Wednesday 2nd August
That burst of sunshine from yesterday didn’t last very long and the rain was back with us today as we readied to leave Milford Haven, Pembrokeshire. Our destination for the next two nights was Cardiff but we were stopping off at Tenby for a few hours on our way there.
Tenby was only about a 30 minute drive from our Milford Haven apartment so our first stop was for Mark to have a coffee and then we took a self guided audio tour using VoiceMap. The audio tour was only about 90 minutes, as Tenby is quite small, but it took us on a winding path through the town whilst the commentary provided us with some historical background and pointed out significant sites. Tenby is the most picturesque coastal town and it’s definitely one to add to your to-do list, and that was despite it being windy and raining for the majority of our time there. We could imagine how impressive the place would be when the sun was shining. There was an abundance of interesting shops, cafes and restaurants and this would be somewhere you would definitely be happy to stay for a night or two if you were ever on a tour throughout Wales.
It was about 1 pm by the time we set off from Tenby for our 2 hr drive to Cardiff. The rain was back with us for most of the drive but fortunately eased as we arrived at our hotel. Our lodging for the next two nights was at the 4* The Park Plaza hotel where our room was huge and very comfortable and I was excited to see there was a kettle! As they say, it’s the small things that count. It wasn’t anywhere near as luxurious as the 4* Metropolitan in Liverpool or 3* Hotel Cecil in Oslo so, again, beware of those hotel star ratings.
The rain continued to hold off, and the sun was even trying to make an appearance, so we headed out at around 4pm to take another VoiceMap walk but this time of Cardiff. The walk started at Cardiff Castle, located in the centre of the city, and it has been a central feature since 1081 when the Normans and William 1, King of England (aka William the Conqueror), expanded on the earlier 75 AD Roman fortress and the town subsequently grew around the Castle. The Coal mining industry helped to expand Cardiff during the Industrial Revolution and brought a lot of wealth and prosperity to the city which is reflected in a number of the grand buildings, with one notable example being City Hall. That’s about all I got from the audio guide as we were only about half way through when I started to feel a bit unwell so we aborted the walk and went back to the hotel. We actually had a walking tour booked for tomorrow, with a live guide, so hopefully I’ll last through that one.
Our first impressions of Cardiff were a bit mixed as we had been expecting the Capital of Wales might display a bit of sophistication and polish. There were a few pedestrianised malls that radiated away from the Castle and these were lined with a some quaint pubs but, then, the usual mix of American chain fast food outlets, discount stores and medium to low-end fashion outlets and retail. There were mostly wet and bedraggled tourists, like us, plodding around and absent were the well attired professional workers one might have expected to see in the middle of a city on a Wednesday afternoon. There may be higher end retail located elsewhere in the city so we will need to find out. There was also an over-representation of groups of 30-40 yr old men and we suspected a sporting match might be drawing them to the city. When I later asked the waiter at our hotel about this abundant demographic he quickly replied ‘Oh, no, that’s just Cardiff, that what it’s like’. Having said that, there is a big rugby game scheduled for Saturday night but today was only Wednesday so I’m not sure they’d all flock here this early.
I wasn’t up to dinner but Mark had a bite at the hotel bar downstairs and then went for a walk to buy a bottle of wine. He had a bit of a ‘moment’ on his return to our room and I think it must have been primarily due to all of the bad weather, the rain and the constant wind, we’ve had since being in the UK. He’d had to drive through a lot of rain over the last week and hadn’t been able to get out on many bike rides, which he was quite disappointed about. He finished off with quite an emphatic question as to why William the Conqueror would have wanted to ever come into this part of the world in the first place? Given the Normans had originally come down from the Normandy / Scandinavian region (North Men became Norse Men became Normans). The beer offerings were much better up there! I do see his point though and we are greatly looking forward to heading to France and Italy where, hopefully, we will be back to some clear and warmer weather.
Thursday 3rd August
It was an overcast morning but at least it wasn’t raining so we headed out to Bute Park for an early walk. This park is adjacent to the Castle and Sydney folk would do well to liken it to Centennial Park only far less busy of a morning; there were just a few dog walkers and joggers out at 8 am.
Our plan for the morning was to take an 11 am walking tour and then visit the Castle in the afternoon. Our guide for the Walking tour, Eugene, was well informed and fully invested in our experience as he was the owner of the walking tour company, Fogo’s Free Tours. The time past quickly as he made it so interesting and we developed a much greater appreciation for the Cardiff we saw before us today. Like Liverpool, Cardiff struggled with the eventual decline in coal usage and shipping and with the two world wars but Liverpool received a huge boost with EU funding enabling it to build the prosperous city that it is today. I’m not sure if Cardiff ever received a similar injection of EU funds so maybe that explains the divergence between the two similarly populated cities? Also, Liverpool city is located much closer to the Harbour front, now redeveloped into a great entertainment hub, whereas in Cardiff the water front area is about a 35 min walk from the city centre and Eugene suggested there was little reason to visit. He gave us a wealth of information along the tour and some bits that resonated with me are outlined below:
- In Wales rugby is a national sport that is for all the people: working class and through to the elite.
- 118 yrs ago the Welsh sang the national anthem on the field before play in response to the NZ team performing the Hakka. Anthems have been sung prior to major matches ever since.
- Welsh language lessons are compulsory until age 16
- Wales has 600 Castles; the most per capita in world.
- The main industries / employers in Cardiff: Finance. / Airbus / film & tv industry. / Education and tourism/events.
- Cardiff Castle:
- From approx 50-400 AD was a Roman fortress; first ones built in timber and a 4th built in stone
- Romans left Cardiff area following the fall of the Roman Empire
- Cardiff Castle was essentially derelict until the Normans came in circa 1080.
- Successive wealthy and noble families owned the Castle thereafter
- The Bute family, were actually the Stewart’s from the Isle of Bute in Scotland, and they held the Castle from 1776-1947. Most generations of this family just holidayed here for a few weeks of the year
- The 2nd Marquess is considered Father of Cardiff as he recognized the need for coal during Industrial Revolution and developed canals, ports and the railway resulting in expansion of city and population.
- The 3rd Marquess was the more popular of the family as he is responsible for the building of many of the grand buildings in the Civic center, he was one of the people and was the only one to speak Welsh and he was generous to the poor.
- The 5th Marquess was the one to hand the Castle and adjoins grounds (now Bute Park) to the city in 1947 as the upkeep became too expensive
- The 8th Marquess is in his mid 30s, lives in London and is a well know chef at a high end restaurant despite having independent family wealth.
- The Castle is used for many live events and Tom Jones is performing there this Saturday Aug 5th
The walking tour finished at around 1.30 pm so we had a bit of lunch before heading to the Castle where we took a guided tour of the Medieval and Victorian era Castle House, where the Bute family would stay whilst on holiday, and used the audio guide to explore the rest of the Castle; although the audio guide took about an hour to download onto my phone and Mark’s is still drying to download! It was a full and enjoyable afternoon roaming the Castle grounds but Mark still considers Pembroke Castle to have been the most interesting of all the Castles.
It was only 4.30 pm by the time we left the Castle and so we headed back to the hotel for a bit of a break before dinner. Eugene had given us some restaurant suggestions so we were going to try them out tonight. Unfortunately though, once we headed back out we soon found that we should have booked as none of the venues could take us in so it was then back to the hotel for dinner in their restaurant, Laguna Kitchen & Bar. This was one of the best meals of our trip and I would highly recommend a visit to this restaurant in the Park Plaza, even if you weren’t staying at the hotel!
We had enjoyed our short stay in Cardiff. It isn’t a place we would say you must visit but a night or two spent here would not be a bad way to add time to a visit to this part of the world. We leave tomorrow for Bristol where we have 6 nights before an overnight at the airport and then on to France.
