In These Stones Horizons Sing
Kai went up to bed at 2.40am. I followed somewhere around 5am. Ken woke me at 9.30 am as requested...
bleurgh. But Kai was bright and alert, and looking forward to a day out, so I dragged myself up and about and got us out of the house at 10.50 for the trip to Cardiff. Or Caerdydd, as I should really call it: I understand the final dd is pronounced like the th in
the...
And for once everything went absolutely right. The X39 arrived a minute or two after we got to the bustop, there were only two quick and easy people in front of us at the queue at Temple Meads ticket office, hardly anyone wanting to get on the train, so we could sit where we wanted - I didn't even realise we'd gone through the Severn Tunnel until I saw the
Croeso i Cymru (Welcome to Wales) sign by the track! (Though to be fair, it only takes four minutes to travel through it, much less time than I'd been led to believe...)
12.16 we were off the train, out of the station and headed for Castell Caerdydd...
There's been a defensive building here since the first century CE, when a small fort and trading post were built.
The photo shows the remains of the 12-sided keep built around 1140: after our tour around the house we climbed to the top. My knees are still complaining - those steps are at a 45° angle, then once inside there are stone and very steep, very narrow wooden steps up to the tower - and
then there's a very steep, very narrow and very claustrophobic spiral staircase up to the lookout.
Nice view from the top though!
The house itself is a later creation: building started in the late 15th century, and continued, on and off, until around 1860 when the 3rd Marquess of Bute had the work completed and the house completely transformed into a 'neo-gothic fantasy' (to quote the guidebook...)
It's... quite something... A little too ornate for my tastes, but fascinating.
It's really annoying - you can't take a decent pic of the house from any height without having
the bloody Millennium Stadium in the background behind the clock tower...
Except for the library. I fell in love with the library. Photography isn't allowed inside the house, so this is a scan of the postcard I
had to have of the room...
There's so much detail you can't see, like the little cherubs on the walls holding shields with the names of great classic writers. Or the little families of carved animals on the tops of the bookcases (platypuses, beavers, what I think were muskrats, then we had to move on...) I could have spent hours in that room alone... Though not reading. The original books are long gone: the things on the shelves are prettily-bound old council records.
We both loved it there, and would cheerfully recommend it to anyone visiting the city. The staff (our guide was the hugely-knowledgeable Dean) are terrific as well, and the café in the Undercroft looked lovely (but Kai wanted his tortilla so we ate outside in the grounds. Where there are peacocks. And peahens. And a sheltered area where the falconry birds were on display. They had an owl...).
Then we headed off to find Cardiff Bay and the Torchwood Hub - sorry, the Millennium Centre...
The area is called Roald Dahl Plass and it's amazing. It's also a hell of a walk from the Castle: we collapsed by the fountain (that tall silver pillar) when we got there. And said fountain switched off a couple of minutes later - I believe because the wind suddenly picked up dramatically, there's a little wind speedometer thing (can't remember what they're called and too tired to look it up) on the very top, and even in the prior tiny breeze a lot of water was splashing on the paving... I've no idea what that red gothic-looking building is I'm afraid.
The words at the top of this post are on the façade of the Centre. I think they're beautifully evocative.
We were completely knackered by now, legs and feet aching (yes, even Kai's. Not often I can outwalk him but I managed it today) and sprog asked if we could get the train back to the central station: there's a little train that runs from the Bay to Queen's St every few minutes, and from there we hopped on the next train, which stopped at Central. Trains in Caerdydd seem to be used as much as buses, and are
very cheap. So Kai got to ride on four trains today!
It was a fantastic day. Caerdydd is a wonderful place. We both loved it, and want to go back - there's an open-top bus tour that looked like fun!
Arrived back to find a proof copy of
Celtic Messages (they've done a lovely production job!), and finished versions of Thorne's Ffarsa (beautiful) and Onna's gorgeous Mazc and cute Kakar! Not to mention Argent and Raptor actually cuddled together for what has to be the first time ever. So all in all a near perfect day. Only cool spots are the incredibly painful legs, feet and knees (and hands from gripping railings so tightly), and the fact I forgot to buy a lotto ticket. Eh well!
Tired now. Quieter day planned tomorrow!
Labels: Caerdydd, castles, days out, Kai, Torchwood, trains
#
Joules *Dances with Haddock* Taylor
pontificated this at 12:55 am
0 Comments:
Post a Comment