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The capital city of Wales wasn't looking her best when we arrived late on a Monday afternoon. Although the sun was shining, bags of stinking rubbish were lined up on the pavements, and when we went for a walk we found ourselves walking through a run down neighbourhood of unkempt houses and shops with barred windows. Not the best start! Things improved when we found a nice Thai restaurant in the heart of the city. After a fiery green papaya salad, a milder red curry, and a chicken pad Thai we were feeling more kindly disposed toward Cardiff.
Cardiff castle was top of our agenda the following day. Only a short walk from our accommodation, the Castle began life as a Roman fort - parts of the original wall can still be seen from the outside, it has now been impressively restored - later a Norman Keep was built here, and eventually the Castle came to be owned by the Bute family. One of the Marquesses of Bute had considerable improvements made to the castle buildings and grounds (at the time he was the wealthiest man in the world and no expense was spared). Finally, the castle was gifted to the city and during the second world war its walls were used as air raid shelters.
The remarkable interior of the main apartments were the highlight of the visit for me. The level of detail in the decoration was jaw dropping. Two arched doorways led into a huge library filled with polished wooden bookcases laden with books, as we entered I noticed that above each doorway was a carved monkey, on the other side there was a frieze of monkeys climbing all around the doors with an apple tree representing the tree of knowledge and some of the monkeys holding apples in their hands. One of the monkeys was even taking a bite of an apple and cheekily his face had a Darwinian resemblance! Around another doorway in the library was a procession of chameleons slowly changing colour. Above the fireplace were four or five classical kings holding scrolls or tablets and painted in gold. The entire room was a feast for the eyes!
Walking up the main street once more we found the city's Cathedral. Although damaged in the war, it has been restored and there are still pillars that have been standing there since the 15th century. There is a strong Victorian influence in the city's architecture. The ornate facades of the buildings evidence of the city's period of prosperity. There were also a few remaining buildings in the Tudor style, with thick black wooden beams crisscrossing and contrasting with the bright whitewash.
In the afternoon we drove out to the National History Museum, an open air museum consisting of numerous relocated historic buildings which have been set up to tell the story of Welsh history - a medieval barn, dovecote, wool mill, blacksmith, saddlery, church, pigsty, and farmhouse gave us glimpses into the lives of people here hundreds of years ago. The farmhouse was interesting as one side was where the farmer's animals would have been kept and the other two rooms were where the family lived, man and beasts all used the same front door! There was also a huge wooden chest where the family's grain store was kept and this would have sustained them through the winter. No doubt a hard and smelly life - cold too, judging by the bare stone walls, floor and 2m wide fireplace.
A Celtic village of round clay huts with straw conical roofs was set up inside a high wooden stake fence. Another corner of the 'museum' held an old fashioned school, a block of shops, and another farmhouse. This farmhouse had a few more comforts and would have been home to a more well off farming family. Not only was there separate barn accommodation for the animals but the family had more rooms to spread out over with upstairs bedrooms separate from the living spaces downstairs. We also visited a row of terraced housing where each small house had been furnished to show different time periods - the earliest was around 1800 and the most recent was 1950s. Overall, the museum was an interesting experience, different from the usual museum outing, and we certainly got a bit of exercise from all the walking!
For our next day in Cardiff we decided to go a bit further afield and explore some more castles. We had breakfast at a comfortable cafe (porridge with banana and cinnamon instead of bacon and eggs! Hooray!) and set off to Caerphilly Castle. Again, the weather was threatening rain and we felt a few spits of rain as we walked up to the castles formidable moat and outer wall. This is another castle formerly owned by the Bute family and the family can be credited with much of the restoration of this magnificent castle after it was badly damaged during the period of the English civil war. It has everything you would expect of a medieval castle, moats, portcullises, murder holes, battlements, arrow slits, a secret passage, privies that empty into the moat, towers, kitchens, a wine cellar, and a great hall. From Caerphilly we drove to Raglan castle, which sits surrounded by Welsh countryside. Built more recently than Caerphilly, Raglan had comfortable sized living quarters and impressive towers. Remnants of ornate fireplaces, a restored grand staircase, and the ruins of great windows gave an inkling of the grandeur the castle once had. Finally, we travelled a further 45 minutes to Chepstow castle which is in a pretty town and rises up above a river. The interesting thing about this castle was that it once belonged to William Marshall, a younger son who would not inherit, through his skill at arms he became one of Henry II's knights. He went on crusade and returned to become one of the greatest English lords. Under King John's paranoid rule he remained loyal to the crown - despite the suspicious King taking lands from him and keeping his two eldest sons as hostages. After John's death he was chosen by the English barons as regent for the new boy King. Quite a career!
In the evening we went to dinner at a Lebanese restaurant that had good reviews on tripadvisor - Mina. The restaurant was in an outer suburb and did not look like much from the outside. Inside was not much better - tired decor hung with woollen rugs. The service was friendly though, and when the food arrived, it was faultless. I had ordered a mezze platter with falafel, silky hummus, smoky eggplant dip, a tabbouleh zingy with parsley and lemon juice, dolmades filled with spiced rice, and lamb meatballs inside a crisp wholemeal shell. Everything was full of flavour and there was so much that even with Dale's help I couldn't finish the platter. Dale had a mixed grill of marinated chicken, tender lamb pieces still pink in the middle, and flavoursome lamb kofta, with a lemon and coriander yoghurt dip. For dessert we shared baklava, which tasted as good as the rest of the meal. It was nice to finish our Cardiff visit on such a positive note.
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