We saw our first Castle in Cardiff, Wales

I have always thought it would be fun to see Wales, I'm not sure why. I think it may be that it is a land that is shrouded in mystery and also because I once read that it is the language that uses the most consonants in words - or the least vowels - and that has always intrigued me. We took a train from Bath and headed to Cardiff, the capital city of Wales.

There isn't a border crossing for the train and so it is not easy to see a dramatic change when you leave England and enter Wales. It is a gradual change. The houses begin to look a little different, the landscape begins to vary and the accents on the train begin to change after each train stop. The tones seemed deeper to me and the words didn't so much come faster as much as they came at a different cadence (one of the things I have enjoyed about being in England is that the many varied British accents you hear all seem to have a cadence to them, a rhythm that is pleasing to the ear.) At the stop just before ours, a very nice lady who had been smiling at Sophia during the journey came over to us, smiled at Sophia and turned to me and said "shdgrtilmdusn bvqwlonrz, idakmvxx dfshaay?" I tried to not look as mystified as I felt and said politely, excuse me? She repeated it for me again, two times, and with relief I finally understood what she was saying: "shaays a luvlly wunn, 'innit shaay. Shaay'll braayk summ 'arts, won't shaay?" So I smiled hugely and said thank you, that's very kind. And off she went.

When we arrived at the train station and walked outside, it was a spectacular blue sky day. On such a day we normally would have walked, but this city center was very busy and we would have to cross some pretty major roads to get to the B&B where we were staying, and so we decided to find a taxi to help us manage our load. Our driver was from Afghanistan and had been in Cardiff for 8 years. He said he liked Cardiff very much, but the weather was tough. He said we'd gotten very lucky with the blue sky and dry day, because it had rained nearly every day for the last six weeks. We stayed at the Church Guest House (owned by the parents of vocalist Charlotte Church, our driver told us). In Bath, we'd had 2 floors and 3 bedrooms and here we had one room with a teeny, tiny bathroom and shower built into the corner. In a B&B, this is called en suite, meaning you have your own bathroom in your room and don't have to share the one down the hall.

After checking in, we immediately headed out to see what we could see. Just a few blocks away were the magnificent "Sophia Gardens" (how cool is that!), which is a large park, 25 acres or more. The park holds a theatre, dozens and dozens of landscaped areas of beautiful flowers and plants, a Bowling Green (where we got to see a game in process - check the photo, they're wearing 'dress whites'), lots of open green space and a path that ran the length of the park and followed the river that ran through the park. Such a pleasant entry into Cardiff for us. At the edge of the park is Cardiff Castle and what a site to behold! It is a true castle, first established by the Romans around 200 A.D. and then was used by the Normans for almost 2 centuries after that. And here it is, sitting right there in the middle of the hustle and bustle of the city. We were very impressed by it, although we didn't tour it until a couple of days later. We had a nice walk, found a great Italian place for dinner and then headed back to our room.

This made for a much different experience, being in just one room, but it worked out well. We were on the 3rd floor and had a great view and we were all so tired that the 2 nights we spent here Sophia went immediately to sleep in her pack'n'play and Steve and I just fell into bed and slept. We all awoke early and went down to the breakfast room. This B&B gave you what is called a "full English" breakfast. This varies a little from place to place, but most typically it is a fried egg, sausages or bacon, stewed or fried tomatoes, baked beans, sauteed mushrooms, toast and tea. Sophia liked the tomatoes and we asked for her egg to be scrambled, and of course she loved the toast. Fortunately, they also had yogurt and cereal, so we rounded out her meal with those. We had planned our first day to walk around more of Cardiff and go to the Castle, but the young man making the breakfast convinced us to take a bus to a place called St. Fagan's National History Museum. Wow. We loved it.

It is a 100 acre park where over forty original buildings from different historical periods in the history of Wales, from medieval to present day, have been re-erected. It felt like we had stepped back in time. Churches, farms and barns, homes, post office, baker, pig-sty complete with piggies, thatched-roof cottages and huts - the buildings were amazing and we once again had a spectacular day, so roaming all around the park was just so much fun. And it is a well used place, lots of tourists but lots of locals, as well. We had some terrific chats with folks who lived nearby. For Sophia, the highlight of the trip was a horse-drawn cart ride. She is loving horses right now, so she was in heaven as "Luke the horse" clippety-clopped along the path and she bumpety-bumped in the cart and the breeze rushed through her hair. Weeks and weeks later she still talks about it. For lunch we bought hand made scones and jam from a bakery that looked centuries old. And, to top off what was already a great visit, this park has a castle! St. Fagan's Castle is a late 16th century manor house donated by the Earl of Plymouth. It was soooo fun to tour and it's gardens were magnificent. We spent the entire day there.

The next day we toured the National Museum Cardiff which was very nice. It has some really tremendous exhibits. Then we spent time just walking around Cardiff, trying to get a feel for the city. It is a cosmopolitan place, very international, with people from all around the world passing us and speaking in every language imaginable. After that, we toured Cardiff Castle and it's a really interesting place. The exterior is medieval but the inside of the main living quarters was completely done over in the 1800's in a gothic style. It's amazing, but a little odd to see the mix of the two.  So we enjoyed Cardiff for 2 days, and then hopped the train, destination: York.