Cardiff, Wales, United KingdomPrimero Brickworks Apartments, Cardiff Wales
I woke up around 6:30 am after waking up around 3 am and remembering to do something which I now have forgotten.
I tried to sleep until 7:30 am and almost succeeded but got up when I heard Marilynn was up. Showered, had breakfast - it was my turn to prepare it (put out cereal box, set up kettle for coffee and tea, etc. So I was ready even before our departure time of 9:45 am.
We walked to the train station and caught the train to Caerphilly. I had practiced how to produce my bar code ticket from the emails on my phone so that I would be ready to scan it. I managed to get through. Marilynn looked for the elevator to the platform but we couldn't find it. All the little details of navigating a train trip It was a short trip - only 20 minutes by train.
When we left the train station and stood on the top of the High Street, Marilynn almost immediately saw the castle and we headed down the hill toward it, ruing the fact that we would have to climb the hill back to the station later on. The castle was pretty amazing as it stood on a hill surrounded by different bodies of water with lots of water birds all around us and flocks of gulls and pigeons.
We walked around to the entrance. Marilynn had told me about joining Cadw (means preserving in Welsh), the historic environment service of the Welsh Government and part of the Tourism and Culture group. Their membership card would get us into several historical sites for free and this was one of them. Because Caerphilly Castel was doing reconstruction, there was an ugly white edifice up on a part of the castle and they compensated visitors by giving them a free guidebook which is very nice
We walked across a bridge to the entrance in the castle walls and then followed the green arrows. There was a large banquet hall with table and chairs, but there really weren't many furnishings in the castle any more. We followed the green arrows and saw large rooms and small rooms with stone walls, at least one fireplace, a few seats with holes for toilets I guess and lots and lots of stone steps which were not always easy to negotiate I had particular problems on one which was not lighted at all. I tried to use my phone flashlight but it was not really helpful. I did follow one set of stairs to a lookout on top of one tower which gave some great views of the still green Welsh countryside.
After the tour of the castle grounds and ruins, we took a break for a light lunch at a cafe down the road and I had a toasted cheese and tomato sandwich. We then finished our walk on the outer perimeter of the grounds between two of the bodies of water - there were some great views with all the wildflowers.
We worked our way up the hill back to the station and managed to overshoot it by 400 meters and then had to come back down before finding the train station. The short train ride back was uneventful. When we got back to Cardiff, we went to St Mary's Street for afternoon drinks where I had a local ale but didn't catch the name.
We went back to the apartment for a short rest/work period and then out again in search of dinner. After checking out a number of options (the street is heavy on pubs and less heavy on food options beyond burgers and pizzas), we ended up at an Italian restaurant where Marilynn got gnocchi and I got a vegetable pizza that I quite enjoyed. We both got more than we could eat, but we squeezed out a little space to share a creme brulee for dessert.
Back at the apartment, Marilynn hurried to turn on a mystery program that she liked and showed me some books by one of her favorite authors. We watched the show and tried to be productive during the long commercials. Marilynn was much more productive than I, but I did get a few little things done. I will still be 2 days behind in my blog but I have sent out some pics each day to family,
It was supposed too be humid and overcast, but not rainy today, but we found we had to put on our raincoats several times - sometimes for the light rain and sometimes for warmth because of the wind. We were constantly putting on and taking off outer clothes to meet the changes in weather.
So it is now 10:30 pm which is awfully early for me to be going to bed but touristing has been tiring....old age, I guess.
2025-05-22