Day 19: Turning to the Sylvan Wye

Today I went on tour of some amazing sites outside of Cardiff.  When doing research for this trip, my mother stumbled upon a company called See Wales Tours that runs trips from Cardiff, including one title Romans and Ruins.  The itinerary was a visit to the Roman amphitheater, baths, and museum in Caerleon, the Roman town in Caerwent, Tintern Abbey in Wye Valley, and Raglan Castle.

I met the group outside the National Museum Cardiff at 9:00 and we were soon heading out of Cardiff.  Our first stop was the the amphitheater at Caerleon.  Unlike the two other amphitheaters I've seen on this trip, the whole circumference of the Caerleon theater is excavated.  This made it a really striking sight.  The ground level is about twelve to fifteen feet higher than in Roman times, so though the theater looks very low today, it would have been a very imposing fixture on the banks of the River Usk.  

One of the amphitheater's main features was a shrine to Nemesis, the goddess of divine retribution.  There was a very similar shrine in the amphitheater at Chester, as Nemesis was closely connected to gladiatorial competitions.  The amphitheater at Caerleon is slightly smaller than the one in Chester, seating around 6,000 people.

From the amphitheater, we headed to the bath complex.  The complex was much larger than what is shown today.  Today, platforms take you around the full extent of the natatio (an open air swimming pool), part of the apodyteria (warmed changing rooms), and a small portion of the frigidarium (the cold room).

The lightly in the museum hosting the bath remains was not particularly conducive to photography, so I haven't included any photos.  That being said, the lighting did some very cool effects.  A project played videos of swimmers doing laps in the natatio, accompanied with the sounds of splashing and cannonballs, and red light played over the hypocaust that would have heated the apodyteria.  It was a sort of lovely effect, breathing some life into the ruins.  I think it's especially great with the large number of school trips we saw visiting the site.

The museum at Caerleon had a lot of great items, but I was surprised that it might not have been quite as extensive as the museum in Newport.  Still, I got see lovely collections of local and imported pottery, large inscribed stones, coins from throughout the occupation of Britain, and, of course, Roman military paraphernalia.

Caerleon was home to a Roman fort, built by the Legio II Augusta.  The first fort was built around the mid-70s CE and was occupied until the Legio II Augusta left Britain in around 290 CE.  Evidence left behind by the army included spearheads, like the bronze one seen above, arrow heads, a helmet, axe heads, and everything else needed to wage war and house an army.  It was also nice to see some artifacts from the Roman cavalry, which are not very commonly seen in Britain.  These artifacts probably came from a cavalry attachment to the legion.  One piece that they had seems to have been a nailed on horse shoe, but I've heard conflicting stories about when these were invented and came into use.  I'll have to investigate more!

The museum also had plenty of artifacts from the everyday life in a Roman town.  A great detail the exhibit included was a model of a Roman loaf of bread.  It's wonderful because it shows how Roman bakers marketed themselves.  With a stamp bearing his name, the baker imprinted the loaves of bread, so every bite reminded the buyer who had baked the delicious bread and maybe tipped off a few passersby as well!

The museum had a fair number of Roman inscriptions, ranging from commemorations of temple renovation to funerary markers for Roman veterans.  Now I have to feel bad for Julia Senica (maybe Seneca) and whomever paid for her tombstone to be engraved.  I don't think they did a very good job.  But it probably suggests that Julia Senica was from a rather poor family who could not afford one of the better engravers, and instead ended up with something that looks like my handwriting.

To my disappointment, we missed the barracks in Caerleon and headed out.  This disappointment continued as our next destination was announced as Tintern Abbey in the Wye Valley, rather than Caerwent, the other Roman site I was planning on visiting.  But I had planned an extra day in the Cardiff area if something like this occurred, and I was soon distracted by the beauty of the Wye Valley.

I think I quite literally lost my breath when I first saw Tintern Abbey from the van.  Huge, open stone arches in the middle of the beautiful valley landscape.  I was struck by the immense scale of the ruins and the haunting skeleton of the buildings.

Wandering through the abbey, I was pretty overwhelmed; I wanted to capture everything, but almost didn't know how to start.  Though the ruins are extensive, the most beautiful portion (in my opinion, and I suspect many others) is the ruined church.  The building in ruins today dates from the 13th century, although the abbey was founded in the 12th century.

Tintern Abbey was home to Cistercian Monks, who are also known as White Monks because of the color of their cucculas, robes worn over a habit.  Cistercians, like most monks it seems, rejected opulence and lived austere lives, so they did not dye their robes, leaving them the off-white color of a sheep.  Our tour guide, Adrian, did have a great point though: how could you live in such a magnificent, beautiful place, and not find it opulent?

Responding to a request from my mother, I had Adrian and some fellow travelers take photos of me throughout the day.

Like almost all abbeys and monasteries in the British Isles, the Dissolution destroyed any chance of Tintern's survival.  The abbeys valuables were sent to the crown, the about and monks were paid and sent off, and the lead from the abbey roof was sold, leading to the quick demise of the buildings.  Over the centuries, the abbey lay vacant and was slowly reused to building homes and farms around the area.

Tintern Abbey has inspired a great deal of amazing art, from painting to poetry.  J.M.W. Turner painted the ruins in 1795 and writers, such as Alfred, Lord Tennyson and Allen Ginsberg were inspired by visits.  Perhaps most notably, and the inspiration of this post's title, was William Wordsworth's poem "Lines written a few miles above Tintern Abbey."  I recommend rereading it, as it is a beautiful, classic English Romantic poem.

Also, if, for any reason, you are traveling to Wales, make sure you go to Tintern Abbey.  I can't express, and I don't think my photos can either, how beautiful and fascinating it was.

After having lunch at the Tintern Abbey Mill Craft Center, we headed out of the Wye Valley and towards Raglan Castle.  Raglan Castle is one of the youngest castles in Wales, being built in the mid-1400s.  The castle has a wonderful main gateway, called the White Gate.  It would have been a dominating sight from throughout the countryside.

I've also been struck by the Welsh countryside throughout my trip.  It often reminds me of the Tuscan hills, especially the farmland around Raglan Castle.  I feel like this view from a window in the castle could easily be looking at the Italian countryside.

There is also a Norman style motte and keep built next to the castle.  Apparently I was feeling a bit masochistic, and decided to climb to the top of the keep.  It gave great views of the main castle and the countryside.  I have lots of great facts about the castle, but to be completely honest I'm too tired right now decide which to share.  So ask me another time!

After our Raglan Castle, we made our way back to Cardiff, fighting through some traffic, but getting back to Cardiff Castle in about forty-five minutes.  I then had a quiet evening, dominated by processing and editing my 500+ photos from the day!  A pretty amazing day, especially for one of my final ones in Wales!

Fun Fact #19: Did you know that both garderobes and wardrobes are derived from medieval toilets?  A garderobe was a small hole, providing an exit for detritus from the castle.  This detritus included human waste, as castle residents would go to the bathroom by these holes and then it would be washed out.  Now, you would be very right to ask how clothes got combined with toilets.  Folks in medieval times theorized that the garderobes smelled so badly that it would pretty much scare off anything.  So, if they hung there clothes near the garderobes, all the fleas and lice that bothered them would scurry out of their garments.  I wonder how this worked.  It seems like all the smell might just attract more bugs...  Either way, I'm sure we're all very happy that garderobes and wardrobes are sonly for clothes now!

Day 17: Being the Ultimate Tourist

My plan for the day was to visit Cardiff Castle and the National Museum of Wales.  This was my first ultimate tourist move of the day: forgetting that the museum would probably be closed on a Monday. Luckily, I was warned by the owner of my hotel and he recommended the second bit tourist move of the day: go on the sightseeing bus tour.  I decided to follow his advice, since the day was grey and it was not going to be a fun day to walk around Cardiff.

Since the day was so rainy, I was stuck behind a wet window for my tour, which my camera did not appreciate.  The bus left from outside the castle and toured around the civic center of the city, where we saw a film crew shooting outside city hall.  Our guide believed it was either the crew of "Doctor Who" or "Sherlock," which are both centered in Cardiff.  It was also graduation from the University of Cardiff, so there were lots of caps and gowns strolling up and down the streets.  One of the photos I did get from the bus was this sort of Impressionistic picture of a graduate and his family walking down the street.

As we drove through the city, I learned about the history of Cardiff.  The city was really made by three men, the Marquesses of Bute.  They were responsible for the boom and importance of Welsh coal and controlled most of the mineral rights in Southern Wales.  This made them the wealthiest family in the world, making in excess of £5 billion a year, in todays money.  The boom of the coal industry and the wealth in the city allowed for the expansion of the city, the growth of the port, and the boom in population.

The city had a huge decline after World War I and the reduction in the use of coal.  The city began to diversify and went through many renovations.  The bay was turned into a new center for Cardiff, and Wales, bringing together culture, leisure, and work.  The bay has a great deal of restaurants, a beautiful concert hall, and the seat of Welsh government.  The picture above shows the old Pierhead Building reflected in the glass of the Senedd, the National Assembly building.

I had a nice lunch of fish and chips down in the bay and then caught the sightseeing bus again.  It dropped me off right outside the castle and the only Roman ruins visible in Cardiff.  In the walls of the castle battlements, there are still some portions of the Roman wall visible.  The Roman fort was first developed in around 55 CE, but these stones are from the fourth rebuilding of the fort, in the mid-3rd century CE.  The Roman fort is supposed to have followed the layout of the current castle battlements and portions are rebuilt to look Roman (see the picture below and the picture of the gate from yesterday's post).

Once inside the battlements, the Norman keep dominates the castle green.  The first Norman keep, and the motte below it, were built in the 11th century, but replaced by this stone shell keep in the 12th century.  A shell keep means that walls were not actually the walls of the keep, but rather high walls surrounding interior buildings and protecting them.  I went up into the keep and you could see the remains of a massive chimney, presumably for the great room, and many holes in the walls for where timber supports would have gone.  I decided that there wasn't much need to climb all the way to the highest point on the tower.

The later castle within the walls was significantly remodeled over the centuries, turning into the Gothic Revival building seen today.  The Marquesses of Bute did a great deal of updating to the castle, first making it into a Georgian home and then adding the Gothic Revival features.  The castle was the home to four Marquesses of Bute, but was then given to the city of Cardiff after the death of the fourth Marquess in 1947.

The interior of the castle is open to the public, although to see all the rooms you have to be on a guided tour.  As I was walking through, I stumbled across a few tour groups and learned some interesting facts.  To create the banquet hall (below) the third Marquess destroyed seven bedrooms on the second floor of the castle to create a massive hall.  The room is decorated with the history of his family, whom are descended from the kings of Scotland.  The space is also available for events for weddings.  Only £500...an hour.

There are many different themed rooms in the home, including a gorgeous "Arab Room" with beautiful muqarnas, ornamented vaults, on the ceiling.  They reminded me a great deal of the many muqarnas I saw while visiting the Arab parts of Palermo, Sicily.

Beneath the banquet hall, there is a beautiful, ornate library.  There is actually a wonderful spiral staircase (which is closed to the public) leading directly from the banquet hall to the library.  Just in case you needed a quick study snack!

Another wonderful feature of Cardiff Castle is the clock tower.  I'm not entirely sure why, but the tower, which was built in 1868, is covered in depictions of Roman deities.  On the four sides, Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, Sol, Venus, Mercury, and Luna are depicted.  Maybe it was a nod to the Roman fort that once stood on the castle site or maybe it has some other allegorical meaning, but I still appreciated the Classical references.

After the castle, I retreated back to my hotel to escape the rain for a few hours.  I went back into Cardiff center for dinner (it involved smoked mozzarella and there are few things better in this world).  I decided to wander after dinner, which ended up with me getting locked in Bute Park.  After slipping through a gate, I decided it was a sign to head back to my hotel for the night.

Fun Fact #16: In the 19th century, many of the wives of the Cardiff dock workers had jobs with a potato company.  This meant that the women, known as potato lasses, were unloading hundred pound sacks of potatoes from the ships.  They were strong and apparently quite boisterous.  The headlines were filled with stories of the potato lasses getting in bar fights and pushing around their husbands.  They were certainly not to be messed with!

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 13: Spending an Afternoon at the Amphitheater

So today I managed to miss a bus while standing at a bus stop.  It's not entirely my fault, I swear!  After a relaxed morning in Llandovery, I found out that the bus would be a much more efficient and easier way to get to Carmarthen.  So I trotted across the street to the bus stop and stood by the stand, waiting for the bus and finishing a podcast.  The bus was a few minutes late, so I was trying to find something else to listen to.  As I looked back up, I watched my bus zoom by on the main road.  The bus stop was just off the main road, but the bus showed no intention of coming over to the stop.  I thought maybe it would come around on a loop, but alas, I was wrong.  It sped away...without me.

So I just headed the twenty steps to the train station and took a bit longer and a bit more complicated route to Carmarthen.  Both my guidebooks were pretty down on Carmarthen, just as they were about Holyhead, so I was a bit skeptical of what I'd find.  So far, I've been pleasantly surprised!  The town is definitely more developed than most of the towns I've stayed in, it is still charming.  Much of the history has been covered with larger stores and parking lots, but there are still nice side streets and a beautiful county office house.

After checking into my hotel, I decided to make my way to the only surviving part of the Roman settlement in Carmarthen: the amphitheater.  The remains are a bit outside the center of town and as I made my way there, I was distracted by a church.  The church, St. Peter's, apparently marked one end of where the Roman fort would have been.

Walking into the church, the first thing I saw was a Roman altar sitting in the entryway.  The altar had been found on the main Roman road through the town, but was brought to the church.  I thought it was an interesting mixing of religions, a pagan altar in a Christian church.

The church was lovely on the inside, with a nave and a parallel southern aisle, which were both lined with beautiful, carved wooden pews.  The red tiling, along with the red hue in the wood, gave a rich color and light to the building.  I was intrigued by the sort of parallel structure of the church.  It seemed a bit odd, as some of those in the southern aisle would certainly not be able to see the altar or possible the pulpit.

But the southern aisle has its own treasure: the tomb of the Richard III's killer.  According to some sources, including Welsh poet Guto'r Glyn, Rhys ap Thomas struck down Richard III in the Battle of Bosworth Field.  It is (of course) unclear if he was actually the one to do the deal, but it is very clear that Henry Tudor was very pleased with Thomas's service in the War of the Roses.  Following the end of the war and the crowning of Henry VII, Thomas was named Constable and Lieutenant of Breconshire, Chamberlain of Carmarthenshire and Cardiganshire, Seneschall and Chancellor of Haverfordwest, Rouse and Builth, Justiciar of South Wales, Governor of all Wales, a member of the Privy Councillor, and a Knight of the Garter.  Certainly an unexpected piece of history (or legend) to stumble upon!

I continued down the road to the Roman amphitheater.  The amphitheater is one of only four known in Wales.  It is slightly smaller than the one in Chester and could have seated around 5,000 people.  The amphitheater is a much narrower oval shape than others I've seen, including the one in Chester.  The amphitheater was placed just outside the Roman town, called Moridunum, and along the Roman road that connected the settlement to forts in the area, like the one just outside Llandovery.

The amphitheater is the only part of Roman settlement that is visible above ground; the entire remains of the town and fort are covered by the modern town.  In the 70s CE, the site was first developed to hold a large fort, but this was soon reduced in size.  By the mid 2nd century, the fort was abandoned, but the settlement around it developed into the town, Moridunum.  In the 3rd century, the fort was reoccupied and the town was thriving, becoming one of the largest settlements in Wales.  It also seems to have been a pretty good example of a Roman and native amalgamation, maybe similar to what occurred in Wroxeter.

After absorbing the remains of the amphitheater, I followed a map to the promise of another information sign about Roman's in the area.  This brought me to the remains of Carmarthen Castle.  The remains are just behind the county offices and only a wall, towers, and a gate still stand.  

I was able to go up on to the walls of the castle and up to the top of the castle gate.  It took me a while to track down the flag flying, but I believe I've found it.  It seems to be the flag of the princely House of Dinefwr, a royal house in Wales founded in 854 CE, and the Kingdom of Deheubarth, a kingdom in southern Wales from 920-1197 CE.  The flag was inherited as the arms of the Talbot family, which (if I understand correctly) have been the Earls of Shrewsbury since 1442 to present day.

Though most of the castle is gone, and even half the gate is gone, the parts that remain are quite striking.  The gate consisted of path leading between two towers.  It would have been defended with a portcullis and a machicolation seen here.  A machicolation is a defensive feature of many castles which allowed defenders to drop objects on enemies at the gate from above.  Smaller holes that served the same function were called murder holes.

In a small courtyard by the castle remains, there was another informational panel about the Roman town and the surrounding area (I've already shared some of the better facts found there).  Sadly, that concluded my tour of Roman Carmarthen.  All the other secrets are trapped underground!  (Or in museums not in Carmarthen)

Fun Fact #13:  Legend tells that Merlin, of Arthurian lore, was born in a cave outside Carmarthen.  In fitting with this, there as an oak tree in the town called Merlin's Oak.  The tree was actually planted in celebration of Charles II's return to the throne in 1659 or 1660, but still came with this prophecy: "When Merlin's Oak shall tumble down,/Then shall fall Carmarthen town."  Sadly, the tree died in the mid-19th century and was eventually removed in the 1970s.  Luckily, the town still stands!

Day 11: Returning to Wales

When I woke up this morning, I only had one thing left on my to do list for Shrewsbury: visit the abbey.  I checked out of my hotel and left my bag before heading down Wyle Cop, across the river, and to the abbey.  The abbey is constructed with the same red stone as Shrewsbury castle and it is a very lovely color.  I had heard that there was something peculiar about the abbey's clock, so I investigated before I went into the building.  For some strange reason, the clock does not use the tradition Roman numeral X for ten.  Instead, it uses an f, so twelve because fII and nine become If.  I don't know why this happened, but it makes for an interesting clock.

The interior was beautiful and surprisingly light, especially the altar, with its golden reredos.  This abbey had a similar history to the old cathedral in Chester.  Both had been much larger before the Dissolution of the Monasteries and both were reduced to smaller parish churches, allowing the rest of the buildings to crumble.  The Shrewsbury Abbey went through many different stages, different layouts as certain parts of the abbey were left to decay and then, later, as restorations were made.  Even today, with many restorations and rebuilding, the church is much smaller than the original abbey would have been

The abbey has Norman beginnings, with the gifting of Shropshire to Roger de Montgomery by William the Conqueror.  In 1083, Roger de Montgomery publicly pledged to build an abbey in Shrewsbury and construction began.  In the 12th century, the abbey grew in importance after the abbot "found" the remains of a Welsh saint, Winifred, and brought them back to Shrewsbury Abbey.  This encouraged pilgrims to come to Shrewsbury and increased the popularity of the abbey.  During the 14th century, the abbey was expanded and renovated.

In 1540, the abbey was shut down and the abbot and monks were given sums of money and sent away.  The abbey shrank to a parish church and suffered neglect for about three centuries.  In the 1800s, more efforts, and maybe more importantly, more funds, were put into restoring the abbey to it's former beauty.

This stained glass window of Saint Winifred is one of the more recent additions to Shrewsbury Abbey, added in 1992.  According to legend, Saint Winifred had a pretty sad early life.  She was the daughter of a Welsh chieftain and at a young age decided she wanted to become a nun.  A suitor of hers did not like this idea and in a fit of rage, chopped of her head.  It rolled away and supposedly a healing spring sprouted from where it stopped.  Her uncle, a saint as well, Beuno, saw the event and asked God to strike the suitor down and the man promptly died.  Beuno then put Winifred's head back on her body and she came back to life.  She then went on to be an abbess and lived a long, happy life.  Her uncle, Beuno, is also credited with resurrection six other people.  All of this reinforces my absolute confusion with Christian mythology, claims that Christianity is a monotheistic religion, and why miracles today are way less interesting than miracles of the past. 

Shrewsbury Abbey was also home to quite a few stone coffins with effigies.  They included the supposed resting place of Roger de Montgomery, the founder of the abbey.  Others were in better shape and painted with a rich palette of colors.  I noticed that in a back corner of the church someone had placed a small flower into the hands of one of the effigies.  It was a sweet, simple gesture and very beautiful.

After visiting the abbey, I attempted to head out of Shrewsbury, but got an extra hour and a half in the  trains station due to train delays.  I almost missed the stop for Llandovery as I was wrapped up in an entertaining podcast and knitting.  But I made it!  My hotel was just across the road from the train station, so I was in my room in no time.  I then found out that the bus I needed to take for tomorrow's excursion (to the Dolaucothi gold mines) does not run on Wednesdays.  It seems I'll have to go by cab which is not ideal.

I wandered into Llandovery, partially to find food and partially to get the rest of my steps in for the day.  It's a small, quiet town, seemingly dominated by the large boarding school that it hosts.  The town center is focused around its town hall and small streets of shops run around it.

I also learned that just outside the town, in a smaller village area, there was another Roman fort.  I had remembered the name from my research before embarking on this trip.  I was tempted to try to walk out to the site, but a storm was beginning to head my way and if I recall correctly, the site isn't really excavated.  I decided to stay within a quick walking distance of my hotel, in case the skies opened up.

Like any good Welsh town, Llandovery has a castle.  The Normans constructed the castle in the 12th century, but it was soon capture by the Welsh.  It switched hands between Welsh and English for the next two centuries.  Like seemingly every castle in Wales, the castle was the sight of the battle between Welsh revolutionary, Owain Glyndŵr, and the English.  This battle in 1403 left the castle crumbling and it was never repaired.

On the same rise as the castle, a shining, silver statue stands, looking out over Llandovery.  The statue commemorates Llwelyn ap Gruffudd, the last Welsh sovereign ruler before Edward I's invasion of Wales.  Llwelyn fought to maintain control in Wales and prevent the English from conquering the territory.  He died in battle against the troops of Edward I.  

After touring the town, grabbing a bite to eat, and poking my head into the British boarding school, I made it back to my hotel, just as the raindrops started to fall.

Fun Fact #11: During the Dissolution of the Monasteries, cataloguing the worth of the monasteries and abbeys was very important so that Thomas Cromwell and Henry VIII knew what value they were adding to the crown's estate.  This was some of the items listed for Shrewsbury Abbey: "some milk, chemise, couch and tomb of the Virgin bones, hair and vestments of apostles and martyrs, saints both male and female, bishops and confessors, a whole rochet of Thomas Becket, part of the rochet in which Thomas Becket was martyred, cloth stained with Thomas Becket's blood and brains, fragments of Thomas Becket's attire including his hair, collar, girdle, cowl, woolen, shirt and glove."  Sacred objects in a church...or the latest episode of Hoarders?

Day 10: Eyeing Roman Ruins

Today began much earlier than it should have, around 12:45 AM to be exact.  I was awoken to someone coming into my room, and although I didn't understand exactly what he said, the blaring alarm and words "fire" and "get out" stuck out pretty distinctly.  I headed outside, grabbing my camera and my hard drive where I save all my photos (what priorities I have!)  We stood around for a few minutes, watching firemen go in and out of the hotel.  There was no smell of smoke or any evidence of fire and eventually we were let back in.  I believe I overheard this morning that it had something to do with a faulty alarm panel.

So I got up this morning, slightly less well rested than I had hoped to be, and headed to the bus station to try to make my way to Wroxeter where a Roman town remains in ruins.  I had just missed a bus and the next one was not for an hour and forty-five minutes, so I decided to go to Shrewsbury Castle.  The castle is a beautiful red color, which stood starkly against the grey, wet sky.  It's quite small, looking more like a country manor house than a proper castle.  This is because the original medieval origins have disappeared to make way for a newer castle.  Up a hill above the castle, is Laura's Tower, a scenic tower looking out over Shrewsbury.

I decided to go into the Shropshire Regimental Museum, housed in the castle as I had so much time to kill.  The collections were impressive and gave great details about British military history.  I was amazed by the collections of honorary medals they had, quite possibly thousands.  I also learned that the first British casualty in World War II was a native, a corporal named Thomas Priday.  It was also entertaining to see some of the military history of the American Revolutionary War from the other side.  I walked into one part of the museum and internally shouted, "The Red Coats are coming!"  I'm a true Bay Stater, through and through.

After taking my time in the museum, I still had plenty of time on my hands and walked farther back into town.  I went to St. Mary's Church, a church located towards the center of Shrewsbury.  Like many churches I've visited in the U.K., they have opened a cafe in one of the side chapels of the church.  I think this is such a clever idea of using space that is generally unused and a way to increase income for churches, many of which need substantial money for repairs.

The church was very beautiful on the inside, but most striking was the stained glass window behind the altar.  It is a 14th century depiction of the Tree of Jesse that has supposedly been in three different churches in Shrewsbury.  Though its been repaired and moved multiple times, many of the original pieces of glass are still in good condition.

I grabbed some lunch on my way back to the bus station and arrived just in time to catch my bus to Wroxeter.  It had been lightly raining all day and continued to as I walked towards the visitor center at the Roman town.  I decided to visit the small museum first to get a sense of the site and the history and to hopefully let the rain stop.

The site was originally home to a Roman fort called Viroconium, built around 58 CE by the Legio XIV Gemina. The legio XX Valeria Victrix soon replaced them, but the fort was not used for long.  Although it was initially an important staging ground for excursions into Wales, the Roman military focus shifted to the north and Chester rose as the main military base.  As the Roman military left Viroconium, they pulled down the walls and destroyed buildings to prevent any native tribes or rebels from taking the defensible position.

As the Roman army moved out, Viroconium transformed into a town.  Veterans stayed behind and locals from the Cornovii tribe moved in.  The town already had traders and markets established and continued to grow as civilian destination.  Over time, it became the fourth largest town in Roman Britain.  The town grew, building more public spaces such as bathes, a market hall, and a forum.  The city, although mixed with different peoples, took on a Roman-style of administration and many of the daily practices stayed within Roman customs.

The city continued to thrive during Roman occupation, even with through changes.  The rise of Christianity altered the nature of the town, as it did in many parts of the empire.  There is evidence for the coexistence of a Christian church and Roman temples during the 3rd century CE, but by the 4th century the worship of pagan gods had been abandoned.  Sacred objects, like the statuette below to Venus, were discarded and found by archaeologists in dump heaps.

When the Romans left Britain in 410 CE, the town was not abandoned.  In the previous years, Viroconium Cornoviorum, as the town (not the fort) was known, had become more self reliant, with fewer imports from other parts of the Empire and more locally made products coming into use.  The town was in a position to survive without connections across the English Channel.  And it did survive for a time, but as conflict rose in sub-Roman Britain, the town began to fade.  In the 6th century, a Mercian king forced all the Christians out of the remaining town.  By the 7th century, the site was abandoned and many of the buildings had been torn down and repurposed.

Today, a very small fraction of Viroconium Cornoviorum has been excavated.  The majority of the excavations are the massive bath complex at the site.  Like in Segontium, most of the ruins just show the foundations of the buildings.  A notable exception is a large piece of the bath wall, nicknamed the Old Work by locals.  The piece comes from the ball of the basilica, that connected into the rest of the bath house.  The basilica would have been 245 feet long by 66 feet wide.  Clearly these bathes and public buildings were meant to accommodate a major settlement, unlike the 600 square foot bathhouse in Prestatyn.

The baths had a large series of hypocausts to heat what would have been a very large tepidarium and calidarium.  The bath also included some unusual features for a place like Shrewsbury.  The most interesting was a natatio, a large, unheated, open-air swimming pool.  It clearly wasn't very popular in the dreary English weather, as it was filled in fairly quickly.

Abutting against the bath complex were multiple public buildings, including a market hall, rooms for officials to meet, and just across a street, the forum.  The market hall would have been two stories and seemed to have at least ten rooms on the first floor for stalls to be set up.  The forum area has not been excavated and the Roman road running between the two areas has been paved over with a modern road.  The forum area is actually underneath a replica of a Roman country house.

The replica home is constructed based off buildings excavated in the Wroxeter area and is meant to represent a Roman home around 320 CE.  I wonder at the decision to build the replica house rather than excavate the forum beneath, but it was an interesting experience to walk through a fully constructed Roman home.  The house contained exemplary rooms, such as a shop at the front of the house that could have been used as a family store, a triclinium (dining room), cubicula (used for various things, but here shown as a bedroom), and small bath complex in the home.  Though the home seems to be set up for teaching children about Roman home life, I still enjoyed wandering through the rooms and getting a fuller sense of what a Roman house was like.

I then scurried off to catch a bus back into Shrewsbury, as they ran every two hours and I had exhausted what I could see at the site.  Wroxeter was a lovely and informative site, but sadly so much has been left undiscovered there.  Hopefully, there will be more chances to dig there!

Fun Fact #10: There is some evidence that Viroconium Cornoviorum was a center for treating eye ailments.  In ancient Roman medicine and religion, it was common to give an offering of the ailed body part to Aesculapius, as an offering to be healed.  Usually there was a promise of future sacrifices as well.  In Wroxeter many fragments with depictions of eyes have been found, like the ones above.  This suggests that there was some specialist or specialists in the town treating (and probably successfully) problems with the eyes!