The next morning we were up bright and (not too) early to explore Cardiff. Cardiff central is split into two parts, the old town centre where we were staying and then the new waterfront which is a wee ways away. We decided to journey down that way for brunch. There are some pretty cool sculptures and architecture down there as well, and a whole lot of chain restaurants. We decided to go with a non-chain, being the Norweigen Church Arts Centre Cafe. It is housed in an old Church from the 1800s built for Norweigen Sailors. We indluged in a Welsh delicacy, Rar
ebit, which is a cheesy sauce over toast. We made our way (in between rain showers) back to the old town where we visited Cardiff Castle which the city is built around. It dates back to Roman times but has been knocked down and rebuilt a number of times since then. It was pretty chilly but nice to have a look around. We made our way under some of the pretty covered Victorian markets and back to the hotel for a shower and a change before we were off to the Milleium Stadium for the rugby. It is certainly an amazing stadium. Housing 75,000 the All Black supporters didn't stand a chance of drowning out the Welsh cheering and singing. Luckily the roof was on (flash eh?) and that helped keep it a bit warmer because it was freezing outside. The All Blacks had us worried in the first half of the game with a 6 all scoreline but luckily they must have had a talking to at halftime cause they pulled away and managed to win the game 19 to 12. Marcus had lost his voice from a cold but luckily Jess was doing enough cheering and shouting for both of them. We made our way back down to the waterfront for a tasty dinner and then walked back through the cold and wet off to bed to dry out.The next morning we went for a walk through Cardiff park after finding a questionable eating establishment to cook us breakfast (it was the ONLY place open) and then jumped in the car for Robin to drive us to Pembrokeshire. It was a long day driving along the south coast of Wales but we finally arrived at our cute little cottage in the Pembrokeshire countryside, much of it not too different than New Zealand to look at (without the stone cottages). The n
ext day was chilly but sunny and we piled into the car for some sightseeing. We took in a local wool mill, which had been visited by Prince Charles, and where Marcus found himself a new hat. After that we ventured on to the beautiful little town of St Davids, far on the West Coast of Wales, home of St Davids Cathedral. It was pretty big and impressive and has been the site of a church since the 6th century. We then went for a guided walk around the town (which mostly ended up being through the paddocks) and then piled back in the car again and went south to the town of Pembroke. We didn't really know what to expect but it ended up being the home to the best castle we have seen so far, Pembroke Castle. We arrived pretty late so we only had about 45 minutes to run around the castle, which was just enough time to run up the turrents, around the walls, down into the dungeons and into the cave underneath the castle. This was a proper castle and great fun considering there was barely anyone else visiting at the time. After all that running we were pretty tired so made our way back to our cottage for dinner and a sleep. The next day we spent driving all the way back to London. It sure was a long way but we made in one piece and that's "What's Occuring"...http://picasaweb.google.com/JessicaLMcMillan/Wales#
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