Day Ten, Wales

We caught a bus early this morning for the nearly 4 hour trip to Wales. We stopped once along the way, but most of the trip was looking out at English countryside and farmland (canola seems to be popular).

Once we reached Wales, we picked up a local guide and took a bus tour throughout the main sites of the city of Cardiff. I was surprised to learn that Cardiff has only been a city since 1905 and the capital of Wales since 1955. It was also interesting to learn that 25% of the Welsh people speak Welsh as their first language. It is an old Celtic language, totally unrelated to English. All of the street signs are written in both English and Welsh. We didn't have much time to explore the city, but we saw the castle, the large city park and the huge rugby stadium.

We had an hour free in the city, so we took the time to eat at the Hard Rock Cafe. Ben was excited to see Eric Clapton's guitar, the drum head from Metallica's Lars Ulrich and Ozzy Osbourne's jacket. We had some good, if overpriced, food, but it took the entire hour so we didn't have any further time to sight see in the city.

Next, we headed out to Caerphilly Castle. This castle was built in 1270, and is mostly in ruins today. There are several areas that have been reconstructed, mainly the wooden areas which had rotted over the years. The Great Hall has also been restored, and events are held there today. Our tour guide gave us an overview of the "castle within a castle" layout:

We had some free time to explore the castle. Ben helped out by trying to hold up the leaning tower. According to the guide, the degree to which it leans is greater than that of the tower in Pisa. That part of the castle is just a ruin, with the outside part of the tower still standing (if crookedly), but the inside part of the tower missing.

We also climbed up several narrow, winding stone staircases in order to get some photos over the various parts of the castle, the surrounding water, and the courtyard.






Tomorrow we are headed to Kew Gardens, which is celebrating its 250th anniversary this year!