Mountains and ice

No blog yesterday as just too knackered to be interesting. We took a train to Cardiff from Chepstow, staggering under the weight of our unreasonably heavy backpacks. How can mine be heavier when I’ve added nothing? Having to pack for two different climates and three different activities meant we had to abandon our usual hand luggage only approach and I’m not a fan. It increased my respect for the people doing Offa’s Dyke with a fill pack.

Anyway, good to get here and I can report that Cardiff is a cool place. It’s a really compact city so lovely to wander around and there is such an air of celebration of the arts everywhere you go that it fills me with hope.

And arts we are doing. Last night we went to see Tim Minchin live. It’s our first time, ironically, considering he’s Australian, but what an amazing show. Not for the faint hearted. It was in a huge venue about 100m from our hotel and about 3000 people were held in his thrall. He is traveling with an outstanding band and there was no musical genre left unturned. It must be hard to be in his head. A bit of the disturbed genius comes through in his very vulnerable monologues.

Today we were still not up to much walking so have used public transport to explore. We popped down to Cardiff Bay this morning. It was once the busiest coal port in the world and has been transformed into a lovely precinct of cafes and a magnificent performing arts centre called the Millennium Centre. Beautiful architecture using local woods and slate. It reminded me a little of the Oodi Library in Helsinki with its clever innovations for community engagement. We are going to see the musical & Juliet there tonight.

The main auditorium (pic attached) has two phrases carved into the structure. The welsh phrase translates as a Creating truth like glass from inspiration’s furnace. The English phrase is In these stones horizons sing.

Beautiful. An inspiring creation both architecturally and culturally.

We swung back many centuries and toured Cardiff Castle next. Its origins go back to Roman times and the castle itself has been rebuilt on the same site after multiple demolitions in multiple wars but it was part of most of the big historical events in British history. William the Conqueror built the original castle as one of the Marches castles I’ve spoken of before.

In the mid 1700’s it came into the possession of a Scottish noble family, the Stuarts. Their title was Marquesse of Bute and the first Marquess had the castle redesigned in Georgian style. Things got exciting in the next generation as the second Marquesse was the guy who really got the coal industry going in Wales. He owned most of the land in the coal valleys and developed the port of Cardiff. By the time his son, the third Marquesse inherited it all in the mid 1800’s, he was the richest man in Britain and consequently one of the richest in the world.

The Third Marquess of Bute was an interesting man. He spoke 21 languages, was a lover of architecture and the arts and had a passion for Medieval art in particular. The results are what we went to see. He and his wife had the living areas of the castle converted into what’s described as Romantic Medieval style. What it means is that the decor is Medieval in style but 19th century in interpretation. For example, in the ‘smoking room’ you have a hunting frieze with all the expected gilt and extravagance but with a woman hunting and a couple ice skating. I’ve attached some pics so you can get an idea of the excesses. They even had flushing toilets and hot and cold water in the 1870’s. Almost unheard of. The kicker is that this was a holiday house- they only stayed 6 weeks of the year…

Wonderfully, these rooms have been kept in excellent condition and the castle and adjoining parks were gifted to the people of Cardiff by the Sixth Marquess in 1947. The Cardiff community raises money to keep the place going by holding a series of summer concerts in the grounds (Snow Patrol, Tom Jones this week) and renting the banquet hall for 750pounds an hour! If you’re a Dr Who fan you will have seen a lot of the castle (and Cardiff) as it’s filmed here.

We are just back from a fantastic night at the theatre at & Juliet. You may have seen it? This was the touring production of the original London show and gee it was fabulous fun. It’s a retelling of the Romeo and Juliet story - what happens if Juliet decides not to kill herself but moves on? It’s very tongue in cheek and a jukebox musical which means it uses known songs and fits them into the plot like they did in Moulin Rouge. It was wonderful to see inside the amazing theatre too.

So big tick for Cardiff. It must be a joy to tour here as they are incredibly enthusiastic audiences. I shall sleep with a smile on my face.

Bath tomorrow:) The town not the activity. Night xLæs mere