Friday morning all the Americans left to head to Cardiff, the capital of Wales, with Iwan, Tecwyn's replacement since he was still stuck in America due to the volcano ash. We rode along the English/Welsh border. Before getting to Cardiff we stopped at a couple places including our first stop in Hereford where we checked out the Hereford Cathedral where the Mappa Mundi is located. It's the largest surviving complete medieval world map. Although we didn't get to personally see it, we did get to walk around the Cathedral, crypt, garden and the town. The headquarters of Bulmer's cider is also located in Hereford. The next stop was the Wye Valley where we stopped to see the Tintern Abbey medieval monastery ruins. The Abbey was so magnificent with the sun shinning through the window holes at the top of the peaks and lighting up the grass below. It felt so magical! We continued on our way to Cardiff passing by the Severn bridge, a mile long bridge connecting Wales to England. It was crazy how long of a bridge it was and how sturdy it must have to be. We got to our hostel realizing we had a front door view of the Millennium Stadium right across the river. The whole group went out for Mexican food that night and afterwards walked around the city and eating ice cream before heading back to the hostel for the night.
The next morning we all walked to Cardiff Castle and got a guided tour of the inside that was all furnished and decorated the way it would have been during that time. One room cost 2.2 million pounds for the gold painted on the ceiling alone! Next we walked to the Millennium Stadium, just down the road and got a guided tour of the stadium by Garreth. We walked through the locker room/changing room and came out into the stadium to hear a loud roar of people cheering! I felt just like a rugby player getting ready to play a game for my country. We also got to see the box seats and the Presidents room where the Queen once sat to watch a game. We continued on to Cardiff Bay where the National Assembly for Wales is located. We stopped at Harry Ramsden's Worlds best fish and chip shop there and enjoyed our meal outside by the bay. It was delicious, though I couldn't tell you if it's the world's best fish and chips. After walking around the bay for a bit we got back on the bus to head to St. Fagans to see the National History Museum set up like an open air folk museum. We were able to walk around the large area to see the St. Fagan's castle and beautiful pond area. The weather was beautiful and I really enjoyed the many scenic areas throughout the museum. We got back to the hostel and made our dinner before heading out to shop around the city. That night a couple of the girls and guys went out to Y Mochyn Du, the pub our Millennium Stadium tour guide, Garreth, suggested we go to. We even saw him there and talked with him for awhile. There was a rugby team there that we got to know pretty well. It was a lot of fun and I enjoyed talking to the locals there.
Our last day in Cardiff we drove to the National Museum and Gallery of Wales. We were able to learn about the history of Wales and see many Impressionist paintings by famous painters. Before we knew it we were heading back to Bangor after a busy, site-seeing, eventful, and fun experience in Cardiff. Cardiff definitely didn't feel like a big city, in fact, I felt very safe in the town and it reminded me of home.
No comments:
Post a Comment