Day 11 Ohh what misery

Our only day in Cardiff to have a look around and wow the sun is out with clouds but out! Here we at Hotel Campanile Room 17 working out our plan after having breaky in our room, with disposable cutlery a collapsible bowl I bought along and the front foyer section of our room as the fridge! And yep the food in our fridge bag is sure cold enough! Once we had our energy supplement for the day, muesli for John and little toastie biscuits for me with ham and cheese what more could you need, off we set! The plan was to do the Hop on Hop off bus, but once we found a short term parking spot I front of the magnificent city hall building we set off on foot to fond a tourist info building. What we did find instead is the Cardiff Castle which we had planned goi g to today, only once we saw it realised we had been there on our UK trip less than 2 yrs ago..... how bad are our memories....
Both of us were very embarrassed that our memories are so short we couldn’t remember we had been in Cardiff before... at least we did remember once we saw it again. But pretty bad to go to it again to remember and not even remember we had been there until we saw it!

So with this info now tucked into our minds we decided that maybe the hop on hop off bus wouldn’t be such a good idea. Instead we would head to a near by village to another castle and do some shopping. John wants to buy me a longer puffer coat for my birthday.
So off we go down the Hwy to Caerpilly Castle stopping at a smaller shopping centre on the way... we had thought it would be bigger than it was.... however it did have a cheap store so we could finally get a shape knife or so we thought... this is turning out to be a difficult task, no one seems to sell serrated knives or even sharp knives are difficult to purchase.... so with soap for John and some window wipes for the car we set off for the Castle again. As we drove to the site our minds were blown away as it was so huge and amazing well worth the coming. We decided to have a cuppa first mistake that was, as the heavens decided to open while cuppaing and we forgot our umbrellas. I had even said to Joh last night I best put my umbrella in my backpack you never know when we will need it. Then like the Castle episode must have just forgot and stuck it back in my suitcase, as you do when the weather is so unpredictable as it is here!

Fortunately I had a plastic disposable raincoat in my backpack, and John was able to buy one thank goodness as we couldn’t have looked at this Castle at all without them, for this wasn’t some little shower it was a heavy storm that ended up going most of the day, only stopping as we drove home then commenced again as we made it home!

The Castle was just unreal, a total ruin except for a few bits restored, but mind blowing how big it really as, how thick the walls were just unreal.....
Heaps knights had built the castles after the Roman nobles had invaded Wales from England to protect themselves they built these massive strongholds..... but once this had finished the Parliaments of the day become scared the knights would hold too much power so started to blow up the castles... they didn’t succeed totally but did make a huge mess and dent to these once magnificent buildings!

By now we were getting pretty wet, Johns sand shoes were saturated, my sleeves from holding my camera up and trying to hold my plastic head in place where dripping... my camera had a few hitches even though I keep wiping it must have got some water in it.... so note to self and a stern warning from John to be very careful with it as this is just beginning of the trip. I have to get some sort of a set up to use the camera in this awful weather or I won’t get any pics when the weather turns like it did today. And after seeing the weather tonight on TV it’s the going to get worse..... sadly even snow predicted!

Off to another shopping centre once finished found a knife but in all honesty they only have a couple.....decided to have lunch here as well and like most cheap places the food was just awful, I couldn’t eat my soup, too cold even after they nuked it!

Next we set off for another Castle, Castle Coity..... being in the car was a bonus it gave us a chance to dry out a bit and get warm..... got to this Castle which was situated in a little village. The walls of the castle were backing onto all the homes around it... kind of surreal to be honest for us, but guessing normal for them, to have a massive Castle ruins in your backyard, As you do......we also noted that it was 5 mins to closing time so we just made it.... again it blew us away and even more so as this one was free.... but huge and would have been another magnificent structure in its hay Day! The weather is just so cold so hard to concentrate but we did long enough to see it is glory. So pleased we came to this one... there are just heaps and heaps of castles in this lower part of Wales I could spend days wandering around the country exploring all these amazing buildings... hope to see some more tomorrow as we head north. Shame we have to head north, but to see more we do.

We found a shopping outlet on our way home, so off we set to buy John a pair of waterproof boots and me a coat. John’s looking produced new boots, inner gel soles, and new jocks cause silly him packed all his old ones and they were totally had it.... that due to a man packing not the wife... as for me well darned if I know where they buy their long puffed coats.... everyone’s seems to have one but can’t find where they buy them. Looks like no birthday present for me as John planned.

Got back to our room to warm up.... John didn’t want dinner as he had had some heavy meals today. So we came up with a plan to put my little bit of soup left in a plastic container inside the kettle after boiling it.... so in it went x 3 boils later and yep out she come all hot and yummy.... worked like a treat only due to the fact the lid would open enough... so soup had I set I myself up to upload all my pics but such a big day and I needed shut eye. So off to bed for this little bird. Another day not loading pics, can’t leave it too long or the job becomes a nightmare sorting out days!Read more