UK 2013 Day 9 Caerphilly

Day 9 - Sunday, June 16 2013: Caerphilly, Wales

We LOVED Wales when we were there in 1998 for our honeymoon.  While we didn't plan to repeat the same trip, there were a couple of places we DID want to go again because we were certain the boys would enjoy them also.  So our post-breakfast plan was to get in the car and drive for about 90 minutes until we reached Tintern Abbey (a repeat visit for us), where we figured we'd be able to tour until about 1PM, at which time we'd grab lunch, then head over to Chepstow Castle (our other repeated venue) for the latter part of the afternoon.

That was plan.  Unfortunately, that plan got messed up due to roadwork somewhere outside Bristol, where the M4 branched into the western M4 to Cardiff and the more northern M48 heading toward Chepstow.  The signs seemed to indicate that the exit to M48 required a detour, and we dutifully followed detour signs for OVER AN HOUR...and literally ended up looping back through Bristol and ending at exactly the same point on the M4 where we'd been diverted.  We were totally confused about how we were supposed to pick up the M48, so we just punted and decided that our "Cardiff area day", which was slated to be a few days further out, would instead become our first day in Wales.  So instead of trying to force our way onto M48 we just stayed on M4 this time and headed for Cardiff, instead.

That meant our first day was going to be at Caerphilly Castle.  "Cardiff Day" was supposed to also include Cardiff Castle, but since we'd lost so much time on the detour to nowhere it was obvious that we weren't going to make the 2nd location today.  We put Cardiff Castle on the back burner for the time being and finally arrived at Caerphilly around noon and found the castle's carpark.  We found a place within sight of the castle that had sandwiches and filled up before going over to see the castle.

In 1998, all the places we'd visited had little site-specific guidebooks published by CadW, the Welsh government heritage group.  At the time, these were all about $5-6 (US) and they were wonderful.  Filled with information that enhanced our self-guided walks through various places, we'd purchased them every time they were offered.  Disappointingly, we didn't see those on this trip.  As a result, we were limited to just whatever signage happened to be posted for our information.  The available information was still interesting, but not as rewarding as those guidebooks had been.

The day was particulary dreary and a bit colder than others on the trip.  We were pretty chilled at the outset and that impacted our enjoyment a bit.  That's a shame because it is a pretty impressive ruin.  Caerphilly is one of the more famous examples of a concentric castle and was the first of that kind in the UK.  It heavily influenced the later Welsh castles built by Edward I during his pacification campaigns in Wales.  We pushed through the grounds in about 60 minutes, and then spent a bit of time browsing the small shop without buying anything.  We were tempted by the pad of paper that claimed to be made from recycled sheep poop, but in the end (he said "end" - heh heh heh) we moved on empty-handed.

It was damp and COLD during our time at Caerphilly, which motivated us to move fast and limit our time there.

It is a magnificent ruin.  Not as good as Chepstow Castle, and certainly not as good as Caernavon - but still impressive in its own right.

In the foreground are the ruined gate towers.  On the other side of the moat is the outer curtain wall.  The concentric walls of Caerphilly were an architectural innovation at the time.  The modern roof just beyond the foot bridge is the ticket office/gift shop.

As in the recent prior days, we weren't feeling obligated to cram in "one more thing", knowing that this would just completely exhaust us - and we were all tired enough by this time as it was.  So, like I said earlier, we didn't try to add Cardiff Castle to today's events.  Instead we decided to go find our lodgings for our entire stay in Wales: The Granary in (wait for it)...Llanhennock.  We'd learned during our honeymoon trip that "Ll" is pronounced as "Cl", so that town name sounds like "Clan-hen-uk".

We were using our Garmin GPS to navigate around and it was doing pretty good - thanks to those latitudes and longitudes I'd researched before we left.  If I hadn't done that the GPS would have been a boat anchor.  But here's irony for you: in 1998 we rented a car and used paper maps, while in 2013 we were using a GPS.  And you know what?  We got lost MORE with the GPS than we did with the maps!  A lot of that is because the GPS frankly knows more about the roads then any of the road signage does.  So the GPS will tell you to turn on "such-and-such street"...but there's absolutely no street signage ID'ing that that thing that looks like a deer track is, in fact, such-and-such street.  So with the GPS we often found ourselves saying "...was THAT gap in the bushes we just passed where we were supposed to turn?"  With a map we tended to be more observant of the roads regardless of how they were signposted.  Go figure.

Anyway, Brian (the owner of The Granary) had advised us to give him a call when we got in the area and he'd give us the final set of directions.  This we did, and he started by asking me what buildings I could see.  Nothing in this part of the country has a street address, so I was telling him I was seeing "...a house names Clairborn Lodge..." (I just made this up, but you get the idea) and based on that info he could figure out where we really were and guide us in.  The final road into The Granary was a narrow, single width lane between tall grasses.  In the time we were there I managed to miss that turn multiple times because it just looked like a place you weren't supposed to take a car!

The Granary was a very nice country home B&B that I'd picked due to a combination of its location - well situated relative to the places we intended to visit - and also because of The Snug.  In addition to bedrooms in the main home, The Snug was a separate neighboring building that slept 4 in an upstairs bedroom and a downstairs sofa bed, with a kitchenette and private bath.  This was just perfect for us and I grabbed it as soon as I first saw it.  We really enjoyed our stay here.  Brian was a great host, and offered an excellent morning breakfast.  He also gave us some really helpful touring advice as needed.

Our car, parked outside The Granary.  When I wrote that we had a Mercedes Benz, I bet you had a different image in your mind than this car, didn't you?  This is apparently MB's "generic car" model.

The front entry to The Granary.  The door at the extreme left is the entry into the main house.  The door at the extreme right is the entrance to The Snug.  It is a detached building, but abuts the main house.

The lower floor of The Snug.  I think the couch turned into another bed - I recall that Brian turned the couch 90 degrees after we got there, which gave it room to open up into a bed.

We settled into the Snug and relaxed.  And now we made our SECOND GREAT CULTURAL DISCOVERY of the trip.  Back in London we'd discovered the TV show QI, and tuned in whenever we had the chance.  On one of the channels, QI was often preceded by a show we'd often noticed in the on-screen guide of our DirecTV service at home.  However, we had NEVER watched it at home because it was a car show, and there's nothing of less interest to us than a car show.  Well, in tuning into QI we happened to catch the last 10 minutes of so of this "car show".  Turned out that it wasn't really a car show.  It was, in fact, a hysterical show of 3 guys who just happened to drive cars a lot.  And that, friends, is how we discovered Top Gear!  In Wales we now had two TV shows to watch in the evenings: Top Gear and QI.

During my pre-trip research I had determined that finding a restaurant open on a Sunday evening was going to be a real challenge, as most places are closed this day.  There are some places that offer a mid-day "Sunday Roast", but finding someone open after about 4PM on Sunday was tough.  As a result, we ended up having to go to a hotel (Clarke's at Glen-Yr-Afon House Hotel) for what was a pretty expensive night out - certainly to most expensive meal of our trip.  Fortunately the boys were able to find something that they could manage on the menu, which tended toward wild birds and game with heavy sauces.

Bellies full, we headed back to The Snug for a night's rest.