It turns out that our member-of-parliament-friend is none other than the founder of the Propel Wales party. He was good to his word and this morning, we were taken on a private tour of the Cardiff Castle by this handsome young man.
Little did we know when we started the tour that we would spend a lot of time looking up.
Sorry about the fuzzy picture. There will be more.
I channeled my inner Lee Higginson and got a reflection of the tower in some of last night's rain. This place has been occupied for around 2,000 years.
Romans built a fort in around 50 AD and this Roman wall was discovered fairly recently.
A little history from their website: "The Castle passed through the hands of many noble families until in 1766, it passed by marriage to the Bute family. The 2nd Marquess of Bute was responsible for turning Cardiff into the world’s greatest coal exporting port. The Castle and Bute fortune passed to his son John, the 3rd Marquess of Bute, who by the 1860s was reputed to be the richest man in the world."
In the mid 1800's the 3rd Marquess of Bute transformed the castle into what we saw today. He was a genius - spoke 21 languages.
The craftmanship was stunning.
We walked up a lot of stairs to get to this garden. Cynthia is trying to figure out why they used beavers holding fish as the water spouts on that fountain.
There was gold everywhere.
The sculpture below represents some of the languages that the 3rd Marquess spoke.
Switching gears, we headed out of Cardiff, driving westward towards the Gower Peninsula. It's an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. And, it lived up to its reputation.
You need sustenance to take in miles and miles of outstanding beauty. What better place to try fish & chips than next to the Bristol Channel? The cook was excited to share all of his extra treats with us: Irish Curry and Chinese Curry sauces and his very tasty tartar sauce. Part way through the meal he came over with a small container of scraps: the little bits of fried batter scooped out of the oil. We weren't too taken with the scraps, but appreciated his kindness. Every one of us brought home half of our meal to be eaten later.
Back on the road again, it was necessary to take more windshield shots. So, the theme for the rest of the post is looking out, not up.
There is a lot of gorse blooming now in this part of the country.
Roads got narrow quickly and these ones do have stone walls lurking behind that vegetation.
There were a few lookouts along the way.
It was the end of the school day and we ended up behind a schoolbus. Yes, that is a school bus.....
.... and these are schoolgirls. They were tucked into a bend in the wall to avoid being hit by passing cars.
This picture is for Ted.
Can you imagine meeting a school bus on this corner?
We were stopped in a little bulge in the road, waiting for this car to pass us when I took this picture. Do you see another bulge up ahead on the right? That's how it goes, little bulges every so many meters.....
.... and scary corners on hills.
Adventure to no end.
Now, we are in our newest home, a cottage behind a pub in the countryside. We even have a laundry/mud room with a cupboard full of beach paraphernalia. Hmmmmm.....