Cardiff

Welsh Dragon in steel.

Cardiff Castle main entrance.

New Zealand and Welsh flags flying together.

Despite more heavy rain overnight the weather cleared up this morning to enable us to walk the half a mile or so to the bus stop to catch a bus to Cardiff. We have been here before but only briefly. Once we arrived in the city some recognition of familiar sight’s came back to us despite obvious modernisation. What to do was the next question which was a toss up between the open top bus tour or the castle.  Well the castle won.This turned out to be a wise decision as we had quite a few heavy downpours during the day and we were able to take shelter some where around the castle each time.

OK so where's New Zealand?  According to a display in Cardiff Castle we don’t exist.  A complaint was laid with the authorities.

A hundred steps to the top of the tower.

Ladies Walk in the ground's of Cardiff Castle.

The castle was nothing but rubble until contractors found part of the old Roman walls in the 19th Century. Lord Bute, a wealthy land owner around Cardiff then organised the castle to be rebuilt. The Roman walls were marked out in a line a of red bricks and the rest was built on top. During the last World War the castle tunnels within the walls were used as air raid shelters for about 2000 people.

Inside the walls of Cardiff Castle which were used as air raid shelters.

Cardiff Castle's clock tower and the Millenium Stadium.

There are 7 apartments within the clock tower once the quarters of the domestic staff. There are  seven figures representing sign's of the Zodiac.

Back in the city we found the covered market which has been in existence since the 1700’s. The present building was built in 1891 and opened with much pomp and ceremony which was again repeated when the building became a centenarian. Again we were lucky because while we were in the market there was two more heavy downpours.

Cardiff's covered market. This building was built in 1891 after the previous building was destroyed.

Trebuchet in the grounds of Cardiff Castle.

The rebuilt northern tower in Cardiff Castle.