Cardiff Bay Leaving

[linda_joyce]

Not so many this time they may fit into one posting.

I noticed this on the way back to the bus, its a side entrance to the Coal Exchange. It's probably the entrance the clerks used, they wouldn't have been allowed in the main door.


Because Cardiff has a one way system the bus I caught took the long way round skirting the city centre. I snapped happily away knowing that shaky pictures could just be deleted but they all came out beautifully in spite of them being taken through the window of a moving bus. I will name those things I know but some are unknown to me.





This is the main gate and clock tower of Cardiff castle. A place of great antiquity, having had a Roman camp there, then the Normans and finally reconstructed and decorated in a astonishing way by the Victorian owner,the Marquess of Bute. Go here http://www.cardiffcastle.com/, it will give you an idea of what was done but it really has to be seen to be believed.






This is just out side the railway station. It's street furniture and people use it for sitting on but what it is supposed to represent I leave you to figure out.


And finally for Cardiff The Millennium Stadium, built on the same ground as the Arms Park where Wales beat the world at Rugby back in the 70s. We've never done as well with this one.



And finally a shot of Newbridge where I started from and my shopping village BC (before Car), I'm afraid I use out of town supermarkets now.

Comments

[reapermum.livejournal.com]

I've enjoyed all of these sets of pictures. Aren't digital cameras a good thing?

[linda-joyce.livejournal.com]

They are like computers, until you've got one you don't know what your missing, I'm glad I waited til I could get a good one.

[vjezkova.livejournal.com]

Yes, yes, yes, finally one place I have seen - the Castle, even if from the street!!!

[linda-joyce.livejournal.com]

Yes the castle is hard to miss sitting at the end of one of the main shopping streets. But if you only had 2 hours in Cardiff that doesn't even give you time to explore the Castle. The last time I took the guided tour of the Bute apartments it took an hour and it felt like it took 10 minutes just to climb the clock tower. Mind you with the interior decorations twice that amount of time would be better, there is so much to see in each room.

[vjezkova.livejournal.com]

Yes, we didn´t have achance to get inside - and our guide got lost...

[hafren.livejournal.com]

They finally opened the barrage to walkers today, so my daughter and I walked across and back (by way of walking off the cake we'd just eaten in the Norwegian church).

[linda-joyce.livejournal.com]

Oh nat's interesting, next time I'm down there I'll take the baot over to Penarth and try that myself, before I walk my feet off.

[hafren.livejournal.com]

If you time it right you can get the road train either across, back or both. But it only takes an hour to walk both ways, even with lots of breaks (at one point they took the road up to let a yacht through)

[linda-joyce.livejournal.com]

I'll have to find out the time of the road train, although the Sirhowy circuit takes me an hour, I can do it but my knee isn't much good for any more walking afterwards.

[inyadreems.livejournal.com]

Oh the Castle - yeah, it's so *Victorian* inside - they went mad with everything mediaevil they could think of and threw it all in! Son's graduation photos were taken there. It's just down the road from the Royal Welsh College where he went.
We really will have to go back.

[linda-joyce.livejournal.com]

Did you manage to get out to Castle Coch when you were down any time. That was the Butes Country shooting lodge, If you think Cardiff Castle is OTT, and I do magnificent but OTT, you have to go see that. There's a virtual tour here http://www.castellcoch.info/index.html. It's just about 30 miles north of Cardiff just past the Royal Mint at Llanishen.

[inyadreems.livejournal.com]

(Missed replying to this - sorry!) No we've never been there but it looks worth a visit. Another one for my list!

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

The statue looked like a socialist woman with a sickle till I looked at the big version and saw it was a bird. :-)

I wonder if you go to the supermarket we went to when we got lost finding your place: a big one further along the valley from Newport.

[linda-joyce.livejournal.com]

Was that the Tesco at Ebbw Vale, if so no? I got to ASDA in Blackwood, which is in a different valley but has better roads to get there or the Co-Op on the way to Blackwood as it has cheap petrol. They are both closer too. If you go to Google maps and type in either Blackwood or Ebbw Vale you should get a map that shows both places and Newbridge which is about 1 mile up valley from me. CoE is too small to be on that map. I Can't remember if Morrisons was open when you came over, thats a couple or more miles up valley from Newport but I do go there because it too has cheep petrol and a good selection in the shop.

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

I think it was a Tesco. It was a good one so we called back in on our way to Portmadog.

[ultrapsychobrat.livejournal.com]

Love all the history. I can't imagine anything that old. There are a few old Indian burial sites and the like, but they're someplace besides California

[linda-joyce.livejournal.com]

I learned that about 25 years ago when I was on a bus tour of Greece with, amongst 49 others, a very nice American couple. I shared a table with them for dinner one night and when talking about our homes they practically fell off their chairs when I said the house I was then living in was one of those built when the railway came to Newport in 1860. I didn't have the heart to tell them it was one of about 300 and we didn't consider it that old, as the house I'm living in now (the one that has been in my family for 98 years this year) was built in about 1820. We Brits tend to be a little complacent about our history, so much of it has survived. But even I was somewhat awed when I visited Avebury ring and Stone Henge

[kalinda001.livejournal.com]

I love the castle. The work they did on it is amazing.

[linda-joyce.livejournal.com]

If you like the Castle take a look here http://www.castellcoch.info/index.html. This is the Bute's country place. They took a totally ruinous castle(a pile of stones) and rebuilt it as a fairy tale castle. The interior decorator was, I think, the same man who did Cardiff for him. It's certainly the same style.

[javahound.livejournal.com]

Thank you for the tour, virtual travel for me. ;)
Digital cameras are nice aren't they, though the delay between pictures can be annoying when you're trying to catch pets and kids in action...

[reapermum.livejournal.com]

I don't find that half as irritating as a two year delay in seeing the pictures while you wait to finish the film and remember to take it in for developing.

[linda-joyce.livejournal.com]

Oh yes, that was a pain. I still have a half used film in my 30 mil camera I must remember to take it to Newport with me when I go animal sitting and take it to the good camera shop there for them to take out and develope

[javahound.livejournal.com]

Good points and of course the wasted film if the pictures don't turn out.

[linda-joyce.livejournal.com]

My pleasure, the next tour will be in September and will be the country and seaside around Newport Pembrokeshire, with dogs. That's where Sue and I go for her dogs annual holiday. They very graciously let the chauffeur and cook come too.

[javahound.livejournal.com]

:)
Sounds beautiful! Haha, They're smart!