Cardiff by the Sea

I’ve always wanted to visit Cardiff. I’m not sure why, but something must have caught my imagination when I was young, probably the sea thing. We arrived in Wales about 13 minutes before the start of Eugene’s free city tour. Eugene is originally from Dublin, but he moved to Cardiff after marrying a Welsh woman. Although he’s not native, he did a nice job leading the tour and answering questions. Cardiff had a population of about 1,000 people 200 years ago, but it is well over 300,000 now. There’s surprisingly very little history, as its growth didn’t take off until the early 20th century with the onset of coal, which was mined nearby and shipped out of its port. It is, however, built around a castle from the 1,400’s. The castle sits on the ruins of a Roman fort and has expansive grounds that are now open to the public. The park along the river stretches for 7km and hosts 3,000 species of trees. The same family owned the castle until the mid-20th century, when they decided to pack up, donate the castle and land to the city, and move to Scotland.

Eugene took us off the usual course of his tour to show us a small park where the WWI and II memorial was erected. He typically leaves this out of the tour because it’s not terribly exciting; however, our visit coincided with the blooming of the cherry blossoms in the park. The trees exploded with pink blossoms all around the memorial, while lines of tulips went around the circular memorial, looking like tiny sentries standing guard. Their purple pedals provided a beautiful contrast to the pink background.

Cardiff has a maze of arcades, or gallerias, in the town center. These covered stores allow for shopping when the weather is unpleasant, which is often. Cardiff gets more rain than any other city in the UK. (On a happy note, we had abundant sunshine today.) The arcades are filled with all kinds of stores, as well as coffee shops and restaurants. There is also a huge indoor market that sits on the location of the old jail. The market now hosts a number of vendors and food stalls just steps away from where the used to hang people for capital offenses. Ignoring this distasteful fact, this is where we bought traditional Welsh cakes, which are small breads with a variety of additives, such as lemon, chocolate, currant, etc. I sampled a couple of them with a cuppa joe, after lunch. Very delicious and not too sweet.

Some noteworthy facts that I learned today: the oldest record store in the world is still doing business in a Cardiff arcade, Cardiff became the capital of Wales only in the 1950’s, Wales has the most castles per square mile in Europe, and Argentina has the second largest population of Welsh speakers in the world.

Following our tour, we hiked along the cliffs above Bristol Channel. Across the water, we could see the coast of England, with several lighthouses dotting the channel in between. We took a break along the trail, where park benches invited us to stop and enjoy the view. The water was calm, and the visibility was clear. It was warm in the sun, and we particularly liked the break from the wind today.Read more