I made a tough decision this morning. I had been planning to go visit Caerwent today, but when I woke up, it felt like too much. I would have to take a train back to Newport, catch a bus, visit Caerwent, and then wait for the next bus, and then back to the train. It would have taken the whole day and I just didn't feel up to it. I was bothered by my lack of motivation and it felt a bit like I was going out on a fizzle.
But I decided to head a bit out of Cardiff to see Llandaff Cathedral, which was supposed to be beautiful. I walked down Cathedral Road and came to Llandaff Fields. The park is full of open, grassy areas, a playground, and cricket pitches.
As I walked through the fields, the day turned from gray and slightly rainy to a beautiful, warm, sunny day.
At the other end of the park, I came into the village of Llandaff, which has been incorporated into the city of Cardiff. It's a very picturesque little place to live. The town seems mostly dominated by The Cathedral School, an co-educational independent school for ages 3 to 16. There is a short High Street (the British equivalent of Main Street), leading to the town center.
Just off the town green, are the ruins of the Bishop's Palace. The building was probably built in the mid-13th century, but was abandoned after it was attacked by Owain Glyndŵr. Now it houses some beautiful rhododendrons.
In case you didn't know, rhododendron comes from two ancient Greek words, ῥόδον, meaning rose, and δένδρον, meaning tree. One of the trees had beautiful, large, white blossoms, living up to its Greek roots.
I then headed to the ruins of the old cathedral bell tower. The ruins are now memorial to those who died in World War I and have been designated to always be a protected, open space. The stones sit on a rise over the current cathedral.
The contraction of the first cathedral in Llandaff began in 1120, under the bishop Urban. The church has been renovated and rebuilt multiple times over the centuries. The church was expanded and refurbished throughout the Middle Ages and then again in the 18th and 19th centuries.
Llandaff Cathedral was the second most damaged cathedral in the British Isles, after Canterbury Cathedral. On January 2nd, 1942, a parachuted mine detonated near the cathedral, destroying the roof and damaging the spire, among other portions of the building. The building was extensively repaired and reopened by 1958.
The poor luck continued in 2007, when a lightning strike damaged the cathedral again, ruining the electronics of the organ. The organ was replaced in 2010 and the new one looks fantastic.
In the 1950s, an aluminum sculpture, titled "Christ in Majesty," by Jacob Epstein was installed in the church on a concrete arch, designed by George Pace. George Pace also designed a free-standing bell tower for the Chester Cathedral. The sculpture is suspended over the nave of the cathedral, with Christ looking towards the entrance.
Behind the sculpture and the high altar, there is a lovely chapel. The Lady Chapel features a beautifully painted ceiling, a stained glass window depicting the story of Jesse, and a reredos with flowers labeled in Welsh. The original, Victorian reredos of the cathedral, that would have been behind the high altar, was painted by famed pre-Raphaelite Dante Gabriel Rossetti. It was moved both to protect the paintings and to make a more open view from one end of the cathedral to the other.
In this view, looking from the Lady Chapel back towards the entrance, you can see the rear of "Christ in Majesty," sitting on its arch, and parts of the newly installed organ.
The exterior of the cathedral is just as beautiful as the interior. The spire is covered with statues, depicting saints and monks, and gargoyles, both demonic-looking and angelic. This small statue of an angel crowns the chapter house of the cathedral. If you look closely (and watch Game of Thrones), he bears quite a striking resemblance to Joffrey Baratheon.
In the evening, I went into Cardiff center for my final dinner in Wales. I had heard from my tour guide yesterday that there was an all male choir that had open rehearsals very close by. I ate quickly, trying to make sure I could go (and not walk in late). When I sat down to the side, with some other observers, I was immediately approached by one of the choir members. He asked me if I sang, and when I told him I did, he asked me what part I sang. Next thing I knew, I was placed in the choir with the rest of the Tenor 1s.
For the next hour and a half, I sang with the Cardiff Arms Park Male Choir. I would say that we ran through fifteen to twenty songs, both in Welsh and English. I recognized maybe three of them. I'm still not sure which was more challenging, sight reading the music or sight reading the Welsh. It is really impossible for me to express how wonderful this experience was. The music was beautiful, the people were lovely, and I was struck by just how similar the experience was to so many I've had in singing groups I've participated in. It was truly an amazing, spontaneous experience.
As we finished singing, the man I had been sitting next to gave me a pin from the choir. It is something I will treasure forever.
What a wonderful way to say goodbye to Wales.
Fun Fact #20: The Welsh National anthem, "Hen Wlad Fy Nhadau" (Land of Our Fathers), became the de facto national anthem because it was so popular at rugby games. The national anthem had been "God Bless the Prince of Wales" and was meant to be sung before rugby matches. To accommodate the popularity of "Hen Wlad Fy Nhadua," for a time both songs were sung before the start of the match, but eventually it was just reduced to "Hen Wlad Fy Nhadua." Though the anthem has never been legally made the national anthem, it has been accepted by all and is used in government ceremonies. And on a sidetone, it's far easier to sing than "The Star-Spangled Banner."
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