The day we didn't go down a Welsh mine

First day of our Wales tour and you can tell... someone knew where to go and what to look at, and we came along with them.  In this case it was our driver, Philip. Along with us, he has another 13 Aussies.Philip lives in Dorset and is not Welsh, but he is doing a great job so far of giving us a feel for the place.

It seems the group will, again, be pretty good at keeping to time. We had a good test today when we went to St Fagan's natural history  museum-which is a bit like the historic pioneer village near Tailem Bend in that it has buildings brought in from other places and planted there to give people an idea of what life was like in different times.  We had just under two hours, and could easily have spent four there as they had well informed staff who would chat and give you a great insight into things. The group was back on the bus and ready to go right on time. We had an excellent discussion with one bloke about peat fires and how to make the best window out of linen and ash frames. The castle there was also really informative and gave an idea of what life would have been like for the servants and the gentry.
One of the blokes was even on the lake in a curricle (is that where "rub a dub dub" came from?)

Trevor checking out an old urinal. Not sure how cleaning would have gone. It was open on the other side and divided into three section so three men could use it at one time. Nothing for the ladies as they were not expected to leave the house much!

We started the day with a pick up in Cardiff and a brisk tour of the old dock area-now a cultural precinct instead of full of coal boats and trains as it would have been a generation ago. Saw the church where Roald Dahl was baptized,  and the preparations for power boat races. Also a tricky statue in memory of merchant seamen.

same statue taken from two different directions

Most of the buildings in the centre of Cardiff have been built in the last 25 years.

After the docks and historical village we headed into castle mode with a quick stop to take a shot of the red castle (which reminded me of Rapunzel)-owned by the Marquess of Bute (same family that gifted the remarkable Cardiff Castle to the city)

It even has a drawbridge and a moat and gets lived in a few weeks of the year if it is lucky!

Then on to Caerphilly Castle which has a great filled moat all the way around and geese which can get a bit nasty. 

The plan was that we would then go down a historic mine to gain an insight into the coal  mining which really made this area what it was ,  but when we arrived at the big pit mine the doors were closed, and there was a notice saying they were closed due to industrial action, so we took a scenic back road and arrived at our hotel early.

The view from the window as we drove along a narrow hillside road on a back road detour. A bit of a steep hill.

The Bear...  our home for the next two nights.

Since we had arrived early we caught up on news via email and facebook and went for a walk in the rain looking for that very cute bridge that we crossed on the way in to town.  As it worked out we also found the broken down castle in a park which dates from the 1100s! !! These old old buildings are still stunning me.

Useless info for the day: the word for microwave in welsh is pronounced  "Popty Ping". I think this is such a great word I am aiming to include it in my ongoing vocabulary when I return home.