Cardiff/Caerdydd

Because I love the rail system so much here, Janet and I hopped on a train Saturday and went to Cardiff, the capital of Wales! The rail pretty much takes you anywhere you want to go. I love it! So we said, "hey, we should go to Cardiff" and off we went.

The nice man at the rail station hooked us up with these cheap tickets, which only involved making a couple of changes at Didcot and Swindon. Not too bad a deal, so we took it. Our train left late at the station in Oxford, at about 7:30 or so. It was a20 minute ride to Didcot Parkway, where we were supposed to change trains and head towards Swindon. We got off of the train and headed to the other platform, but by the time we got up there the other train towards Swindon had already left! It was crazy! It was like a movie scene, we got up to the platform only to watch our train ride away in the distance. So we talked with a train guy at the station, and found out that we would have to wait another hour in Didcot before the next train left for Swindon. Now, Didcot tiny little station in pretty much the middle of nowhere England. We asked him if there was anything to do in town while we waited, and he was like "well no, not really!" but gave us directions into the little town anyway. Janet and I thought it would be much more interesting to go into town rather than hang out at this obscure little station, so we walked a quarter mile into town where there was a big Sainsbury's and some other typical shops like Next, BHS, Topshop, etc (think Kingstowe like, except on a smaller scale in the middle of nowhere). As were were approaching the Sainsbury's, I noticed that there was a little market set up outside in the plaza of the shopping area. I turned to Janet and said "this would be the perfect place to get a cup of apple cider - you know, on a Saturday morning at a little open air market." I said this half-cynically, because we had found that in England, when you mention apple cider, it only refers to one thing; alcoholic apple cider, like Strongbow's. Now, I have nothing against a good cider, but ever since fall rolled around, we had been craving some American apple cider. This apparently didn't exist in England, and everytime you mention apple cider they think you're asking for an alcoholic beverage. Well, we get to the little market, and low and behold, there is a lady in a stand selling "apple cinnamon"! We were so excited! So of course we go up to her and buy a cup. It was so good, the perfect thing on a cold grey morning, lost in Didcot! We couldn't believe it, it was such a miracle/blessing/God send! The Lord sure does have a sense of humor :)

Needless to day, our layover in Didcot turned out to be a lot of fun. We talked to some of the other local farmers/butchers who were selling their goods at the little market. Good cheese! Then we got on the train and headed for Cardiff! It was a nice time of mental relaxation. I had brought my book to read on the train - this week for ethics I am studying moral responsibility. But instead of trying to read, I just sat there the whole time and enjoyed the countryside and not having to think about anything. It was so nice! Just relaxed.

When we got to Cardiff, we caught a bus to Saint Fagan's Welsh outdoor national museum. It turned out to be a beautiful Saturday; sun shining, clear skills, autumn chill. Entrance into this huge outdoor museum thingy was FREE, which was nice. It was beautiful! Think of like a Williamsburg, Jamestown, or Mount Vernon, except bigger, very pretty, and free. So we spent about an hour and a half there enjoying the gardens and houses and stuff. They had a whole little old-fashioned Welsh village set up, but once we finally found it we didn't have time to go through it all! Think of that movie, "The Last Sin Eater", it was like that. Very pretty.

We then headed back into the city and went to the Cardiff Castle. On the way there, we walked around the huge new Millennium stadium. They held a few of the rugby world cups there. It was cool, probably a lot of fun to go to a match there. The castle was neat, we actually had a tour around it. The guy who took over it in the 1800s or so was actually Scottish, I think, Bute was his last name I think. Anyway, he was rich. He studied at Christ Church here in Oxford, and then got into the coal business. Many of the rooms in the castles were very richly decorated, like ridiculous amounts of money was spent there. And the family only stayed there six weeks out of the year! It was crazy. Really pretty... he had four kids, and they had four nannies; one spoke English, one spoke Gaelic, one spoke Welsh, and one spoke French, so by the time these kids were ten they were fluent in each, and in Latin as well. So all that history was very interesting. After the castle we walked down to the bay area of Cardiff called Mermaid Quay. It was very pretty! The sunset was beautiful that day. We ate dinner down there.

Took the train back to Oxford, got home at like 10:00 or so. Lovely day, I'm glad we got to visit Wales. All the signs in Cardiff were in Welsh! It's a very strange looking language; lots of "y"'s and lots of consonants. But it was cool to see everything in Welsh first, and then in English. The announcements at the rail station were in Welsh first, and then in English.