viewed and
understood by people who speak many different languages, so they’re trying to
convey everything non-verbally – no language is spoken at all during the film
(we immediately thought of how Deaf friendly that was). But there are essentially two movies
happening at the same time, one in the center of the screen and the other on
the side panels. There is the history
based one that is showing us how the castle has changed through the years
(running a timeline below and modifying the look of the castle), and then there
is some melodrama playing out on the side panels where a school girl represents
the castle and things that are happening to her (boys chasing her, missing her
train… other things that I don’t know because I stopped watching her part)
represents what was happening to the castle.
We didn’t get it.
We enter the grounds and see tons of kids playing cricket on
the pitch (Patti teaches us that this is what you call a field here) – and it
looks like it’s a cricket camp to work on skills. We watch as we walk the length and breadth of
the castle, trying to figure out some of the rules – definitely going to have
to look that up. We get our stairs in
today - there are a lot, and as we get
into the Keep (over 100 stairs just in there) they’re all at a severe slope. Patti and Brittany are afraid to come back
down them, and Patti goes down sideways. We tour the “castle apartments” which
looks very palace like inside, I could live there. Lots of great wood work,
stained glass, tapestries, etc.. we get
our pictures in the stockades, and hit the gift shop. We love a gift shop.
We head out of the castle and we want to look for a
sportshop for Lauren who is looking for a specific gift for her uncle Nick
(something from team Arsenal – a football club here) – but first we need
food. I ask the guard at the castle
where we should eat, and he recommends the Goat Major – it’s famous for
pies. We get in and realize that not
only are they famous for their pies, it’s all they serve, so I know that Thomas
is going to struggle to find something to eat.
No burger pies. But I have to
say, I was truly worried about getting the boy food when we were talking about
this trip, but he’s managed very well and without any complaint when there isn’t
something he likes. If I went into a
place and there was nothing on the menu that I felt I could eat, I would be a
very crabby girl. He’s very patient, and
I know that I worry him finding food more than he does. The rest of us order pies – Britt got the “Pork,
pork and pork”, Dana – Chicken and fennel, Patti - Cheesy Leek and Potato, me -
Mutton Curry, Lauren Rosmary Lamb – and Thomas
had chips. And said that was good enough
for him. The pies were VERY good, and we
all passed them about and tasted each others.
We also got a Brains beer tutorial. Brains is a brand of beer that is made in
Cardiff, the signs are everywhere – so we through we should try some. When we ask the bartender about which one we should
get, he pours us samples of EACH kind (about 7 kinds) for us to taste – 5 darks,
and he explains how each is a little different, more of a chocolate taste in
this one… and even their “light” beers are still chewy. Patti and I each get a half a pint. I end up with the “Black” and Patti gets the “Smooth”. This cute couple came in with an English
Bully named Edward and Brittany wants to take him home. He likes a lot of attention, and as his
people were busy ordering food, he was talking…”hey!”… “hey!”.
We head down to the shopping area to find the sports store,
and end up in the “Pound Land” store (dollar store) and most of us get
something from there. I got some coffee,
Thomas gets a full liter of pepsi for only a pound (he points out that most
sell only half liters and it’s 1.90). We
find the sports shop, but no Arsenal gear – we’re in the wrong part of the
country to find Arsenal supporters apparently.
There is an entire shop in London that is completely dedicated to
Arsenal, but we didn’t know about it soon enough. We get back on the bus and head home. We’re pooped, but I wanted to fit in one more
thing before we left Cardiff – a trip to Bad Wolf Bay. It’s a beach location where a famous scene
from Doctor Who was filmed. Just a
short nap and we’ll head to the beach (about 35 minutes out of Cardiff). … yah, so that never happened. We napped good. We needed it, and after that there was no way
we were getting in a car and driving to a beach. But Thomas said “it’s just a beach – we’d get
there and say, ‘it’s a beach’” and then leave.
Yep. Probably right.
We learned the night before that Thomas will eat Mexican, so
we head back down to Mermaid Wuay for dinner and go to this place that we
looked at the night before, Las Iguanas.
They serve both Brazilian and Mexican – and Patti loves the Brazialian
drink caipirinha (basically booze, sugar and limes) – they even try the passion
fruit version. The food is great! Britt and Patti get the Fajitas, Dana gets Chicken nachos, the kids get Nachos
and quessadialla, and I get this stuff called Ximxin (say it like chimchin)..
yummmmm. We’re all fat and happy after
our cold day, our cozy naps, and our comfort food. It’s a good day in Cardiff. Tomorrow we head out toward Liverpool!
13,412 steps 18
stairs, 5.78 miles
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