Castle-ing

We trained to Cardiff. It took an hour and we were in a big city. I was delighted to find an Upper Crust sandwich shop in the station. We’ve found Upper Crust in most UK train stations we’ve visited and their simple ham and cheese sandwiches are terrific. We walked down the pedestrian thoroughfare, munching our sandwiches and then pain au chocolat (Keith ordered chocolate croissants and the server literally stared at us, squinted, then smiled.) We were on our way to the castle, but suddenly there was a Sainsbury’s grocery. Sainsbury’s version of wine gums (a delightful candy unknown in the US. They are like really tough, not sweet jujubees. You want some now, don’t you? No? Good. Give yours to me)(And Alexander). Anyway, Sainbury’s mini wine gums (gems) are a top reason to visit UK. I was so excited and then crushed. They didn’t have any. Keith mapped up a bigger store and off we went. A couple blocks later, crushed again. Darn. I did score a Pikachu hat and we got 5 KitKat orange chocolates (I called them candy bars, which they thought was cute and American. Candy bars seem to be called chocolates here.) The KitKat lady took our picture (“for Nestle”) because we were so embracing the day. (I like to embrace the day, especially with hats and chocolates.)

We finally made it to Cardiff castle and it was splendid. It is a pretty new castle, as castles go. There are footings from a Roman stronghold on the property, but the house was built some time (I forget) and renovated in the 1880s. The house is the most Sleeping Beauty castle-esque of anywhere I have been! The Duke (I could definitely be making up that he was a duke. I think he was. We watched Paddington 2 when we got home and now I am sleepy, so I am not researching) (Paddinton 2 was so good. It’s on Disney+) of Bute (we live on Bute Street!) was extremely rich (made his money in coal) and he and his family only spent a few weeks/year at the Cardiff house, because they had so many other houses to visit.

The Keep was just fabulous. The inside is empty of all of the wooden structures that would have filled it once-a-time-ago, but it was so pretty to look at and to climb up. I climbed to the top without a bit of nervous. I was greatly amused to find a lot of the pictures I took from the top had a bit of my finger showing, because I was clutching my phone so hard so up high.

We went to walk the castle wall and found that a large portion had been converted into bomb shelters during WWII. There were many posters encouraging victory gardens, showing how to do blackouts, dealing with air raids, and my favorites – don’t talk carelessly.

I like to volunteer to take people’s pictures when I see one member of the family out as the photographer. I took a picture, which somehow led to us talking with the group about Disney for an hour. The wife and her twin are self proclaimed Disney fanatics. They were telling us all about how much cheaper it is for people from the UK to visit DisneyWorld than it is for people from the US. They liked hearing about being DVC members. We exchanged emails, of course. Making new friends is always the best part of the day.

There was an England v Wales rugby match today (England prevailed). There were a LOT of people out in the restuarant/night club/pub areas. LOT. I haven’t seen that many people in a very long time. We went to Nando’s for PeriPeri chicken and it was delicious. I would not mind if Nando’s spread across the US. We ordered tap water with dinner, and when Keith went to the self serve station the ice machine was labeled “tiny icebergs”. Perfect.

We scored Upper Crust two ham and cheese sandwiches to take home for lunch tomorrow. I was cold waiting for the train, but so many of the people out at the pubs were wearing so few clothes. I thought it was amazing. Then I remembered you. I also remembered that Wales lifted a lot of covid restrictions right before we came, so getting out again is new.