28 March  Tuesday  Castel Coch   Cardiff Castle

It is a perfectly gloomy day with straight out rain.  I am up at 6:45 AM with milky tea and flood the cramped bathroom with my shower.  It’s also the day that tickets go on sell for the Wrexham AFC vs. Oldfield.  There is no way for me to get on line a buy ticket for the 1^st of April match--oh well.  Pete and Faye are the only ones at breakfast—so far.  The hot food is out at 7:15 AM—not 7:30 AM as advertised.   I shy away from the meats—after a rough night.  The group doesn’t start showing up until 7:45 AM.  We are supposed to get on the coach early to visit castles (Coch and Cardiff), today.

Another change in plans—Sue tells us that Grant is over his allotted time to drive (he usually does a week at a time) so we are getting Andrew and another coach.  It is almost 9:50 AM when we get started.  First Andrew takes us west across the River Taff and south, through old brick tenement houses, heading south on Clair (A4119) and Corporation Road towards the harbor area (southeast crossing the river, again).  We find out that some of our group took a water taxi to the harbor area yesterday—very convenient.  Wish I had known.  Sue talks about Brain Beer after we see a sign, but she thinks it’s not produced anymore.  We cross the river and see the Cardiff Millennium Centre--home to the BBC Orchestra of Wales, The Roald Dahl Plass, the Pierhead (old red brick Victorian--symbol of Cardiff) and Senedd (strikingly modern) buildings.  The BBC Roath Lock Drama Village is just across the Roath Basin. 

We head north up Lloyd George Avenue with all its new apartments—block after block to Callaghan

Square.  We are back on Duke heading north on A4161, curving around past The City hall and National Museum Cardiff, up Park Place around Cardiff University and west on Corbett Road to North Road (A470)--up and out of Cardiff. The traffic is thick so we move slowly out of the city.  We stop and a view site for Caerphilly Castle (now under reconstruction) and swing around the lake moat, then to back to A470, through Tongwynlais (small town) and eventually--up to Castel Coch.

Castel Coch (welsh for red) is Gothic Revival castle situated up on the side of a hill in dense forest. This is one of the fairy tale castles.  In 1848 John Crichton-Stuart, 3rd Marquess of Bute, one of Britain's wealthiest men, inherited the castle.  He enlisted architect William Burges to re-imagine the medieval remains of the original fortress as the foundation for a "country residence for occasional occupation in the summer".  Stuart wanted a small medieval Welsh chieftain's stronghold, but more the European style.

The work took place around 1875 to 1879, creating the circular walls and three pointed turreted towers; Burges died in 1881 so the interior was finished by his team in 1891. It is known as one of the most ‘triumphant accomplishments of Victorian architecture’, others just see it as a romantic folly.   Sue just calls it a Disney Castle and I tend to agree with her.  Stuart’s grandson, the 5th Marquess of Bute, inherited it in 1950 and put it into the care of the state—who restored and maintains it.    

We climb up the hill to the dry moat and enter across the draw bridge as cold wind and rain blast through the castle gate.  There aren’t enough Bluetooth devices to go around so I just explore the castle

on my own.  I go up into the highest tower, first, which houses the meeting hall, dining room, bed rooms, and children’s room and master chambers.  In the kitchen and scullery there has a projected presentation on the ‘Blue Willow' china about preparing a meal.  Once dinner is consumed there is a big ‘burp’.  Once I have seen everything, I head to the  warm Tea Room for a scone (‘scahn’) with jam and clouted cream—putting jam down first and cream on top and coffee.  Sue has instructed us in the correct way to put it on--cream is a condiment. I also check out the gift shop then head back down to the coach in the rain. 

Andrew drives us back to Cardiff, but we are quickly stalled in traffic because of an accident—four police cars and two fire engines.  He quickly adjusts and finds an alternate route that brings us back down to Cardiff Castle Castell Caerdydd.  Sue leads the way through the castle gate and into the huge green space beyond.  Sue says this is a partial Disney Castle/part true medieval castle with real walls and a real keep.  We have a choice since we are a large group, do the outside, rainy, real first or do the dry Disney one—a Victorian Gothic revival mansion, so that we don’t over-whelm the staff.  I head to the new, first, to avoid the rain.

The original moat and bailey castle were built in the late 11th century by Norman invaders.  That was on top of a 3rd-century Roman fort.  The Anglo-Normans repeatedly attacked the castle in the 12th century, and it was stormed by Owain Glyndŵr (Welsh hero) during the revolt of 1404.  Through many occupiers, the castle remained Welsh until the English Civil War when it was momentarily taken by a Parliamentary force, but taken back by Royalist supporters in 1645. There was more fighting in 1648 as a Royalist army attacked the city to retake the castle--the Battle of St. Fagans.  After the war the British garrisoned the castle, to protect it against Scottish invasion. In the middle of the 18th century, the castle became the property of the Stuart dynasty, Marquesses of Bute. John, 1st Marquess of Bute, and turned it into a Georgian mansion. In the first half of the 19th century, the family became extremely wealthy as a result of the coal industry.  The 3rd Marquess of Bute (Castel Coch) transformed it (under William Burges) into a Gothic revival style. The interior designs are considered to be some of "the most magnificent that the gothic revival ever achieved".

Although we are only allowed into only a hand full of rooms, you can get a real sense of the opulence of this 18^th century castle.  The clock tower is a separate tour and fee.  The residence rooms open to the public includes the dining room, meeting hall, the Arabic room and the library.  The Arab room is particularly amazing. The golden ceiling details are all made of wood exactly cut to give the illusion of 4D, stretching up higher and higher. The library contains many collections of first editions and a compilation of French and German writers. I have teamed up with Ginny, again and we are now ready to go outside and see the real castle.

We meet up with Debra, Diane and Jason as we all walk north towards the castle walls in the rain.  We all go up the stairs to a tower with the intent to walk the parapets.  Ginny and I look at each and decide would rather walk inside the walls—not in the rain. So we go back down the stairs and into the lower cavern-like walkway in the walls.  We get halfway around the wall and decide we have had enough and return to the tower and walk across the grounds to the castle keep.  The steps up are formidable, but we press on up the vertical steps to the round fortress.  There is a manicured lawn in the center.  We climb the first story and check out old tower rooms.  I look out and see Rick (tenor) and his girlfriend, Lynn (alto), climbing the steps.  We do not try the spiral stairs up to the top floor.

We walk back towards the front gate and I suggest to Ginny that we go to the Blue Bell pub for a late lunch—and some Cawl.  The pub is filling up, but we grab a table.  It looks like there are rugby

fans everywhere.  I order a pint of Blue Ale, cider for Ginny and Cawl.  It is so good and warming with lots of veggies and the lamb is perfect—with large pieces of crusty bread it really hits the spot. We are back at the Holiday Inn by 16:00 (4 PM).