First stop was Cardiff. Antina and Mike have been enjoying the Dr. Who spinoff Torchwood, courtesy of Michka & Janna, and wanted to see the Cardiff Millenium Center. As the GPS system navigated us through the streets of Cardiff with David arguing with the feminine voice trying to direct him the wrong way down one-way streets we had the unique pleasure of almost having a semi back over us (evidently his GPS got it wrong too) which almost caused us to back over a smart car. Major disasters neatly avoided, Mike named the GPS "B***hin Betty" or "BB" for short and it's stuck.
We were happy to find dockside, finally, and got out to take the token Torchwood shots. We noted that the elevator must have been down for maintenance because although we stood outside waiting, the doors never opened. Michka will be happy to know that Mike & Antina fulfilled the mission you gave them and made note of many tall buildings in the general area.
On to our next stop - Caerphilly Castle. But first, we heard an ominous pop and handling of the truck became interesting so we needed to pull over and change a tire. Thank goodness for the excess wet-naps given at KFC recently and saved in the front of the truck because we needed them.
Tire repaired, we headed on to Caerphilly. As we passed the rest of the way through Cardiff, David pointed out the cry of "B-R-A-I-N-S"
Please understand that this is a beer, but it's logo is pasted on bars, train overpasses, and anything else you can think of .. which always makes David think of one of those old zombie horror films and thus the cry of "B-R-A-I-N-S" rang out in the car from 3 out of 4 inhabitants . . I managed to resist the urge.
We travelled through some beautiful countryside before we entered into Caerphilly. Once we were getting close to the downtown area (and therefore the castle) we inadvertently ended up following an ASDA truck as he made his home grocery deliveries, since we didn't want his same stop, we took some side roads, back alleys and anything else we could to find our way toward the castle. SUCCESS! We parked at the Morrison's and headed off on foot toward the castle.
As we toured this shell of a castle, Antina remarked that she was glad that Cromwell didn't use better powder. Wow!
The great hall was open again (it had been closed for restoration work earlier) and so we had the opportunity to enjoy that space.
The signage at Caerphilly claims this is one of the only reconstructed overhangs for the purpose of resisting siege. Ingenious.
While exploring staircases, we found a locked door and needed to retrace our steps
Finding another set of staircases, we reached what could only be considered a sitting room or a bedchamber. So how big a fire do you need to heat a place like this, well David and Mike both stepped inside the massive fireplaces to provide us a perspective.
Now it was time to let the boys play with the "toys" outside the castle walls (otherwise known as seige weapons).
With everything at this location having been explored, we opted to hit the gift shop and start on our way out. The gift shop had many small treasures (of which chocolate seemed to be a favorite) but they were lacking in Welsh Dragon representation so David and I have our orders to rescue a baby Welsh Dragon for Mike & Antina from another location in the future.
On to Hay-on-Wye. Some might say that we planned this poorly since it was going to be close to 4 PM by the time we arrive at Hay-on-Wye; however they would be the ones that are unaware of our propensity for obtaining books. In our travel toward the famed village of bookshops we were enjoying the sites in Breacon Beacon Park and opted to stop to take some pictures. Look at all the waterfalls and sheep. Definately worth the lay-by.
Back on track, we arrived in Hay-on-Wye and on the drive through town toward parking noted that there were so many bookshops that they had specialty bookshops (gardening, outdoor rec, etc.). Oh, we planned well to give us limited time to purchase reading material so that we didn't end up buying the whole town. At our first stop we picked up a map and noted 38 bookshops advertised in one village. . oh boy!
We successfully resisted the urge to spend our little bit of time on the largest store because it was open until MUCH later than the rest . . see we were thinking . . and we hit as many stores as we could as they started closing up shop. At the Castle bookshop we found many CDV's to be used for RESEARCH and so Antina and I spent some quality time reviewing them and picking up any that might be of use. Our treasurers purchased, we met a nice lady from Nova Scotia on the lawn as we departed and enjoyed conversing with her briefly before we fel the urge to hit the next shop. After much shopping and backpacks full, we returned to the car to empty our gains into the vehicle and return to the last large store. We picked up a few more odds and ends before we decided to call it a day and head towards Leeds. David's comment as we headed toward the car "We just bought more books . . and there's no more room in our library." Well, that about sums it up. With the on again and off again rain, we were pleased to see rainbows over the carpark as we returned to our vehicle.
We drove for a bit and then as it neared 9 pm we decided we were a bit peckish so we stopped off for dinner at a Little Chef. The food was reasonable but being out of the car for a bit was even better. We still had a ways to drive, so we piled back in and off we went.
As we travelled, the boys spotted a sign for Shrewsbury battlefield (circa 1403) and so we were off to see another battlefield . . at dusk . . okay it was dark. The battlefield had a pretty church (of course that was the only thing lit up so it was slightly easier to see). According to a sign nearby the church there is also a visitor's center, although we couldn't find it in the encroaching darkness so another stop must be made in lighter conditions me thinks.
Back on the road with us weary travellers and we arrive at the Holiday Inn in Leeds around 12 AM. The museum opens at 10 AM tomorrow so we make our plans to have our continental breakfast and be ready for checkout so we can get the most out of our museum visit.
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