December 27-30
Cardiff was selected purely because it was a direct flight from Malaga, at a good price. Upon getting there, we really enjoyed the city. It is the capital of Wales and the filming location for Dr. Who. There is an awesome Dr. Who museum that is an "experience" with a section like an amusement park style thing that you walk through with all the various set pieces. A detail of Cardiff that we found fascinating was how much they liked to differentiate themselves from England. All of the signs and announcements on the train was in Welsh and English. Welsh is a rather difficult language to even guess how to pronounce the words. My favorite part was access to authentic BBC and English television. The other main attraction is a castle originally opened in 55 AD by the Romans. Then it was rebuilt in the 11th century by the Norman invaders. It has an awesome mote. It was been occupied in some fashion since the Normans so the castle has lots of additions and new wings that are in the various architectural styles of that time. We took a train from Cardiff to London that was much more affordable than we had thought. The train ticket from London to Paris was not at all what we had in mind....but that's another post.
Outside wall of the castle.
Main street Cardiff.
Castle keep.
Awesome mote.
Castle.
Dr. Who museum.
Display of all the Dr. Who costumes and actors.
The Darleks.
The main docks.
Train station, note the signs in Welsh and English.
Whales countryside, nice and blurry from the train ride.
.JPG)
