Day in Doctor Who-ville

On Friday, I set out early for a day in beautiful Cardiff. Unfortunately, due to road work and a jaunt off the main road to drop a load of kids off at the school, I nearly didn't make the train. I become one of those people that I subconsciously sort of feel bad for/laugh at who run for their train. Well, this is what I look like when I just make the train- with about two seconds to spare.


Once I was ON the train, there was absolutely no problem getting into Cardiff. I didn't even leave the station before heading to another train to Caerphilly Castle about thirty minutes outside of Cardiff. Caerphilly Castle is one of the greatest medieval castles of western Europe- after Windsor Castle, it's the second largest castle in Britain! It was built by Gilbert de Clare, lord of Glamorgan, who was also one of Henry III's most powerful and ambitious barons.







Caerphilly was built later than most castles on a site that had nothing previously built upon it (often times, castles, like Dover, for example, were built on old Anglo-Saxon or even Roman sties). Its concentric arrangement allowed for rapid access to any part of the castle by mural passages and walk-walks, towers, gatehouses and numerous portcullises and there was no possibility of mounting siege engines against the inner walls. Also unlike many other castles today, both the inner and outer moats are still filled. The north adn south lakes around the castle formed and still are an almost impenetrable barrier to attackers.


Most of the towers are still structurally sound although the South East Tower has split vertically an angle producing a very notable lean, of more than 10 degrees. It leans even farther than the Leaning Tower of Pisa!

The inner courtyard, the innermost part of the castle, was surrounded by parapets above and surrounded by bedrooms, the Great Hall, the Chapel and various storerooms and rooms used to make various weapons, items, etc. that were necessary for castle life and for castle defense.






Outside on the front "yard", over by the north gate, they had recreations of the four major weapons used during castle attacking- they had been rebuilt according to earlier models and at one point were all used to see how accurate and powerful they were. The only pictured below was able to shoot 3 pound weights over 100 meters!

Back in Cardiff, I wandered around the city centre area, passing lot sof shops and Cardiff Castle. I eventually made it to the Cardiff Museum which wasn't sure if it was an art museum or a natural history museum. However, there was a fascinating exhibit about the history of man and the origins of man with amazing exhibits of skulls, early artifacts, jewelry, weapons and other incredible things.

Once I left the museum, I walked the mile down to Cardiff Bay. The sky was absolutely beautiful as the sun had just gone down. The water and the sky were gorgeous!


On my way back up to the city centre to have dinner and catch the bus, I made sure to stop at the Millenium Centre and its large open courtyard.

It was a long, long, long day with a lot of walking and I was exhausted on the way home. But I had absolutely beautiful, warm weather (relatively speaking) and it was definitely well worth it!