Castell Caerdydd

This morning Michael and I visited Cardiff Castle, or Castell Caerdydd in Welsh. It was really interesting, and especially nice because we got there early and basically had the place to ourselves, except for a nice Swiss couple and some Japanese tourists. The castle was first established around 50 AD by the Romans while they attempted to subdue the Welsh people and expand their empire. That didn't go to well for them, and the Roman forces eventually withdrew. The Norman invaders later expanded the keep in the 1080s, and eventually the place was surrounded by huge stone battlements. During the Victorian Era, the castle was remodeled by the Marquess of Bute, who built really stunningly ornate apartments for himself, his family and guests. And finally, the stone battlements served as public bomb shelters during WWII. So there is a lot of really neat history there and it was really fun to explore.
We also walked over to where Scotty works in the Physics and Astronomy building at Cardiff University. If we hadn't taken a wrong turn on the way there, it would have been a 10 minute walk. Instead it took a little longer, but we got to see more of the town. And we figured out the route on the way back, and it's really close, so it'll be easy to hang out with Scotty. Michael worked a bit with him, and I read all the astronomy posters in the hall, so I think it was an informative trip overall. (:

See? It's all castle-y

We walked around a park first, and you can see the turrets in the background.

Cardiff is proud to be hosting Olympic events, particularly soccer. This flower dude was pretty wild looking.

Michael makes a good Roman Soldier.

It's a trebuchet!!

The Castle Keep

A very nice Swiss man offered to take our photo.

The old and the new: The castle keep and Victorian apartments, and the Millennium Olympics stadium behind them.

Poking my head out of a window in the battlements.

The old bomb shelters under the battlements were creepy, especially since they were playing a recording of an air raid so the sounds of falling bombs resonated through the hall. But it was pretty neat to see.

The Victorian apartments

The Welsh dragon

We're sad in the stocks. The photo is again courtesy of the nice Swiss man.

The keep!

On our way up to the keep!

The keep doesn't have a roof, but it definitely felt secure within it's walls! Michael is heading up to the guard tower

On the wall next to Michael is some of the original plaster that used to cover the stones, complete with super old graffiti!

The clock tower was really ornately decorated and painted.

And the interior of the Victorian-era buildings were crazy! This is the roof of the chapel.

The walls of the Banquet hall were jaw-dropping. They were covered in murals retelling the story of the medieval queen Mathlida and King Stephen.

Michael getting help from the docent in translating the latin which captioned the pictures. The docent said every once in a while a latin scholar would come through and give it a shot, so all the docents are given a translation, because apparently its tricky.

There was also a falconry that is still maintained. The owl was really cool!

We stopped by the Olympics viewing place to see what was up... I think it was crew, but they weren't showing races so we moved on. But mom, here's the picture you wanted! (: