Thursday 8/31 Cardiff Castle and White Knuckles

Sherri slept until 8:47 am. I slept until 8:46 am! That's the first time in years I have slept past 7:00 am. I am normally up between 5:30 and 6:00. Being well rested, we headed out for Cardiff Castle. When I say headed out, we stepped out of the hotel entrance, crossed the street and walked along the castle wall to the entrance. Instead of the self guided tour, we signed up for the guided tour. It included more rooms. This castle was owned by the same lord that built the Fairytale castle we toured yesterday. The Cardiff Castle was bigger, with more comfortable accommodations and grand. But like the Fairytale castle it was only used about 6 weeks out of the year. That's 12 weeks between two castles. I am certain the lord wasn't homeless the other 40 weeks of the year.

There were lots of activities on the grounds. The Wales guard reenactors and Zulu reenactors did battle on the castle grounds. It was very entertaining to watch.

The castle was your typical, run of the mill, everyday opulent castle. The gold leaf, gems, stained glass and detailed carvings were amazing to view. The longer you examined the room, the more amazing things you saw. Even the wood trim had stones embedded.

The lord gifted the castle to the people of Cardiff. If you live in the city of Cardiff, technically you own a share in the castle.



Another pub for lunch. The Goat Major served a nice meat pie. I will probably lay off the meat pies for a couple days. After retrieving our car from the Hilton, we drove north to Shrewsbury. The drive began with a nice, light traffic, 4 lane divided highway. I could use the cruise with minimal lane changes. That soon changed. The GPS kept showing a roundabout a few miles ahead. I thought it must be wrong. The highway was very similar to our interstates. Soon enough the roundabout appeared and the road became a two lane, crooked, heavy traffic somewhat white knuckle drive. I soon fell in pace and relaxed.



We stopped at an Inn for a breather and cup of tea. The views from the deck were well worth the stop.



The next time you complain about prices at the pump, take a gander at the following picture. That's not $1.20 per gallon, its £1.20 per litre. I will do the math for you. $52.50 for 8 gallans of gas. Very close to $6.00 per gallon. I remember gas very close to $5.00 or tic over per gallon. We have it very good now with $2.00 per gallon. There is a reason why the car we rented shuts itself off at traffic lights.



We arrived in Shrewsbury around 5:30 pm and checked into our hotel. The hotel clerk recommended The Riverside Inn. The meal and views of the river Severn were very good.



On a final note, I scored some ice at the hotel!



Good night.