Cardiff

This past weekend we were in Cardiff, the capital city of Wales. It was the first time we have been to south Wales. It is a beautiful down here. On the way down we stopped at several places including Hereford and Tintern. Bulmer's cider is brewed in Hereford and there is an old Abbey in Tintern. Saturday morning we had a tour of Cardiff Castle and then a tour of the Millenium Stadium. The Cardiff Castle was pretty impressive because it was fully furnished victorian style mansion and had themes from many places from across the world. The Millenium Stadium was cool. It it the largest stadium in the UK and holds most of their important events. The FA Cup, and Rugby games. They also hold huge concerts, sporting events and conferences there. They don't quite stand up to stadiums in the US but it was cool to just go there anyway. We ate lunch down in Cardiff bay where I managed to complete the Harry Ramsden's Challenging fish and chips. That afternoon we visited the Welsh National history Museum. I would compare it to living history farms in Iowa. They have villages and buildings going back through history explaining and showing how life was lived. They have a working farm, bakery, and grinding mill. There is also an area with gardens and a large mansion. Tecwyn lived and worked here for about 16 years. Last night we spend the night out with everyone hanging out and having a good time before we had to leave today. Several people are leaving early and so this is their last weekend. Today we are just going to a museum for about and hour and then going back to Bangor. We really hate to see the weekend end because it was a last big group event and we have a good time together. On the way home we stopped at Hay-on-Wye (Hay on Why) home to one of the largest collection of second hand books in the world. The have over thirty shops full of books. The town is also known for its self proclaimed king, Richard Booth and one of the largest festivals in the UK, Hay Festival of Literature and Arts. We had a good long afternoon here because after lunch we returned to the bus and it wouldn't start. We had to wait around for about 2 and half hours until they were finally able to get it started. So we made it home at about 8.30 Sunday night several hours later than anticipated.