Chepstow and Cardiff
What a lovely area this is! We are at a country club
Marriott hotel that has a golf course on it – so bliss for both of us! Dave
found this when he was looking for a golf course to play and what a gem! Very
old buildings with stables and a church and a graveyard! We have a
semi-detached flat in the ‘Lakeside village’ part (overlooking a lake on the
golf course). We walk through the graveyard to get to the dinning, reception,
bar area (bit spooky coming back in the dark! Full moon last night and felt for
these poor souls under the ground).
The golf course.
This is the bridge over the Severn Estuary which is the border of Wales and England
Dave played his round of golf. He said it was a nice course
(greens a bit slow). Very interesting finishing hole because it is a 210m par 3
and you have to hit it onto the green in one shot! The course is full of lovely
English trees that are turning colour and a few loosing their leaves. I walked
one hole with Dave by the lakeside (then got bored – back to my book!) and saw
all these squirrels hopping around eating the fallen acorns. Just magic.
I just love hearing the Welsh accent around me. Very lyrical
and musical to the ear.Our waitress is an Australian who came here a year ago
with her husband who is Welsh. Already she has a lilt in her voice
Today is Cardiff day. It is about 30 mins away down country
roads and past villages (the scenic route – I think our GPS lady is into the
nice countryside1). It is bigger than I thought, with a nice feel about it.
We
parked right by the ‘Principality Stadium’ aka the Millenium Standium aka
Cardiff Arms Park!
We went in for a tour of the stadium and ended up with these
two guides (one came along for the ride I think) just for us. As you can
imagine the talk quickly turned to the ins and outs of Northen Hemisphere rugby
plus the AB’s and rugby world cups etc etc Quickly discovered they don’t like
the English, think Gatland is wonderful (don’t like him being away taking the
Lions tour down under next year), have a great rivalry with Irish …. Great
stadium – It had been redesigned in 1999 with a retractable roof (takes 20min
to cover over). Apparently the away captains can choose the day before if they
want the roof over or not (can’t go back on their decision). The Welsh like it
over cause it gives them lots of atmosphere when they sing and cheer, the English
always choose to not have it over to take the advantage away from the Welsh,
and NZ team like the roof closed cause dry conditions suit our style of play
(see I do listen!).
We got to sit in the media desk where the coaches, players
etc talk to the media,
See the changing rooms (Welsh one is more modern and each
player has his own phone charger points etc)
Sit in the President’s box (where the royality sit at games
(like Prince Harry, William, the Queen)
The turf is replaced and grows quickly with heat lamps (not enough natural sunlight to grow grass). They were getting ready for the up-coming 6 Nations season.
Anyway and hour and a
half later we left to walk down the road
to the Cardiff Castle, which takes up a lot of the inner city area – you can’t
miss it.
It was built by the Normans and was a large area inside the
walls. It had fallen to ruin by the 1800’s when the Marquis of Bute (who had
made lots of money from coal and transporting it from the docks at Cardiff)
decided to restore it to make it the city’s pride and joy. They used the castle
walls as bomb shelters in World War 2 (did you know Cardiff got bombed quite
extensively?)
the keep is the tall castle part in the middle where the people
went to hide when they were attacked. We climbed up it (150 steps to the top) and saw an amazing
view out over Cardiff.
Lots of school parties were there on trips to discover their
heritage (very multi-cultural type children) – not all that well-behaved – the
teacher in me!)
After the castle was the hop-on bus which took us for a tour
of the city. The interesting part was their dock area which was a thriving
place about the early 1900 with coal going out on the ships. After that was a
decline and now they have re-vamped it into an amazing dock aea to walk around
(little cafes and shops. Quite lovely.
So – all in all loved Cardiff. Much nicer than I thought ( I
had been thinking run-down, not much money etc). The buildings were lovely,
parks beautiful and lots of trees turning colours.
A very satisfying day – especially as Mum was Welsh, so I
think my Welshness was coming through.
By the way all signs were in both Welsh and English. We were
told the North and middle areas of Wales speak Welsh quite fluently.
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