Day 18: Getting a Cuppa

Today my plan was to explore more of Cardiff center and visit the National Museum Cardiff.  I walked into the center of the city and headed over the civic areas.

The 194 foot clock tower of City Hall looks out over the whole city center.  Each clock face on the tower is 12 feet in diameter.

I had heard that there was a beautiful hall, open to the public in the City Hall so I went in to investigate.  I had to fight my way through a sea of Cardiff graduates and their families.  It seemed that the building was used to pick up caps, gowns, and hoods (and then later dropping them off).  It is also gorgeous, inside and out, so everyone wanted to take a picture next to some marble fixture.  I went up to the second floor and into the Marble Hall.  Here there are statues of famous figures from Welsh history.  The first one I walked up to happened to be the only woman, and the one that would interest me the most.  The statue depicts Boudica, a British tribal leader who lead a successful revolt against the Romans in 60 or 61 CE.  Although not actually Welsh, she is a representative of the British spirit and independence.

The National Museum is right next-door to City Hall, so I went in, hoping to find some Roman artifacts from around Wales.  Instead, I found a single piece of Roman art, which I understood to be from Rome herself.  That being said the Jenkins Vase is a gorgeous piece, depicting the story of Paris and Helen.  Other figures on the vase include Muses, like Polyhymnia show in thought above.

Though disappointed by the lack of research related pieces in the museum, I wandered through the other exhibits.  The museum has a great collection of art from around Europe, but with a lovely focus on Welsh and Welsh-inspired art.  A large portion of the museum is dedicated to Welsh ceramic arts.

It was very fun for me to see artistic depictions of some of the places I've been since coming to Wales.  Unsurprisingly, Caernarfon Castle is an extremely popular subject.  Can't say I saw that sort of Tuscan sky over the Castle while I was there though.  Other highlights to see were a depiction of South Stack on Holy Island and a view of the entrance of Cardiff Bay in the 1800s.

The art collection spans all eras of art since the 16th century, including French Impressionism.  I was excited to see La Parisienne by Pierre-Auguste Renoir.  It's such a beautiful painting, depicting French actress Henriette Henriot.  I was surprised to see it Wales, having no idea I would find such a famous French painting here!

The other portion of the National Museum is dedicated to natural history.  I (perhaps sadly) have much less patience for exhibits about rocks, minerals, and animals.  I think it has something to do with the language being designed to be accessible for young children.  I strolled rather quickly through the exhibits, just stopping to more closely examining things that caught my eye, like this beautiful piece of malachite.

This picture is mostly for my boyfriend, who adores foxes.  But they are truly beautiful animals and it was great to be able to see one in detail, especially since it could not run away!

Another image I had to include was this photo of an aye-aye's hand.  If you've never seen (or don't remember) what an aye-aye looks like, go Google it now.  The long middle fingers of this lemur are specially adapted for reaching into tunnels dug by bugs in trees and pulling out the insects.  Pretty terrifying, if you ask me.

After the museum visit, I explored the parish church of St. John the Baptist and then decided to have my first afternoon tea since coming to the U.K.  I went to Pettigrew Tea Rooms, a spot I had heard on a Buzzfeed list titled "16 Places All Tea Lovers Must Visit Before They Die."  I didn't get the full afternoon tea (which is quite a lot of food), but instead went for a classic cream tea.  This provided me with a lovely lavender tea, two schools, strawberry preserve, and clotted cream.  I was joined at my table by a French woman, who I assume now lives in Wales, and her Welsh friend, as the place had very limited seating.  We shared pleasant small talk about my research and travels and their experiences traveling Wales and abroad.

After finishing my tea, and waiting for a light rain to stop, I headed back to my hotel to have a relaxing evening.

Fun Fact #18: According to my tour on the sightseeing bus, the National Museum Cardiff has the largest collection of Impressionist (maybe French Impressionist) art outside of Paris, with works by Renoir, Monet, Manet, Rodin, Cezanne, Morisot, Degas, and others.

Day 16: Moving into Cardiff

With not much else to do in Newport, I had a relaxed morning in my hotel and then headed to the train station.  I knew I would be arriving in Cardiff earlier than I had told my next hotel, so I decided to wait for a later train.  The trains came so often, that waiting for three trains to go to Cardiff before boarding, I had only been in the station for about 20 minutes.  So I took the train and decided to have a long lunch in the station to arrive at my hotel at a more appropriate time.  I also decided to wait for the rain to lighten up a bit before walking the mile to my hotel.

It's hard to describe how excited I was to get to my hotel.  The walk to it, although a bit long with a  heavy suitcase, was through the center of Cardiff and I was really intrigued by the city.  But the thing that was the most exciting was the fact that I will be in my hotel for five consecutive nights.  No long haul to a hotel for a single night, a quick pack in the morning, and back on the train.  It feels like I am moving into this hotel.  This may become my new home.

After an hour or two of decompressing, I decided to wander towards Cardiff center.  I entered Sophia's Garden, a large, green park along the River Taff.  I walked right on the river bank, enjoying the quite of the setting.  I noticed what I believe is a grey heron fishing in the shallows.  As I worked to switch my camera lens to a longer zoom, the heron took off and I was able to capture some pictures of it flying and landing farther down the river.

I moved farther along the banks, trying to get closer so I could get more pictures of the bird.  As I walked, the poor heron began to be harassed by a flock of seagulls.  Before I was close enough to get photos, the gulls had chased the heron far down the river.

I crossed over a footbridge from Sophia's Garden to Bute Park, another part of Cardiff's "green lung."

I wandered aimlessly through the park, so I stumbled upon things, rather than knowing what I should be finding.  I saw the preserved layout of an old friary and a circle of standing stones, which I'm doubting are original.  Even in the rainy weather, the blooming flowers and the greenery reminded me of warmer seasons.

I angled my way towards Cardiff Castle and walked around the walls.  I'm already a big fan of the castle, and I've seen very little of it so far.  It has a dramatic, tall wall that is surrounded by a very proper moat.  I think the moat may be reformed and different from medieval times (certainly Roman times; the River Taff now runs a different course than it did in ancient times).  But still, it looks fantastic today!

  I got quite hungry pretty early in the evening so I started heading back towards my hotel and some restaurants in the area.  On my route back is the Animal Wall.  The wall was thought up in 1866, but not constructed until 1890.  The wall originally had nine animals climbing over the wall and six were added later.  They were renovated in 2010 and look fantastic.  It seems like the local zoo has had a massive escape and you'll see an elephant on Castle street at any second.

One last site I saw on my way back to my hotel was the Millennium Stadium.  It was built for the 1999 Rugby World Cup and has been used to host rugby and football matches, as well as concerts and large events.  I don't think the picture really does it justice, but it is a very interesting building! 

After my wandering, I stuffed myself with a gigantic calzone and had a quiet evening back at my hotel.  Excited to do more exploring tomorrow!

Fun Fact #16: Cardiff was named the capital of Wales in 1955.  Caernarfon was also considered for the capital city, but instead Cardiff was named and later became the seat for the National Assembly of Wales, now housed in a building called the Senedd.

Day 7: Finding A Flat Fort

Today the weather in Caernarfon was much improved.  I woke up to sunny skies and a warm day.  After a nice breakfast in my B&B and a relaxed morning, I headed out of the main part of Caernarfon, towards the Roman fort Segontium.  The fort sits just outside the medieval part of Caernarfon on a slight rise near the Seiont River.  From the position, the fort would have had views of most of the countryside and out towards the Menai Strait and Anglesey.  Sadly for me, the visitor center at Segontium was closed, so I dove straight into the site.

The ruins are solely the foundations of the buildings in the fort and a few bits of the walls.  This made it quite difficult to get a sense of the fort initially: just an expanse of low-lying stones.  Also, with just a small pamphlet with a barebones information, it took me a few minutes of walking around to identify where I was with in the fort.  But once I got the lay of the land, things fell into place.  The majority of the structures were barracks for the Roman auxiliary troops stationed in Segontium.  Based on the number and size of barracks, it seemed that the fort, if fully manned, would host around 1,000 soldiers.  Other structures in the fort included storage buildings, troop headquarters, the commander's home, and a small bath complex.

The headquarters, part of which is shown above, contained the regimental shrine, offices, and a judgement hall.  Not all of the foundations of the headquarters were visible.  They disappear into a hedge and then into someone's (a very lucky someone) backyard.  Sadly, this is true for a lot of the site; there are structures over parts of the fort and a major road leading into Caernarfon cuts right through the fort, even overlapping with the via principalis for a ways.  It seemed that the room depicted above was a large, two-story hall, based on the slots in the floor to fit wooden columns.  It also could have been some sort of porticoed entrance or meeting room to the headquarters.  In a small room, towards one end of the headquarters, a strongroom had been added in the 3rd century CE. 

I was struck by how large the commander's house was, especially in comparison to the headquarters.  As I realized that I couldn't see the entire layout of the headquarters, I was less confused, but the commander's home still seemed far too large to be just a residence.  There were many rooms of varying size and a large courtyard of the building.  It seemed to be a building of quite importance.  Segontium was the most important fort in northern Wales, acting to control the region in conjunction with other forts, like Chester.  The size of the commander's house makes it seem like the fort would have also served a more administrative and political function in the area, possibly as way for the  Romans to establish greater control over locals or establish more of a Roman population in the area.

According to my little pamphlet, there was a civilian home within the fort at one point.  This seems odd to me, but I'm not certain of its abnormality.  It did seem to fall into the idea that Segontium served a more political function, especially if the building was home to an official in the province or someone of such importance.  The home was later converted into a bath complex, but not completed. This part of the fort was across the road leading into Caernarfon, surrounded by a wall and with a locked gate.  Despite seeing multiple locals hop the wall or gate, I decided to not test my luck.  I think there are things the Welsh locals can get away with more easily than an American tourist.  I settled for walking around the remains of the walls of the fort.  The site of the fort had been built up by the Romans and presumably a defensive ditch had also been dug around the fort.  Along the wall remains, I came across the base of one of the towers in the wall.  Along with this tower base, I was able to see the foundations of two of the four major gates of the fort.  It was very cool to see how the  gates perfectly aligned with the major Roman roads of the fort.

After wandering around the walls, I had seen what I could of the fort.  Still in the mood to walk around, I headed to a church a few dozen feet away from Segontium.  The church was closed, but the grounds were open so I walked around.  The church was surrounded by a graveyard, but quite a unique one.  I'm not sure why, if it was through lack of care or intentionally, but the entire graveyard was filled with wild grasses and flowers.  It was quite amazing to see; the stones stood, but the land had been reclaimed by nature.  It felt very appropriate for some reason.  I loved the contrast of the fixed, unmoving tombstones in the fields of waving grasses and blossoming flowers.

I came back to Caernarfon for a nice, quick lunch and decided to explore the exterior of the castle more.  Apparently, when it was originally constructed, the castle was banded with different colors (somewhat visible in the stones; look for a reddish tone) in a way similar to Roman forts.  I crossed the swing bridge over the harbor (after I saw it open and close for a tour boat) and walked along the coast.  I spent a relaxing while on a little, rocky beach skipping stones into the Menai Strait.

I walked lazily back, going along the promenade running alongside the Strait and the medieval walls. With not much left to explore, I headed back to my hotel.  I had a relatively uninteresting afternoon.  Caernarfon was my last reserved hotel, so the afternoon was spent trying to plan for the next coming days and running into many, many roadblocks.  It seems like I now have plan for the coming days, but I will update as I go!

I had a relaxed dinner and managed to finish "The City and the Pillar," which continued to be an amazing read and I'm excited to have finished such a good book, but sad it's over!  Hopefully I will continue to have good luck with books this summer!

Fun Fact #7: Gwynedd, the county in which Caernarfon is located, has the highest proportion of Welsh speakers in Wales.  The Caernarfon area also has a noticeable and distinct dialect, that is supposedly hard for even the Welsh speakers to understand.  I, who speaks and understands zero Welsh, was surprised to find that I could tell the Caernarfon dialect from other Welsh I've heard on this trip.

Day 6: Clambering Around Castles

Today I had a bit of a break day, which my feet definitely approved of.  I checked out of my B&B in Holyhead and headed to the train station.  Since there was not much to do, I got on the first train leaving, and one stop later, I was in Bangor.  Here I was to grab a bus to Caernarfon.  I realized that if I took the first bust that came along I would make it into Caernarfon over three hours before I could check into my new B&B.  I decided to wait.  I plopped down on a bench in the train station and read for about an hour and a half and it was truly a pleasure.

I'm currently reading "The City and the Pillar" by Gore Vidal.  The story follows a young man, Jim Willard, as he chases his best friend from high school (and lover for one night) around the world.  It's beautifully, if not starkly, written and a very engaging story.  It's particularly striking because it was first published in 1948 (although the ending was apparently reworked by Vidal in 1965), yet it tells a very frank and open story of a young man questioning his sexuality and entering a world very different from that of heteronormative society.  I've been devouring the book and will quite likely finish it tonight.

Eventually I decided to catch a bus and made it into Caernarfon still too early to check in.  So I abandoned my suitcase and decided there was no time like the present to explore the castle!  It was a gray day, with light rain/mist, so obviously the ideal conditions to climb lots of steep, stone staircases.

The castle has so much history that I cannot try to capture it in this post, nor do I think I fully understand it.  The present structure that stands today was built in the late 13th and early 14th centuries, as an English statement of power in Wales.  The first non-native Prince of Wales, and future king of England, Edward II, was born here, according to legend.  The castle was believed to be set up as possible royal seat for the English monarch when in Wales, but was probably not used for this purpose.  In its later history, the castle became the battleground for during multiple Welsh rebellions and the English Civil War.  In 1911, it was first used as the sight of the Prince of Wales's investiture and again in 1969, for the current Prince of Wales.

The castle is large, consisting of a fairly well preserved outer wall, dotted with towers.  The inner structures of the castle are destroyed, but the passages and rooms inside the towers and wall are there for the exploring.  I first made my way up the Granary Tower.  I followed the spiral staircase with a rope bannister (the design for all the tower staircases) up all the way to the top of the tower (the highest bit towards the left of the photo below).  Luckily, I was alone in the Granary Tower because I looked quite foolish.  The stairs were not pleasant to climb and then atop the tower I did a bizarre dance of trying to take pictures while simultaneously clinging to something that wasn't too close to the edge.  There was nothing of the sort so I sort of ran between the edge of the tower to take a picture, then towards the staircase, which was equally unpleasant, and back towards the edge.  After maybe a minute or so up there, I had had more than enough and retreated back down the tower.

I walked along the walls of the castle, which after the tower seemed barely off the ground, and explored the old rooms.  In one part of the castle, a thoroughly amusing and informative movie about the history of the castle played.  It isn't possible to walk the walls all the way around the castle, and wanting to see everything I could, I was constantly climbing down from the walls to read a sign, or climbing back up the walls to get to the next tower.  Above the main entrance to the castle, the unfinished King's Gate, I explored the Well Tower, which contains a 50' well within the walls, and the small chapel, directly above the entrance.  The chapel had a lovely window that would have looked over the medieval walled town and small inset with two basins in the stone for holy water.  I'm unsure if the chapel was finished, as it was towards the unfinished areas of the Gate.

Perhaps the most striking, and best intact, part of the castle is Eagle Tower (below).  The tower is thought to have been the main residential part of the castle, designed for royalty (although probably inhabited by the King's representative in Wales).  The interior has been restored to some degree to show what the rooms might have looked like with wooden floors and plastered ceilings.  The bedchamber was massive, with two lovely windows, completed with staircases up to them and window seats designed to look out over the water.  Continuing up to the top of the tower, the views were equally stunning.  The tower looks out of the Menai Strait, which separates Anglesey from the rest of Wales.  It was possible to climb up one of the two towers added on to Eagle Tower, but I didn't feel any need to do that again.

As I was leaving the castle, it seemed like an acting troupe was setting up in the castle grounds.  They had a small stage setup in what seemed to be Juliet's balcony and rack of period costumes.  It certainly would make a striking scene!

As I wandered out of the castle, having successfully killed enough time to finally check into my B&B, I was struck by the colors playing in the arches of King's Gate.  It seems that from any angle, Caernarfon Castle is a beauty.

Fun Fact #6: The Romans are impossible to escape (not that I would ever want to!).  In Welsh mythology, Caernarfon was home to a Roman emperor named Macsen Wledig.  Clearly not a Roman name, but he was actually Magnus Maximus, a Western Roman Emperor from 383 to 388 CE.  The legend says that Magnus Maximus had a dream of a castle and a beautiful maiden.  He sent his men to find this place and this woman, and eventually they found both at Caernarfon.  He travelled there and married the woman, named Elen or Helen, immediately.  Accounts vary, some saying that he left and his power was encroached, forcing him to return and never leave, or that Elen refused to live in Rome so he ruled the Empire from Wales.  In reality, Magnus Maximus usurped power from the emperor Gratian and was given control of Britain and Gaul.  He ruled from Trier (in Gaul) before deciding to try his luck at taking Italy under his power as well.  His co-emperors did not approve, and Theodosius I defeated Magnus Maximus at the Battle of the Save and exiled him to the Italian Alps.  It seems pretty unlikely that Macsen Wledig and Elen had their happily ever after in Wales.