Day Forty-seven Castles and Turkeys Day

What a blessed Sunday we have had. The sun came out early this morning so we headed to our first sight-seeing destination, Cardiff Castle. We are in Cardiff, which is the capital city of Wales. The city, once the biggest coal exporting port in the world, is now a thriving waterside development of 300,000 people. One of its many attractions is Millennium Stadium (seats 75,000) which hosts numerous sporting events and is scheduled to host the football matches during the 2012 London Olympic Games. Another of Cardiff’s biggest attractions is the Castle (see photo above). Our hotel is right across the street from the castle, so transportation wasn’t a problem this morning. We were just praying for no rain and we were blessed to not have any for most of the day. Upfront warning: The blog is very historical today, so skip over the parts you’re not interested in.
You would think when you’ve seen one castle, you’ve seen them all, but it’s not true. True they all look castle-y with stone walls and flags flying, but they are very different once inside. The Romans were the first to arrive and built a fortification in the first century, but in more modern history, the 11th century, Cardiff Castle was in the hands of William the Conqueror. In the 12th century, it was rebuilt in stone. Skipping way ahead in history, it fell in the hands of the Earls of Bute and for years more renovations continued to be made, including finding the original Roman walls and restoring it back to its early days. We had the best tour guide who gave us the most interesting facts. Did you ever wonder why you can’t tell the girls from the boys in old photographs? I just assumed it was the custom of the day and that may be true in America, but our tour guide said that in Europe disease was rampant and little boys were dying more than the little girls. Hoping to trick the devil, parents put their boys in dresses. She said apparently in those day, the devil was confused by cross-dressers. :) Since boys were not considered big boys until they were eight years of age, it didn’t seem to matter to them. Now you know the rest of that story (at least Europe’s story). The living quarters of this castle were magnificent; most rooms were decorated with ornate furnishings and 18 carat gold leaf on the ceilings. One room has a small round dining table worth $680,000 today. Another gold leafed 10 by10 foot room is estimated to be valued at $34,000,000. It’s hard to even imagine, isn’t it? The last guest to stay in one of the bedrooms we visited was King Edward VIII. He is said to have come to the castle to ponder his decision to renounce the throne and marry his love, a divorced American socialite, which he did in 1936. We also saw the painting of one of the lady’s of the house who was considered to be one of the richest and the ugliest women in Europe (can you imagine having that reputation?). Her painting is said to be the castle’s best alarm system as intruders would run when they saw her face. How sad is that? She really wasn’t that bad. Okay, her eyebrows needed plucking, but other than that…
After a lunch break, we went to St. Fagan’s. St. Fagan’s is an open-air museum that features forty original Welsh buildings that have been re-erected in a 100-acre parkland that looks like the grounds at Camp Ch-Yo-Ca. The different buildings range from a Celtic round hut (see photo above, the purse is not a European man-purse, 2 Papa was helping me) to a 1952 pre-fab home that was built to help with housing after the war and only intended to last ten years. People are still living in some of these homes today so they proved to be quite sturdy. The amazing thing about this display of building is how they moved them. They took them apart numbering each piece and then reconstructed them exactly as they were taken apart, like a numbered puzzle. It’s just incredible. I’ve also included a photo of a very happy Turkey whose glad he lives in Wales instead of America as Thanksgiving is approaching.
I do have to tell you one more thing we, or 2 Papa, did today. The grounds around the buildings were extremely muddy after all the rain we’ve had. At one point, 2 Papa was coming down a really small hill when his feet slipped out from under him and down he went—right in the mud. He spent the rest of the day with his entire right side covered in mud. I’m talking coat, jeans, shirt—covered. Since he’s a frugal packer, he only brought one pair of jeans and two shirts. He’s down to one shirt and no jeans for three more days of travel. Thankfully, he has a pair of slacks he can wear. I wanted to snap a photo, but I felt bad as people were walking by and asking to help. :) Well, that’s it for Wales. Tomorrow we go to Bath.
When I saw the above-pictured turkey, my very first thought was Thanksgiving is next week (sorry, Mr. Turkey, it’s an American thing). It will be sad to miss this special holiday with our family and friends, but being here has made me so much more appreciative of all the events that lead to our freedom.
“It is absolutely clear that God has called you to a free life. Just make sure that you don't use this freedom as an excuse to do whatever you want to do and destroy your freedom. Rather, use your freedom to serve one another in love; that's how freedom grows. For everything we know about God's Word is summed up in a single sentence: Love others as you love yourself. That's an act of true freedom.” Galatians 5:13
Have a blessed Sunday evening. Love you all.
Hugs, 2 Mama