Today has been a day of discovering Cardiff. We started early this morning from the hotel which is someplace between the bay and the city center. So the walk took us soon to the arcades of shops, like in Paris, which are small enough for slow shopping yet offer almost everything. Somehow the feel reminded us of Brittany, probably due to the Celtic influence and we were at home.
End of the high street is the castle maintained by Romans, Normands and the Bute family from Scotland who developed Cardiff from a sleepy town to the port it is today. Finding a guided tour for an hour to show us through helped appreciate its many architectural fantasies of William Burges who has run riot with colours and patters on every wall and ceiling. curiously there seems to be an eastern influence as well with a room floored with 17 types of marble. Other rooms included a huge banquet hall, nursery with antique toys and fairy tales depicted on the walls, clock tower outlining the days, months and seasons ... once outside we saw peacocks on the grounds and climbed the Norman Keep tower to get a beautiful view of Cardiff, intercepting the ancient with the modern.
We find the castles here rich castles curious in England when compared to the pigeon holes ordinary folks lived in during the Victorian times continuing to date clearly dividing the society of rich from that of the less fortunate.
The pm found us in a Frenchish cafe serving lunch, Breton style, galettes and bread and soup to the music of harps and pipes, so unique to the Celts. Taking us back in those moments to our life in Rennes; as should be the norm in a good economy, we loitered among the shops to see the wares and spend a few pennies.
We follow the sun now to the bay for dinner and hopefully some music.
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