23 June 2016 - Knight’s Folly Farm, Bitton, near Bristol, Gloucestershire

Just as forecasted, the rain stayed away all day and that was why we had decided to head over the Bristol Channel to Wales for the day. Actually, to a New Zealander, popping across to another country is just mind boggling; such is the mindset of an islander.  But anyway, that is what we did today, set off in the car for an hour’s journey across the Second Severn Bridge, then on along the M5 across the south of Wales, bypassing Newport, and arriving within an hour at the Park & Ride.

The Second Severn motorway bridge is called thus because it came after the first bridge crossing which is situated further up the River Severn. This second bridge was completed in 1996 and is an incredible 5.128 kilomteres long, 34.6 metres (six vehicle lanes) wide and 137 metres high. In researching the above, I was surprised to learn that it is near the path of the Severn Tunnel, which has carried the railway line beneath the river bed since 1886. Neither Chris nor I had realised there was a tunnel. The first Severn road bridge was completed in 1966, and is a four lane suspension bridge.

All three of these crossings are a little upstream of the estuary, although you would not know that when the tide is out as it was when we returned this afternoon. Much of the estuary is just mudflats at low tide, although can be covered by as much as fourteen metres of water at high tide. Here the maximum tidal range of 14.5 metres, the second highest in the world, and during the rising or falling of the tides, has strong currents of up to 8 knots. Construction was not an easy matter, and all the more reason to marvel at these engineering feats today.

Both road crossings are tolled, the Second Severn bridge on the westerly trip and costing £6.60, which must be paid at the booth on crossing, as we did today, or by installing a “tag”, probably similar to that we had in Australia, which covered toll roads all over the country. We thought the system here a little backward, especially given that the Dartfort Crossing in London allows for on-line payment within a set time after use.

After catching the bus into the centre of Cardiff, we arrived at about 9.20 am, even after I had expounded the foolishness of seeing a new city for the first time so early in the day. We were at once impressed with the place, even with the crowds still to arrive. We started our day at the Old Library which our guide book had suggested; there a small museum titled “The Cardiff Story” which is full of the history and details of the features of the city. I became caught up with one of the assistants, perhaps The Curator, given her informed conversation. I asked her how long she had lived in the city, and how it had changed during those twenty years or so.

In a nutshell, she said that in the early 1990s, the city was still wallowing in a depressed state, even long after the mining boom had long gone, the last coal exported way back in the 1950s and the city was in a kind of decay. Then along came the Rugby World Cup in 1999, or the planning for it. Buildings were spruced up, a new stadium built, accommodation created or revitalised, and the spirit of the people was lifted beyond expectation. Since then Cardiff has become a place for events, its university has increased its capacity almost tenfold, and so the infrastructure of the city has responded in an upward spiral. Certainly that is what we saw today.

We spent an hour walking around the vibrant retail areas, the Cardiff Market, the wonderful Edwardian arcades, the wide pedestrianized streets. We poked our nose into the Church of St John, whose altar our guide described as being “floridly pompous”. Perhaps so, although had we called after our visit to the castle, it would have seemed incredibly subdued; even modest.  

Ornate ceilings

Tickets to visit the Cardiff Castle are not cheap, however I was insistent that we should go. It seemed that a visit to Cardiff was not complete without doing so, although this could be said of many of the city’s attractions. We paid for premium tickets which included an hour long tour of the more extravagant rooms within the castle apartments, and we were happy to spend more than three hours within the walls, and then only leaving because there was much more to see outside.

Cardiff Castle has two thousand years of history, the existing walls exactly in the same place as those built by the Romans in the first century AD. There is a gap in its history between the Roman’s departure in about 400 AD and the arrival of the Normans in 1066. The keep is purely Norman and remodelled battlements and tunnels are open for view, and are alone enough to impress, but it is the castle dating back to the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries that leaves a lasting impression. The apartments were extended during Tudor times, the castle changing hands through several families over the decades, then in the mid to late 19^th century, the third Marquess of Bute decided to commission an architect and decorator, William Burges, to refashion the apartments in the most extravagant and fantastical way possible. 

The moat about the motte and castle

This Marquess had inherited a fortune before the age of one, a fortune gathered in part from the mining industry of South Wales. The Bute family instigated new developments on their land, starting with the construction of canals, docks and railway infrastructure, and insisted that all the coal and iron exports used these, hence they were instrumental in making Cardiff one of the busiest ports in the world during that time. They were in fact so stinking rich that any blowouts on building and renovation budgets at the Castle was neither a here nor a there. Anyway, the castle in Cardiff was only a holiday home, used for about six weeks of each year.

The glitz and the glamour of the resulting creations have to be seen to be believed; hand painted tiles and silhouette lanterns in the Nursery, the medieval and mystical imaginary in the decoration in the Banqueting Hall, the Winter Smoking Room, and the Arab Room.  We were told that this house  was the first to have electricity in Wales, and the third in Great Britain. 

Our river taxi

Further down the years, the fifth Marquess gave the castle and quite a swathe of land to the people of Cardiff, and today it is a tourist attraction and used for weddings, royal and international state gatherings.

We decided, or should I say that I suggested, that we catch a water taxi down the River Taff to Cardiff Bay given that we did not have enough time to walk down, explore the place and then walk back. I must have looked tired because Chris agreed at once and so that is what we did. We took a leisurely cruise down river, enjoying the commentary and then the return before wandering up through the gardens and Civic area of the city.

The Town Hall

The Bay is significant; it has become one of the world’s biggest regeneration projects, the downbeat dereliction of the docks having been transformed into a tourist destination.  Here can be found the relocated National Assembly, Y Senedd, the Doctor Who Experience which evolved out of the filming location for that TV series, the Roald Dahl Plass, to celebrate the birthplace of that most celebrated author,  the BBC Roath Lock Studios, the Wales Millennium Centre, cafes, and so much more. 

Here too along the southern stretch of the bay is another phenomenon, the half mile long Barrage, completed in 1999, 7.96 metres high right across the Ely and Taff estuaries, complete with locks, sluices, fish path and stunning views.

We hit heavy traffic on the return journey, just home in time for the news at 6 pm, in time to learn that other parts of the country have had far worse weather than we have seen and that the roads not too far from us, here in Somerset, have been clogged with traffic for the Glastonbury music festival, and once they get there, they are battling mud and mud and even more mud.