Cardiff, Wales

 Another long post!!!  

Forgot to post last night’s take out dinner…a yummy salmon poke bowl with rice, pickled cabbage and edamame.  Nice to have lighter fare.

Fast forward to breakfast at our hotel…every morning they give us lots of condiments …and always some cheese bluster packs.  This is in addition to huge English breakfasts….neat reference once again to Leicester.  I know, I’m hard up for entertainment I guess….

Breakfast done one last time for a while in London, we packed up and headed to the train station.

Always interesting walking thru the different subway tunnels.

Made our way on the underground to Paddington Station to transfer to the National Rail Service for our train to Wales. 

Busy but not crazy. 

After just a short wait we used our Brittain passes for the first time to travel about 3 hours to Cardiff, Wales.  We bout first class passes, just a couple of hundred more $$ but thought it would be fun. 

Pulling out of the station…

We got regular drink service like on an airplane. Cream for the coffee was in little packs like ketchup in the US. 

Next is a bunch of photos from the train.  Just beautiful countryside and cool old looking houses along the way. 

Rail station along the way. 

Train going the other direction. Note the Welsh language lettering. 

Along the way it became clear the train was filling up… I didn’t realize it but Cardiff was playing a rugby match and they expected 50,000 people to attend at the stadium in downtown Cardiff….but all was calm and everyone exited the train at the same time at Cardiff.  We checked our bags at the hotel and tried to avoid the crowds (unavoidable).  I didn’t realize find the store Poundland amusing….I guess it’s their version of our “Dollar Stire”.

With the crazy crowds on the streets going to the rugby game, we found a pretty little park to relax a few minutes  

Even after the rugby crowd was settled, there were lots of other visitors enjoying the beautiful weather. Our destination was the Cardiff Castle.  Its origins were in Roman times, but more recently with a wealthy family (1700’s). 

First we wandered the adjacent park. Always a few Bobbie’s to make sure everyone stayed in line!

Pretty little creek emptying into the nearby ocean bay. 

Cool castle wall and moat of course. 

We did pay for the entry fee so got to tour the interior. 

Crazy intricate ceilings and trim of course. 

A defensive “keep”…

View from the top of the keep.

Inside the castle walls, the corridor housed WWII soldiers. 

And a view from the top of visitors enjoying the sunny day. 

Walking back to the hotel…still lots of history. 

John the Baptist church…

And lots of “new” construction as well…

View from the 9th floor hotel room over to what I suppose is the Bristol Channel.