Traveling Tonya: A New Passport Stamp: Wales

Today is a "grazing day" (I think that means sneak food in as can). We won't get to our hotel until late tonight, and the most important goal of the day is to not miss the ferry boat to Ireland.

So we drove straight through Wales, with only a short stop in Cardiff. Which meant we got our first contact with their language.

The Welsh language looks very odd. in the southern part of Wales where we are now, traffic signs have English on top and Welsh on bottom. the northern part of ales where we will go after Ireland, is the opposite - Welsh on the top and English on the bottom.

So here are Pieter's potted pronunciation for speaking Welsh (Pieter is our guide):
DD Makes a "th" sound with splitting and growl
LL Makes an "HL" sound with clearing of the throat

So on to our lone city, the capital city of Cardiff. We only had time to visit Cardiff Castle (which is really a walled area with old buildings)

The castle was built in the late 11th century by Norman invaders on what used to be a Roman fort. We walked to the top of the castle up a stone circular staircase. I'm surprised people didn't die just going up and down it (either from the narrow staircase or the smooth stones; and they did it in long skirts!). At the top had a nice view, including the large building next door. Then we headed down with some moving aside on each floor for traffic coming from the other direction (it really was narrow).

Next we went to the building we saw from the top. I thought it was a church (see building below). Nope. It was a home. I believe the original structure was built in the 1500s or so, but in the 1800s it was remodeled into a gothic style mansion with great extravagance.

House @ Cardiff Castle

Ceiling of House

After a ride through a few Wales' towns and countryside, we were off for the 4 hour ferry ride to Ireland. Other than a little landscape when leaving, it was pretty non-eventful. We were told you could sometimes see dolphins, but not today.