Daytrip to Cardiff, Proms, & British Museum

Comprising the last two of four days of Meetups, the weekend, as so often, belonged to London Museums A-Z. On Saturday, I was on a daytrip with them to Cardiff.. hadn't been there since a U2 concert, back in 2009! Booked my train with Uber, who got me an economical split fare without me having to figure anything out, and we planned to head to the castle and the museum.

We were all on the same train, albeit our organiser, Bobo, wasn't joining till Swindon, where she lives. And although GWR's WiFi wasn't terrific, it was sufficient for us to message each other - so we found out we were sat near each other. Except JW, who had no idea where he was, but happily, was at least on the same train.. I was close enough to the seat Bobo had booked that I went and sat in the free seat beside her when she arrived, which was nice - we had a great old chat all the way.

We all finally convened outside Cardiff Central Station, where someone was doing a turn:

It wasn't too long a walk from there to the castle.. and no, I didn't remember a single thing from my last visit!

First part of the castle we saw turned out to be the clock tower:

And we were just up from the entrance:

Passing through the ticket check, we found ourselves outside the modern part of the castle - so that's what we looked at first:

Just inside the main entrance, a beautiful set of stained glass windows - stained glass is a feature of the castle - depict what I considered a motley gathering of royals.. until the lady staffing the entrance was kind enough to explain that these were previous owners of the castle.. Katherine Wydville (spellings differ), sister-in-law of Edward IV, her husband, Jasper Tudor, uncle of Henry VII..

Henry VII himself, and his wife, Elizabeth of York, daughter of Edward IV (these people were on opposite sides in the Wars of the Roses, showing the complicated family relations):

and Richard III, brother of Edward IV, and his wife, Anne Neville:

Further in, Henry VIII and his third wife, Jane Seymour:

Ooh, and George, Duke of Clarence (brother of Edward IV and Richard III) and his wife, Isabel Neville (Anne's sister):

The whole castle is fabulously ornate:

..in particular, the Arab Room, for which there's a queue, as people are only let in two at a time:

Also worth paying attention to the ceilings:

See the chap peeking out from a dungeon in this mantelpiece decoration? That's Robert Curthose, eldest son of William the Conqueror, who fought his younger brother for the throne and lost. He was imprisoned in Cardiff Castle. His brother became Henry I.

The walls also tell a tale:

This is the story of Henry I's nephew, who seized the throne as King Stephen. However, it had been due to go to Henry's daughter, and only surviving legitimate child, Matilda - who wouldn't let the matter drop, and waged bitter civil war against him. She did manage to get the upper hand in 1141 - but made herself so unpopular that, after only six days, she and her followers had to flee for their lives across the frozen Thames, dressed in white for camouflage. After that, she knew she'd never hold the throne again - but fought on in the name of her eldest son, who eventually pretty much had the throne handed to him as Henry II, the first Plantagenet king..

The architect, William Burges, was also apparently responsible for St. Fin Barre's Cathedral, Cork!

We had fun trying to figure out the different languages displayed on the tablets on this frieze in the library:

That part of the castle done, we headed to the ruined tower.. with its steep steps (mercifully with lots of handrails) and a weird zig-zag system. Inside, we were to discover a few floors to the place, with rooms in one of the walls, which we could climb to and have a look inside of. The steps to these are really steep, and I baulked at the top level, only accessible via an uneven, spiral stone staircase on the inside:

And so, down to the entrance again, and in the space under the gift shop, we found a timeline.. with some opportunities to learn Welsh!

Robert Curthose makes another appearance:

The English take over:

15th century Welsh rebel, Owain Glyndwr:

Old Roman wall.. I guess..

Along the other side, a pretty chaotic Roman street scene:

The scene culminates in a massive depiction of a chariot:

Incredible detail.. 

And so, via a shaky lift, to The Firing Line, a military museum, which you have to have a castle ticket to gain entry to. And we were immediately confronted with.. a dodo. No comment..

There's also a shooting game, £1 per go (they take card) - one of us decided to try, and achieved second place on the leaderboard..

The most interesting "Do Not Touch" sign I've ever seen says you might startle the horse, which might throw its rider:

A couple of staff members were on hand to explain antique weapons (I had a nice sit down here):

And gee, you know if they ever talk about "the longest campaign", it's going to have been in Northern Ireland. I do accept it must have been very psychologically damaging for them - but it was for the residents too, and the Nationalist community always saw them as the enemy. The army's collusion with Loyalist paramilitaries didn't help.

Women at war:

Ah, and when we saw these Queen Victoria rubber duckies, well, one of the group just couldn't resist! 

By now, we were well ready for lunch - and happily, found a nearby street full of restaurants and pubs. We finally settled on The Welsh House, where we took a table outside - had to go to the bar to order. Lots of things with Welsh Rarebit, which I don't think anyone had. I finally plumped for pasta - well, I'm having a root canal tomorrow, and was advised to eat soft foods - like pasta - in the meantime. It was topped with some breaded chicken strips ,and came with a side of garlic bread. The chicken and garlic bread were excellent, the pasta unfortunately bland. Bar service was also really, really slow.. I couldn't believe it took that long to pour a simple glass of wine. Well, it gave us plenty of time to listen to the music inside - I kid you not, they were playing Holding Out for a Hero by Bonnie Tyler..

Well now, as someone once said of JW, his lunches are famously long.. and to be fair, the museum we were planning on going to had emailed to say they were closing early - for a sleepover. So we didn't much mind, and stayed on talking instead, then had a mooch around town - and I bemoaned the fact that I hadn't (and still haven't) learned how to pronounce Welsh:

This guy was busking on some very DIY instruments:

We popped into an Oxfam shop.. and wow, that's the second time this month that I've heard Bring Me to Life!, which was playing over the music system. Well, on we pottered.. but we were wondering what was good to see that we might miss. So I asked AI.. which suggested the bay! A bit far to walk, and even the bus wouldn't take us closer than a half hour walk away. So.. Uber it was, a 10-minute journey. We picked a spot at random to be dropped off at, not really having a clue where we were going, and ended up outside Lo Lounge. Where we would have gone in, except they wouldn't let JW take in his water. So we walked on.

And.. the rest of the day turned into one of those happy accidents. D'you know, once upon a time, someone I met at a Spooky London Pubs Meetup handed me a card for a serendipity group.. they used to meet and decide on the spot what to do, or what street to go down. That was exactly what we did that evening - and it could hardly have worked out better. Seeing a ferris wheel, JW was drawn like a magnet.. not that he persuaded us to go on it. But walking that way turned out to be exactly the thing to do. For one thing, we passed what seemed to be a Norwegian church - looking it up afterwards, I discovered it was an arts centre. Used to be a church for Norwegian sailors. And around the side, they were playing the coolest music, people lying on the grass to listen..

..and what a lovely location for the senedd (parliament building)!

A seaside poem:

We ended up at a bar, having drinks on the pier overlooking the bay. A big sky view, and a horizon that went on forever. And the soft strains of the art centre music drifting to us across the bay..

Choice. And I couldn't have been with a lovelier group of people.

When that bar closed, we had one more round in a cocktail pop-up down the pier, where I had a frozen daquiri (strawberry). Then Uber back to the station, for the various folks that needed to leave early, and JW nabbed a table for four on the train, which was as many as we were. And lo, the drinks trolley was doing a discount on wine if you bought two - so I did! A truly marvellous day.

Sadly, no lie-in on either day this weekend.. On Sunday, different people in the same group were going to a Mozart prom.. and we were meeting in Filo, a coffee shop in S. Ken. 

Arrived pretty early, would you believe - ordered a hot chocolate and a croissant. The croissant arrived soon - the drink did not. Neither did anyone else's. I mean, for a place that advertises itself as a coffee shop, their drinks delivery was atrocious. They ultimately gave me my hot chocolate for free, and ended up giving several in the group their drinks in takeaway cups. Have to say, the hot chocolate was excellent - and I'm damn picky about my hot chocolate. It's just the delivery time..

Well, we made our way up to the Albert Hall.. most of us were sat together, with a pretty decent view, albeit we were high up:

Well, it was a lovely programme. For all the Mozart though - and I am a fan - I have to say, my favourite of the programme was the Britten, which was just sublime. Have to give kudos, of course, to the horn player who had no arms and played with his feet.. wasn't expecting that..

Afterwards, quite a long walk to The Duke of Clarence.. where we had a big table.

Well, we were having a great old chat about upcoming events.. and I was so jealous of the people getting food, 'coz I was peckish.. but I had to love them and leave them. Because I was racing across town to co-host a Dracula event at the British Museum - we were viewing Room 47, which has exhibits relating to the 1800s. Popped my host's badge on on the Tube, and had my sign in my bag.

In the event, I arrived ever so slightly late - JW was already there, complete with sign, and I contributed mine. And we had a great chat as people arrived, before we went up to the room.

Basically, it's a fantastic display of handicrafts:

So much Wedgwood! My mother had tons.

And Sevres:

This belonged to the Persian ambassador:

Ah, more jewellery:

Ooh, I actually have one quite like this!

Patently Irish brooches:

Wow, more jet, like in Whitby!

Ditto, teapots:

And how much care must go into making jewellery out of conch shells!

Never mind engraving shells:

A chateleine's belt:

And so to t' pub. However, we had few enough that JW suggested we go to the Museum Tavern instead of Penderel's Oak, which is a walk away.. the Museum Tavern is smaller, but a lot closer. We hovered until staff decided to get an elderly American-sounding couple to move, so we could just sit together.. it was just unfortunate that the lady's purse was then taken, which had her passport in it. But aside from that, we had a marvellous time.

And of course, all of this took a fair bit of blogging.. and I do have a lot of work to do. You know, what pays for all this. Hence the delay.. check the next post for the Southwark Cathedral Summer Organ Festival, and a cabaret..