Caerphilly Castle

I had a great idea! We could get up really early and train and bus to see another castle. It is the second largest castle in the UK (Windsor is the first) and it seemed a shame to miss it, since we are almost near it. (And we are so good at trains and buses now.)

The fourth marquis of Bute (he’s the guy from Cardiff castle, too. I think I said he was a duke. Wrong. I don’t know the difference. I think they are both pretty high up in the general fanciness) decided to rebuild a bunch (really wasn’t the thing at the time – it was more a “maintain what you found” time), but I couldn’t tell what was new and what was old at all. I thought he did a very good job. There are four lakes surrounding the castle that had filled up with sediment and basically dried up, and they were cleaned up as recently as the 1960s and reflooded.

None of the inside rooms are filled up – many are open to elements (which, by the way, were elementing. It was misty/rainy the whole time we were there. It said there was a 0% chance of rain. Bah) – except one. We climbed up one of the many spiral staircases and came to a room with furniture! Surprise. We looked at the sign at the entrance and it was basically an advertisement for Castles R Us. What? We’ll move the furniture from castle to castle. (Wales has the most castles..per capita? per miles? per something. Most castles..so I guess people need some furniture now and again.)

There was a group of small children in the great hall. Their teachers were trying to get them to spread out, and they just sat in a group, smiling at the teachers. When I peeked through an upper window a bit later, they had spread out and were drawing. I would like to have seen what they drew.

There are dragons! I guess that should have been expected, because this is Wales and they have dragons here.

They have a crooked tower – quite proudly crooked-er than that old bell tower in Pisa.

We took a bus to a different train station and successfully made it home. We are just really something. (I originally told Keith I thought I would go by myself. He said really? I said yes, I think I can. I did not think I could, but I thought if I said I thought I could maybe I could. The second bus didn’t have a sign inside saying what the stops were, so if I had been alone I would now just be living on the side of the road somewhere in Wales. And I would be wet.)