In on the Old out on the New (a trip to Wales)

Well yesterday started much like any day would for me. My alarm went off and as per usual I shut it off and went back to sleep. After sleeping past the time we had agreed to wake up by almost an hour my Dad (who is in England for 2 weeks) and I finally got up and went down to local Severn Beach Bakery. To our surprise it was closed. Ok I know a lot of things in Europe are closed on Sundays but to close the local bakery is just plain stupid. So with hungry stomachs we made our way up to the old Severn Bridge and crossed over into Wales in the Peugeot 307cc that my dad rented for the week. We had the top down and I am sure we got more than a few stares for being in a convertible in the middle of January.

About 10 miles over the boarder we stopped at a rest stop to get some breakfast having missed out on the sausage and egg bun before. We both opted for the big breakfast that came with sausage, egg, fried bread, beans, and tomatoes. There were a few other items behind the counter including mushrooms, toast, and black pudding (if you don’t know what is then I suggest you look it up). Well my Dad decided that the black pudding looked more appetising than the tomato (yes he’s crazy), so he simply asked if he could switch the two. The young man behind the counter said that was it was against managements rules and therefore was not able to do this. Not getting angry he simply asked for mushrooms instead of the beans or a fried tomato. Once again the response came that was simply impossible and there was nothing the restaurant could do. England has got to the state now where everything has a rule and it and I wouldn’t have been surprised if the guy at the till called out the police to arrest my dad just for asking this simple question. The funny thing was that there wasn’t much beans or tomato’s left but there was a whole tray of black pudding and a whole bin of mushrooms just sitting there going to waste as nobody wanted to pay extra for them. So we continued down the line and paid for our meal. The best part was there was another guy in line who asked to switch his fried bread for toast. Ok this one should be fine as its just a piece of bread for another piece of bread. Once again the response that this was entirely impossible and there was nothing he could do. This did I was in hysterics at the whole situation. The man ended up buying a slice of toast and getting the fried break as well. Wow, what a country the UK is.

If you follow the south coast for about an hour or so you reach Bridgend. Just past here is a small coastal town called Porthcawl that has a great walk along the beach/rocks/cliffs. If you have been following along with the blog you will have seen photos of this place before. Megan and I went to see a show singing in the rain here and this is also the spot where Ryan walked out to the end of the pier to get a photo of some splashing waves when a huge wave came in and he got a little wet. Anyways today was unusual as it was really sunny and we managed to get a great parking spot at the beginning of the beach. We walked along the coast for about an hour all the way down to Rest Bay where people were surfing (wearing wetsuits of course) and we stopped in at a small café over looking the water. It had a great view so we couldn’t resist doing at least one jumping shot with that kind of a back ground. We made our way back to car and made our way back toward Cardiff.



About 20min north of Cardiff there is a town called Caerphilly which has an amazing castle. In fact it is the first castle that I have been to that still has a moat all the way around it that hasn’t being drained. Let back up a little though, before I get to ahead of myself with the castle. Before we went into the Castle we stopped off at a local welsh pub for a quick pint. First of all I could only pick up maybe 3 out of 10 words they were saying as they were talking so fast and with such a thick accent. The words I did here were easy though as it was always the worst language you can imagine. It was a great little pub though apart from all the smoking but that is only going to last 6 more months before they all go smoke free.

So from here we went to the Castle by way of walking half way around the outside. The castle sits in the middle of the town but it has a fairly large park around it so you can still get some great photos. Check it out on maps.google on this link. The first thing we noticed (nothing to do with the castle at all) is all the fishermen fishing in the moat and how ridiculously long the fishing rods where. They came out half way across the moat. The castle itself was built in 1268 and then attacked in 1270. In 1271 construction began again where it was fully completed this time. If you are interested in the history of the castle click here for more information. We walked all around the castle checking out the small doorways, the defensive overhangs, and all the towers we were allowed to venture into. The highlight of the day came when we where in the top of one of the towers when we heard a bunch of girls (about 12 years old I would guess) come running up the stairs. My Dad let out this huge “Arghhhhhhhhh” which proceeded to send all 4 girls running and screaming down the stairs. They came up to us later in thick welsh accents said “You were the man shouting at us”. “No no no, that was the ghosts of the tower”. Always good times scaring people younger than you.

The rest of the castle was fantastic as well as you but my two favourite parts were: 1) the tower that looked like it was about to fall down due to a huge split in the walls and 2) the recreated catapults and other weaponry that had on display. Apparently twice a year they shoot the weapons into the moat to see what kind of distance they can get from them so I think I will have to try and go back to see that. Some of the weapons can shoot over 120 yards. Not bad for that time period.

One of the catapults (Perrier) was operated by having 6 men pull on 6 ropes simultaneously to provide the power to launch the stone ball. The largest of three on display (Trebuchet) used a counterweight which consisted of a bucket full of ballast. They also had a large crossbow called “The Ballista” which used to shoot 5 foot long darts from it. One of the stories said it once skewered 7 men together with one dart in a battle. Check out the pictures below to get an idea of what they looked like.





After getting back to car (leaving the roof up this time) we made our way back over to England but this time via the new Severn Bridge. Its a much more direct route except there is no direct way to our house so it takes longer this way. Since we were heading over to Lynn and Richards (Dad’s cousin and husband) for dinner and wine it made more sense to go this way. Plus we got to use both bridges in one day. On the way we stopped in at Bristol to show my Dad my office, the cathedral, harbour, and queens square. It was a quick tour but at least he got to see the best part of Bristol. Dinner was amazing as always and we stayed for about 3 hours before heading back to Severn Beach and crashing for the night. It was a long day but great one. A nice way to spend a Sunday at least.
P.S. This is my 100th blog entry so I expect everyone who reads it to sign it. Just this one time.