Cardiff

Peter and I had a free weekend so we decided to have a bit of a treat and go to Cardiff for the weekend. It's supposedly about a 2 hr drive to Cardiff, however 2hrs after leaving Oxford in the fog we were still only 30mins from home. The road that we had decided to go on was closed due to a lorry (as they are over here) that had overturned blocking lots of lanes.

Anyway, 3hrs later we arrived in Wales and the sunshine. We drove to a place called Abertillery which is where Peter's grandparents were from. Following that we headed to Caerphilly to see castle number one, imaginatively named Caerphilly Castle. Supposedly this was the biggest castle in Wales. It was pretty interesting but it was a bit tumble down and not the grandest castle we saw. Next on the castle tour was Castell Coch (Red Castle) on the outskirts of Cardiff. This 3 bedroom 'house' was Lord Bute's hunting lodge (although he didn't like hunting). It was elaborately decorated in all rooms except the Lady's bedroom which was very plain by choice. There was a very large amount of gold leaf everywhere but it was quite spectacular.

Our hotel in Cardiff was amazing and very relaxing. I'd like to point out that I would not pay full price to stay there, but for what we paid it was very nice. It was an experience on how the other half above us live. We had a superb dinner at a local seafood restaurant before settling down for a lovely sleep.

Sunday we went to Castle 3, the final castle on our tour, Cardiff Castle. It was lovely and located right in the heart of the city centre. It was also owned by Lord Bute and it was his families home for six weeks every year. We had a very good tour guide for the interior of the castle and unfortunately we were unable to take any photos. It was similar to the Red Castle but a little more gold and a lot more grand.

All in all a lovely weekend castle touring!

Photos are on the website