Two castles in South Wales

Last weekend, we took a long day trip to visit and revisit two castles. The first was Caerphilly (home of the cheese) castle. This castle has two concentric moats, and was built in 1268 (or at least started then). Right across the road is the information centre, where we bought some of the local, white, crumbly cheese. Parts of the castle have been restored, but other parts are attractively ruined. Strange how ancient ruins seem much more picturesque than modern derelict buildings.

The second castle we saw, and the original reason for our trip, was Castell Coch. This castle is just outside Cardiff, and was built on the site of a 13th century fort. This castle was actually constructed in the 1870s for the owner of Cardiff castle. It apparently was never intended as a permanent residence, and although it has a gigantic dining hail, there was no guest accommodation. It was really just a very rich person's folly. With its turrets, and completely over-the-top decor, it just shows what can be achieved by large amounts of money, unhindered by notions of conventional good taste!

Eurostar to Brussels

At the end of last month, we took the Eurostar to Brussels for a long weekend. We were impressed by how little stress there is in travelling to Europe by train, compared to flying. St Pancras is much more central than Heathrow, Gatwick, Stansted or Luton. The security queue is very short, there is no waiting for your baggage at the other end, and of course you arrive at a much more central location too. The train left and arrived on time in both directions.

The Grand Place in Brussels was amazing. Full of "over-the-top" architecture. In the square, and in the side streets there is a wide choice of restaurants, adding to the European ambiance. The shops around cater very much to the tourist trade, selling chocolates, beer and lace especially, as well as the usual postcards etc etc. In the "Ilot Sacre", just behind the square there is a maze of streets that seem to have little other than restaurants of one kind or another, all very keen on getting your custom.

We visited the "Atomium" in the northern suburbs of Brussels. The model of an iron atom is enlarged by a factor of many billions, and was constructed for the Worlds fair of 1958. You can go up into the domes for a good view over the city. The yellow structure you can see in front housed a temporary exhibition looking back on the ideals of the '58 fair, and discussing how realistic they were in retrospect. The structure itself was made up entirely of yellow plastic beer crates. They drink a LOT of beer in Belgium!

Of course we had to see the "Mannekin Pis" statue, which is actually surprisingly small. He has some 700 odd different costumes (you can see those in the Brussels museum), from all over the world, but not from NZ!

Another highlight was the Petit Sablon park, which features a number of statues representing various trades. Philip's favourite was the cartographer Mercator.

Now we are settling down for Mary's very busy summer season.
Our next trip away will not be until September or later, and will be to .........? Current favourite options include Ireland and Venice.