Cardiff Castle started as a Roman fortress in 55 A.D. That fortress was eventually ruined and a castle built on top of it. In its current state, the castle consists of the “house,” a clocktower, another tower, a keep, and the walls surrounding the complex. Some of the walls are actually tunnels that were used during WWII as air raid shelters. I think I spent almost four hours at Cardiff Castle; there is so much to see. The house is amazing with elaborately decorated rooms. The nursery had painted tiles along the walls depicting different children’s stories. The library was immense with envy-inducing shelving space. One of the bedrooms was decorated with religious imagery including a series of stained glass windows. As I scanned the room, studying them while the tour guide spoke about the bed and fireplace, I noticed that they each depicted a person holding a building and that they had Greek writing. I worked out Philadelphia phonetically and asked him, “are these the seven churches in Revelation?” He smiled and said, “you can do the tour from now on. Yes,” and he went on to explain the windows to the group.
After the castle, I made my way to the National Museum of Wales, which was a disappointment, as I had expected it to be about the history of Wales. Instead it was part natural history and part art. The art was nice, though, and they even had two paintings by one of my favorite artists, Lawrence Alma-Tadema.
I did a little shopping for a Welsh love spoon, since that seemed like the best souvenir option in terms of size and classiness, then I dropped my purchases off at my hostel before boarding a boat to head down the River Taff to Mermaid Quay. At Mermaid Quay, there is a small, Norwegian church that also houses a small art gallery. Roald Dahl attended when he was growing up and there is a small tribute to him in the gallery. The Quay is also close to the Millennium Center, a center for the arts with a beautiful exterior.
When I was finished site-seeing for the day, I went to a pub next door to my hostel called the Wetherspoon, where I ordered lamb cawl, a traditional Welsh stew made with root vegetables; this particular version used lamb, carrot, leek, swede, turnip, onion, lentils and white bloomer. It was tasty and came with two slices of bread and butter. It was a perfect way to end a long day out and about.