Day 4- October 17th

Woke up to a beautiful sunny day, it's only fair since it's my birthday! I went down to breakfast at 8am and sat with Jane, Audrey, and Kellie. Jeanette came in and handed me a birthday card from Glastonbury Abbey that was beautiful. On the bus at 9am. Shortly after we said our good mornings to Doug and Andy, Henry stood up and said he had an announcement to make. He said that there were 2 birthdays on the bus, mine and Terry's. The whole bus sang happy birthday to me and then to Terry. Our first stop of the day was at Caerphilly Castle. I think this is the prettiest of all the castles we stopped at during the tour. It was built in 1270 by Gilbert de Clare. I thought at the time that I was lucky enough to get some gorgeous photos and I certainly did! Next we began our drive through the Brecon Beacons. The landscape here is beautiful. It got a bit windy and nippy here, so when we made some photo stops most people hurriedly got back on the bus. Along the way, Doug gave lectures about the history of Wales and the impact that coal mining had on this area. We stopped at the visitor's center of the Brecon Beacons National Park. I took some photos and browsed the gift shop. This area looks to be a great place, when the weather is warmer, for hiking, biking, etc. There were quite a few locals there drawing from various places around the visitor's center. I went downstairs to the cafe and sat with Eddy and Jeanette. Jeanette gave me half of her pastry, which was very yummy. Eddy insisted on buying me a drink, since it was my birthday I wasn't allowed to buy one, and I opted for a bottle of water. We were back on the bus and we headed to St. Fagan's National History Museum. It was a bit of a drive and Andy took the scenic route. I think that most of us took this as an opportunity for a doze. St. Fagan's is a Welsh life history museum and much of it is open air. What they've done is moved old buildings and rebuilt them here, furnishing them with appropriate decor and furniture. We had two hours here and it was also to be our lunch stop. Eddy insisted on buying me the visitor guide, so I allowed him. I walked around for about an hour or so. Two hours wasn't nearly enough time, you could spend an entire day here. I chose a route that was towards the Celtic village, as this is what I was most interested in seeing. The first building I came to was the Kennixton Farmhouse, originally built in 1610. Next to it was an old bee shelter and a circular pigsty. There were a couple of pigs playing in the mud there as well. The next place I came upon was the Melin Bompren Corn Mill, originally built in 1852. I got kind of turned around by the signs and instead of going to the Celtic Village, which was pretty close by, I went the other direction and went past an old tannery, an old post office, a cockpit (which reminded me of Harvest Moon because I am a nerd), a tollhouse, and a workman's institute. I finally found the Celtic Village. I was a bit disappointed that it was only a recreation and not the real thing, but it was pretty cool nonetheless. There were a few different types of buildings like roundhouses. You could go inside of them, the insides were too dark to take photos. From here I started to walk out to the old totem circle, but the ground was extremely muddy and I turned around. For the first time on the trip my foot started to bother me. I think it was because none of the grounds here are paved and so it's uneven, which I think is what made my foot hurt. I headed back towards the main building and went to the downstairs cafe. I ended up grabbing a small ham sandwich and one of the best green apples I've ever had from the kid's section for £1.50. Afterwards I browsed through the gift store, picking up some postcards, a red dragon (symbol of Wales) Christmas ornament, a Welsh-English pocket dictionary, and a gift for my nephew. We got back on the bus and headed to the city center of Cardiff. We had a brief drive around the city and then some time to walk around. I went with Sandy, Henry, and Eddy to the National History Museum. It was free to get in and there was an Impressionism exhibit. There were these two Welsh sisters who amassed an incredible collection of paintings and sculptures. The highlight of the collection, for me, was a set of 4 from Monet's Waterlillies. There was also a bust of Victor Hugo done by Rodin, and paintings from other very famous artists. We had to head back to the coach and along the way we stopped at a small park that had a statue of John III Marquess of Butte. The Butte family was extremely important to the Cardiff area and are also responsible for the rebuilding of Cardiff Castle. Back at the hotel, dinner at 7. I packed up as much as I could and wrote some postcards. At dinner I sat with my museum companions. I had salad, poached hake (fish that tasted a lot like salmon, it was very good), rice with curry sauce, and a bit of turkey. For dessert I had strawberry gateaux. Eddy insisted on buying me a drink at dinner (dinner only came with water, coffee, and tea) so I let him buy me a diet coke. Eddy loves buying people drinks! That night he also bought beers for Terry, Doug, and Andy. Back in the room I showered and then made some hot cocoa. Tomorrow we leave at 9am to head to the coast and then onwards to Ireland. I reminded myself to put motion sickness meds in my backpack just in case since we will taking a ferry to Ireland.
















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