As promised, here is a short overview of our trip to Wales. We really did have the best time. It was a really easy train ride from Oxford to Cardiff, less than 2 hours and only one change at Didcot Parkway. We arrived in Cardiff about noon and the first thing we found was how friendly the people were to us. Not that the English are not nice, but Oxford is a tourist town and sometimes the locals get tired of foreign visitors. We had planned to go horseback riding when we arrived but there was a communication problem and the riding was not near to Cardiff. Instead we went to lunch and had a wonderful lunch at Prezzo. We also planned to go to Cardiff Castle but the Welsh Army Regiment had just returned from Afghanistan and the Castle was closed for a big celebration - we just missed Prince Charles! We chatted with some of the returning soldiers before walking around some of the important Welsh capital buildings like the National Assembly, the Law Courts, and Cardiff City Hall. We spent a few hours in the National Museum of Wales before heading out of town to our Bed and Breakfast.
The train to Radyr took about 10 minutes then we crossed the Taff River and walked about 20 minutes along the Taff Trail to the bed and breakfast, Gelynis Farmhouse. It was perfect! We all highly recommend it for the next time anyone visits Cardiff! It started raining just as we arrived but we braved the weather to have dinner at the only place in town (Morganstown about a 15 minute walk from the B&B across the train tracks). It was a delicious dinner at Ty Knat Inn and we lingered forcing us to walk back in dark which was interesting but not as insteresting as the broken umbrella I was forced to carry - we laughed (at me) the entire walk back. It was still raining the next morning (and did until about 3 pm) but we started the day with a really great breakfast of smoked salmon and scrambled eggs plus anything else you wanted. There is a theme of good food and lots of laughter to this story!
Our first stop was Castell Coch which sat just above the Farmhouse. Of course, we were walking and it was a real climb. The castle was a fairytale castle and the decorations were fantastical. After racing down the steep hill, we caught the bus back to Cardiff and went to Cardiff Castle. We walked the battlements, climbed the Norman Keep, and toured the apartments before taking a break for lunch at Pizza Express. After lunch we went to an open-air museum, St. Fagans, where houses and stores have been brought together in one place to show the types of homes and work Welsh people have occupied since the 16th century.
It was a perfect holiday but we were all so tired when we returned to Oxford.
No comments:
Post a Comment