Cardiff Castle

After our usual morning cappuccinos/coffees at KIN+ILK, we walked through lush Sophia Gardens and Bute Park on a sunny morning to Fabulous Welsh Cakes for their freshly grilled specialty.

Welsh Cakes taste like a sweet combination of a pancake and biscuit, and Fabulous offers an interesting array of flavors

We all loved these delicious breakfast treats.  Libby bought a cookbook dedicated to Welsh Cakes as a souvenir at another store during the trip and so she can make them at home.

A short walk across the street from Fabulous Welsh Cakes is Cardiff Castle.

The stone Medieval fortress sits in a strategic location for military purposes.

Romans built a fort on the site in about 55 BC.  In those days, the fortress overlooked an ocean harbor, as do many former Roman forts built on seacoasts during the warm era during which the original empire based in Rome prospered.

Over the centuries, improvements in building and military technology transformed the original wooden fort into the massive stone castle grounds of Medieval times that we enjoyed visiting. 

The motte-and-bailey --- with "motte" meaning an elevated mound and "bailey" a walled courtyard, surrounded by a moat --- castle of stone was completed in about 1080, so just before the First Crusade.  The completed structure we saw on our visit is from about 1430.

As with any home, furnishings in the residential area changed over the decades, and much of what we saw was from a rather elegant era from the mid-18th through the earliest 20th centuries, I believe, with some older art objects and other touches.

As you can see in the artwork, it has all been beautifully conserved.

The audio tour told the stories of different royals who inhabited the castle and legends or history behind various artwork.

Cardiff Castle was used as an air raid shelter in World War II when Cardiff was the target for over 2,000 bombs, and there is a section of the wall dedicated to telling that story.

It is that magic of the days of King Arthur through Medieval times with knights in shining armor that seems embodied in the castle structure, and other than possibly Glastonbury, no other place in the British Isles seems more connected to Arthurian legend as Wales to me.

Along the lines of legends about knights, when hiking in Wales, I sometimes heard wind howling through the trees in the distance, creating what sounded like growling monsters.  Odd, because the wind wasn't that strong on the trails, but it made me realize how ignorant people in much earlier times might've believed there were dragons in those woods.

As to whether that illusion would have been used to scare invaders, or at least make them think twice about pushing forward, I don't know, but the power of suggestion can definitely change how even educated, modern individuals and like-minded groups interpret natural phenomenon to create fear that political leaders find useful.

Certainly, American troops in Iraq unleashed the dragons and demons of heavy metal blaring from speakers before launching their attack in order to create fear.

In any case, the flag of Wales features a fierce red dragon over the green and white colors of the Tudors.

The image of the dragon has been used by Wales for many centuries.  It was mentioned in Historia Brittonum in the year 828 and had likely been around long before then.  It was supposed to signify independence while alluding to a link back to King Arthur.

As an aside significant to my family, I will note that Drexel University's logo prominently features a dragon.  Drexel's team name is Dragons.  Gina and Laszlo work at Drexel University in Philadelphia.  I often wear my Drexel Dragon hat featuring the golden dragon logo on hikes, though Julie says it has now gotten too faded to wear (is there such a phenomenon?).

As I say, the red dragon similar to the gold one on my hat is on the flag of the entire country of Wales, not just Cardiff.

And Cardiff Castle is not the only castle in Wales.

Far from it.

Wales has more castles per square mile than anywhere on Earth, primarily because of the Norman Invasion.

The Normans conquered England rather efficiently beginning in the year 1066, an event that is one of the most significant in human history for what has unfolded since then.

By about 1200, the Normans --- or by that point should they simply be called the English? --- redoubled efforts to invade Wales, a country that had been hardened by fighting off Vikings for centuries leading to this new invasion from England.

The Welsh had defensive castles, and the Normans built offensive castles.  The conquest of Wales took over 200 years, so there were lots of opportunities for valor and chivalry that could be celebrated behind thick castle walls in between battles, I imagine.

We were all won over by the castle, which at first glance seemed to have given into modern commercialism with a concert stage and various supporting food vendors set up on the grounds.  

Libby bought some posters of family tree stories for the names of her parental surnames and her married name at one of the booths.

While castles continued to be status symbols and royal sanctums, their true military significance declined beginning with The Battle of Crecy in 1346.

From the English introduction of those primitive guns and longbows, offensive weapons that could kill from afar with ever more devastating and deadly force became the key to winning battles rather than defensive strongholds like castles.

Explosives made it possible to breach what had before been impenetrable walls, and the rest, as they say, is history. 

Welcome to Wales

The idea of visiting southern Wales pre-cruise bubbled to the surface after booking a Princess Cruise from Southampton.

With ports in England, Ireland and Scotland --- albeit somewhat interrupted by a return to Iceland, which circumstances prevented us from completing on our last ocean cruise --- Wales seemed like the perfect addition for us.

Jay and Sasha had Wales on their travel list.  They considered attending the Formula One Race at Silverstone before meeting us in Cardiff, but they decided instead to take an extended trip to Wales beginning in the north and concluding in the south where they would meet us at a house in Cardiff which they booked.  They wisely deemed that the better option for travel with baby Owen.

I appreciate all the careful planning Jay did, coordinating with Julie and Sasha, to make our time in Cardiff and nearby highlights we visited in their rented Range Rover wonderful.  They selected a lovely, spacious home with modern amenities as well as plenty of bedrooms plus three bathrooms for all of us plus Sasha's mother Libby to comfortably share. 

In one area, this house had way too much: keys. There was a basketful of keys awaiting us in the kitchen, and no two doors shared a key.  Oddly, despite the plethora of keys, there was only one for the front door.  Getting the car out of the garage required unlocking the backdoor leading to the garage backdoor to the primary garage door to the narrow alley's gate.

The same locks in reverse order upon return, of course.  Driving into and out of the garage with an almost impossible angle of turns required to squeeze in.  Jay displayed the patience of Job. 

For Julie and me, getting to Wales began with a Lyft from home to an odd bus stop under a bridge in Philadelphia, where we caught FlixBus to Newark. We stepped out of the bus station in Newark and had another Lyft within a minute.  The driver whisked us to EWR Airport.  The overnight United Airlines flight to London Heathrow was uneventful, which is the best that I generally hope for.

Relatively well-rested --- I only remember watching Indianna Jones and the Dial of Destiny during the flight --- we picked up our bags and cleared customs, a process made easy with LHR's facial recognition system.

We stopped at an Information counter where a helpful lady sold us tickets for the correct National Express bus to Cardiff.  Advance purchase would have saved us a few dollars, but we weren't sure about our plane arriving on time or airport hassle factor.  In any case, we were soon on a modern coach that stopped only twice en route to our destination of Cardiff, Wales.

We arrived at the bus depot situated in a lovely park in Cardiff a couple of hours before our house would be available, but Julie had pre-searched to find a Holiday Inn nearby.  We were able to drag our bags and enjoy very good coffee and a big cookie with free internet while we bided out time.

I needed to catch up on some cruise planning work that came up during our flight, so for me the time really flew by.  Too soon, we had reached the check-in time for our rental house.

Julie and I found some unintended detours before reaching our house, but along the way several Welsh natives did try to help us navigate our way despite none of them ever having heard of the street we sought.

Most amusing to me was when we thought we had found our rental home upon entering a code that seemed to work and walked in.  The cleaning crew told us that we were not at the right address, though it too was a rental.  We weren't even close to the right address.

Eventually, we found the correct course and settled into the second-floor bedroom at the back of the rowhouse that Jay had rented.

Feeling a bit peckish, as Monty Python taught me the Brits say, we walked past the medieval castle to the nearby old town.

Cardiff is a lovely city on a very livable scale.  While there are several different districts, the old town is historic and well maintained, probably recently gentrified.  The residents and vacationers alike seem friendly and cheerful.  Soccer (European football) fans will appreciate the stadium is conveniently located nearby.

We ended up on a charming side street near a clocktower at Honest Burger, where Julie had a Smashed Burger while I had a Double Smashed Burger.

Jolly good meal.

Oh sorry, that's probably more English, and the Welsh are distinctly different, even if most commerce takes place in English rather than their native tongue.

Anyway, the burgers had some distinctive herbs that made them not the typical American burgers but still excellent.

The chips --- what we in the USA call French fries --- were also delicious.  Not exactly stretching culinary boundaries, but a good welcome to a country we would enjoy immensely during our fleeting four-night stay.

Shortly after we returned to the house after our meal, the others finally escaped a long traffic jam in their rental Range Rover Discovery and arrived at the house.

They were all hungry, so Jay and I walked in the opposite direction of downtown to get take-out Indian meals for them.

Baby Owen --- who most times seems to be smiling like a buddha --- had reportedly not been happy about the traffic jam but was in his usual joyful mood once they arrived, so all was well in Wales.