Cardiff

One of the first things we did when we realized we were heading to the UK was to get in touch with our friend Pippa who we met right at the beginning of our trip in Buenos Aires. Pippa was also at the beginning of her own round-the-world trip and had told us then about the house she'd just bought in Cardiff that was being rented for the year or so that she was on the road. This time around, she invited us to come check out the house into which she'd just moved.

Timing was perfect, actually, and we even got a ride with Pippa from London as she lives half-time in a company apartment there. So we met up, hopped in the car, and began the road trip to Wales, stopping only for some fast food and bathrooms, before getting into Cardiff just in time for a quick dinner and drinks shopping trip to the supermarket where we helped Pippa stock up and get her liquor cabinet into a respectable state. Then we went home and got to see Pippa's cute "new" townhouse that's only 100 years old, which is nothing in Britain - and especially nothing in Pippa's family - as we were to find out soon. But it's a cool place, right on the corner with it's own garden and three bedrooms upstairs, one of which we were lucky enough to snag. Pippa's parents, Brian and Allison, then came over and we arranged to go to their house the next day as a base to do some hill walking through the castles along the Welsh border as Pippa had to go to work.

She dropped us off at her parents' house in the country and we got the tour... of the 14th century farmhouse. Indeed, the core of the property dates back to the 14th century with the most recent additions coming as late as the 18th century. The house is, therefore, pretty incredible, rambling, and beautiful. There are all sorts of little accents - like crests from the town church as the preacher used to live here - as well old Victorian iron hitching posts in the adjacent stables. Plus, huge gardens outside - though we didn't see a ton of those as it was raining pretty steadily throughout the day. So rather than go on our walk, we went into the town of Monmouth with Allison; she went to run errands, we went to wander through the cobblestoned streets, over the bridge, and into going out of business sales at bookshops. And, once back at their own "castle," we continued the chats over tea and while helping to build some bookshelfs for their sprawling library.

But we did get to see our Welsh castles eventually, though we were driven there as the weather was still too bad. But Brian and Allison took us around both Skenfrith Castle as well as Grosmont Castle. We missed out on the White Castle - the third in this triad of Norman fortifications - but what we saw was still pretty cool. These castles date back to the 11th century, built along the border of England and Wales as Norman fortresses protecting the borders of their realm. At Skenfrith, we also got to peek around an old church with a really interesting bell tower where we picked up some delicious cakes in between getting the tour from Brian and Allison, both history buffs. Soon, however, it was time to go home as Pippa was done with work...

But our Welsh-castle-viewing days were not over yet. We also went to one in Cardiff, appropriately if unimaginatively titled, "Cardiff Castle." Excellent tour of an interesting historical site with free audio guides (with the £9 entry fee) that take you through the history of the grounds, including much harping upon the most recent major landscape gardener on the site who made some rather drastic changes in the 18th century - Lancelot "Capability" Brown. The castle itself is extremely well preserved and you really can see the different time periods in the buildings. I particularly enjoyed the Norman keep on the raised mound with the classic moat around it. Definitely the ideal image of a stereotypical medieval castle.

More recent, however, was the living quarters in the Victorian Mansion added by the eccentric architect William Burges under the patronage of the Bute family, a family name which seems to be synonymous with Cardiff. The mansion is "a 19th century fantasy of a medieval palace," complete with crazy spires outside and dramatic staircases and banquet halls within. There's also a library with all sorts of little creatures carved into every surface, most of them poking fun at Darwin, whom Lord Bute evidently thought was ludicrously wrong. Still, the most impressive room was probably the gorgeous Arab Room you see pictured here. I forget the history of this room, but if you go, the friendly stewards scattered throughout will be more than happy to discuss the significance of the coats of arms on the walls or the wooden newts climbing the table legs....

Castles were not all we did in Cardiff, though, upon reflection, they were sort of the focus. But we also did a lot of our standard hangout/wander/devour routine, whipping up a few tasty meals with Pippa including pancakes on Pancake Tuesday, the day before Ash Wednesday, which is, of course, 46 days before Easter Sunday, itself a solid two days after Good Friday, all of which is only tangentially related to the main topic at hand: pancake feasts. The idea is that you want to use up all your rich foodstuffs like eggs, milk, and sugar before the fasting of Lent. So you gorge yourself silly (or at least that's how we interpreted it) on thousands (well, at least tens) of pancakes/crepes. Mmm mmm good. And you can continue that pre-self-denial excess by going to the Indian restaurant on City Road where you can get a lunch buffet for £2.50. That is ridiculously cheap for anything, much less a huge all-you-can-eat buffet, especially when the food was actually pretty delicious. This was probably the budget find of the trip... seriously, £2.50? That's like a single samosa at most Indian restaurants. And you know I'm not lying cause you can see the flyer up on the wall behind me... though it doesn't give the name of the restaurant and I can't remember it. Damn!

As you might also be able to tell from the above picture, Kate finally got around to cutting my hair, a more difficult proposition than you might imagine as we usually do this sort of thing outside with my shirt off... but as it was near-freezing outside... well, we ended up cutting it in the kitchen one day so that I could get spiffed up for a night out on the town checking out the local bars with Pippa, also a newbie herself on the Splott bar scene. The first place we went was a local place where everyone seemed to know each other and everyone really was doing kareoke. Next stop was the Vulcan, a bit more central and a Cardiff institution in danger of being shut down and demolished to make way for a parking lot. First bar was just OK, but the Vulcan was pretty cool and we got to finish catching up with Pippa after her year of four continents and get the lowdown on what it's like to return to the Real World.

Outside of all that... well, we also took a day trip back into London during the middle of our week in Cardiff... but that's for the next blog...