Cardiff

Arab Room in Cardiff Castle

Phew, there has been so much on this year that I've only just got some time to write about it.  The pace has been crazy, I'm kind of looking forward to summer so I can relax (not sure if that is going to happen).

We got along to Cardiff one wintry weekend in January, though that didn't stop the locals walking around in short sleeves and no stockings on a freezing Friday night.  I have to say the Cardiff main train station on a Friday night has to be one of the more scary places to be.  There were so many coppers, which I guess is a good thing.  But there needed to be so many because there were so many incredibly drunk people.  And the thing with the Welsh is that they are a big people, forget the little English, these people are all tall and really broad shouldered, no wonder they are good at rugby.  If they had decided to start fighting there wouldn't be a lot you could do to stop it.  There was one guy swaggering through the main mall, wearing t-shirt and shorts, with a dog in a muzzle strapped to his waist.  Really weird, he got a wide berth from me.

Cardiff Castle and the Stadium beyond

It was interesting in Cardiff, I didn't realise it only became the capital of Wales in the 1950's, before that it seemed that Wales didn't have a capital.  And it's not as if Cardiff was really head and shoulders above any other city, I guess they just got lucky.

We visited Cardiff Castle, it's right in the centre of town so there's really no excuse, it has an impressive motte and bailey, in fact perhaps the best one I've seen.

The motte and keep

There is so much history just in this castle, with many different owners throughout the centuries and later additions.  During WWII people used the castle walls to shelter in during the bombing raids.  The walls were incredibly thick, so I assume they were safe there.  It was strange because at the time I was reading Life After Life by Kate Atkinson, a good book, and it spends a lot of time in London during the blitz.  It was kind of topical to go to Cardiff and find that they were suffering through the same onslaught.

Lovely Victorian arcade in Cardiff

The manor rooms are amazing, these were later remodellings in the late 1800's.  The castle was in the Bute family from the 1770's to the 1950's when it was given to the citizen's of Cardiff.  The main remodelling was due to the grandson of the guy who made all the money in this family.  This was when the coal industry was really kicking off in Wales, and the Bute's managed to invest in the Cardiff docks at the right time, making their coal mines worth a lot of money.  The grandson inherited the castle when he was less than a year.  He ended up hating the castle as it was and spent a lot of money remodelling it.  Which is good for us now, since he went in for this really ostentatious architecture.  So the massive clock tower was thanks to him, and the Arab room.  It's definitely worth a visit.

We also went on a walking tour, we are real walking tour connoisseurs, and this one was good.  It was certainly run under trying circumstances, what with the howling wind, and driving rain.  But the guide managed to find shelter wherever he could.  And he certainly gave a good history of Cardiff.  It's really all down to coal and the Bute family as to why Cardiff is the capital now.  Before the industrial revolution it seems that Cardiff was no different from any other Welsh town, in fact it seemed smaller than others.  But with the discovery of coal in the valleys (get a Welsh person to say "the valleys" for you) and the fact that the Bute's spent a lot of money on developing the railways to Cardiff and the docks in Cardiff.  It meant that all the coal was flowing into Cardiff and out again, so a lot of money and people as well.  There are some really lovely Victorian arcades around Cardiff, though now that the coal has stopped the shops are all closing.  But the buildings are still standing.

I think if I was to visit Cardiff again, I would want to go to see a rugby match.  It must be something pretty special, since the stadium is basically in the centre of town.  And apparently everyone gets into it.  I wonder if Australia or New Zealand are touring over here anytime soon?