First Impressions

For our Holi weekend outing, we went to Cardiff, the capital city of Wales. Once we entered Wales, we only saw dual language signboards – in English and in Welsh. Welsh is a language derived from the ancient Celtic language. What Sanskrit is to India, Celtic is to this region and it is a form of Celtic that has survived and is being nurtured in Wales. The Welsh are extremely proud of their heritage and will never miss a chance to speak in Welsh. To me the language looked straight out of middle-earth.

The weather forecast for the day was sunny intervals – and in one such interval, we saw a spectacular rainbow arching across the sky. We were crossing the Bristol Channel towards Cardiff and we had a stunning view of the complete arc. The rainbow stayed with us for a long time almost until we reached Cardiff.

Since our group was quite large (100 +) we were split into three smaller groups. Our group was to go on the cruise first and after a short break we were to tour the castle. Unfortunately our bus driver lost her way - it took us quite a while to reach the dock at Cardiff Bay and our cruise guide was anxiously looking out for our bus. On the way we saw the Wales Millennium Centre - a centre for performing arts located on the Cardiff Bay waterfront. It is a unique structure, bronze in colour and looked like the hull of a ship.

Our cruise boat cum restaurant was called “Seren-y-Bae” which in Welsh means “Star of the Bay”. It had a bar and a buffet lunch with a selection of sandwiches, salad and fresh fruits was laid out for us. But what really took the cake…were the desserts – there were cheesecakes, chocolate pastries, truffle pastries and yummy chocolate eclairs. The boat had tables for 50 persons, large panoramic windows and sufficient lounge space to move around. The view from the aft deck was lovely.

The first prominent building we saw was the Pierhead Building with the Wales Millennium Centre in the background. The Pierhead Building was originally the administrative office of the Port of Cardiff; today it is a visitor centre for the National Assembly of Wales. Our next sight was the Norwegian Church which was a place of worship for the large number of Scandinavian sailors and seamen who sailed into the port. Today it is used to host music recitals, exhibitions and wedding receptions. Next to the church is the Visitor Information Centre also known as the Tube on account of its peculiar shape.

As we turned towards Cardiff Bay Barrage, on our right we saw St. David’s hotel – the most prestigious 5-star hotel in Wales. On our left we saw a curious structure. At first glance it looked like two planes rising out of the ground. A closer look told us that they were supposed to be sails (made of metal) rising out of the embankment and their real purpose was to provide a shelter for people walking along the embankment. As the cruise moved ahead we reached the actual Barrage. The Cardiff Bay barrage has 3 locks, 3 bascule bridges and 5 sluice gates and they enable traffic to navigate between the Severn Estuary and the Bay.

Once past the barrage we reached a cliff with neat rows of houses running alongside the bay. Imagine living right at the edge of the water! There were hundreds of yachts docked in this part of the bay with names like Splash, Eureka, Bubbles, etc. As we moved along the cliff, the row houses gave way to tall buildings on both sides. They seemed unoccupied. Someone said they were serviced apartments available for hire. Some distance ahead we caught sight of a train running along the bay. We had entered a narrow channel now and soon it was time to turn back. The return journey followed the same route as the onward one so there was not much to see.

When we disembarked, the coach was ready to take us to our next destination. The coach dropped us outside a park near the Cardiff City Hall. In the park, daffodils were in full bloom ‘fluttering and dancing in the breeze’. We walked through the park towards the City Hall. It is a magnificent building with one of the finest clock towers I have ever seen.

Beyond City Hall lies Cardiff Castle. It is not quite large in terms of the buildings but the grounds are quite extensive. I would describe the castle itself as ‘extravagant and opulent’. The Castle belonged to the Marquess of Bute who owned all the land around it – land that was mined for coal. When the coal industry was nationalised and the coal mines were taken by the government, the Marquess gifted the Castle to the City of Cardiff and retired to his other estates.

We were first taken to the Winter Smoking Room built inside the clock tower. The decorative theme of this room is ‘Time’ – quite appropriate for a room in the clock tower. On the walls are painted the four seasons, the six stained glass windows depict the Norse Gods after whom the days of the week are named and the Sun forms the centre piece of the ceiling with the twelve signs of the zodiac around it. In the four corners of the room the Sun God and Moon Goddess depict the Times of Day viz. morning, noon, dusk and night. The chimneypiece is dominated by a statue of Amor – the God of Love – above a Latin inscription that reads ‘Love conquers all, let us all yield to love’. A carved frieze below depicts medieval lovers.

From here we were taken into the Nursery. The tiled frieze on the Nursery walls is painted with a procession of characters from fables and fairy tales. Here we found old friends like Ali Baba, Cinderella, Puss in Boots, Jack and the Beanstalk, Hansel and Gretel, Snow White and the Dwarves, Robinson Crusoe, Aladdin and many others. In one corner is the Invisible Prince whom we spotted with a little help from our guide. The electric lanterns in the room are painted with nursery rhymes like ‘Rub-a-dub-dub’, ‘Hey diddle diddle’ and ‘Mary, Mary quite contrary’.

Our next stop was the Arab Room, so named because of the evident Islamic influence in its design. The floor is made of Italian marble and the walls are inlaid with little cupboards to store porcelain. The room has a stalactite ceiling painted with animals and birds most notable the designer’s favourite parrots. The chimneypiece is made of white marble inlaid with semi-precious stones and bears a Latin inscription with the name of the designer. Apparently the designer died before the room could be completed, and the chimneypiece is a tribute to his memory.

Thereafter we walked towards the banqueting hall – the largest room in the Castle. The decorative theme of this room is the medieval history of the Castle. The chimneypiece denotes the Castle itself and the wall murals tell the story of Robert the Consul who played a major role in the 12th century Civil War contesting the English throne. The stained glass windows show successive Lords of the Castle and their consorts. On the roof are painted heraldic shields that trace the Scottish ancestry of the Marquess of Bute to Robert Bruce, King of Scotland.

We then walked up a winding staircase to Lord Bute’s bedroom located in Bute tower. This room is decorated with a biblical theme. The chimneypiece is dominated by a statue of St. John the Evangelist (Lord Bute’s first name was John). The stained glass windows depict the seven Churches of Asia referred by St. John in his Book of Revelations and the wardrobe is designed like a church confessional. The ceiling is set with glass mirrors designed to reflect the word John inscribed in Greek, in both true and mirror image, just below them. The adjacent bathroom is inset with 60 different types of marble with the name of each engraved upon it. The decorated ceramic wash basin is inscribed with Tennyson’s poem ‘The Mermaid’.

Another spiral staircase then took us to the roof garden whose decoration is inspired by Roman architecture. The roof garden contains a courtyard (originally open to the skies, but now covered in glass) with a fountain centrepiece surrounded by a covered walkway. The wall tiles are painted with scenes from the life of Elijah and the inscriptions are in Hebrew. A bronze Madonna and Child faces the west in the courtyard. It is said that the last rays of the day light up the face of the Madonna as the sun sinks below the horizon.

We walked down the spiral staircase and entered the small dining room. Here again is a biblical theme with the story of Abraham and Sarah from the book of Genesis. The stained glass windows also depict the life of Abraham most notably the scene showing the sacrifice of Isaac. There is a bell push in the room in the shape of a monkey - by pressing the nut held between the monkey’s teeth, the servants could be summoned. Another peculiar feature is the dining table with a round hole in the centre. Apparently servants used to place pots of grape vines beneath the table and let the vines out through the hole. The family could then enjoy fresh grapes plucked from the vines.

Our guided tour ended in the magnificent library. The theme for this room is literature. The walls are decorated with names of noteworthy writers. The chimneypiece depicts tablets with alphabets in five ancient languages – Greek, Babylonian, Aramaic, Egyptian and Celtic. There are also arms of ancient British rulers depicted around this room.

The sheer opulence of the decorations throughout the castle can be judged by the fact that every room was gilded in 22 carat gold leaf across the walls and the ceiling, all the statues, chimneypieces were encrusted with precious stones like rubies, emeralds and sapphires and the very best marble, ivory, ebony and walnut were used in the interiors. In my opinion the interiors are grander than even Windsor Castle.

As we walked out into the grounds through the tea shop (which is the oldest room in the castle) we came upon several peacocks preening on the lawn. The magnificent birds were getting quite restless with the number of people gathering around and taking photographs.

We walked across the lawn to the Norman Keep built on a mound and surrounded by a moat. A steep stone staircase led us up the mound into the Keep. The views were fantastic. A further narrow spiral staircase led us to the very top of the Keep from where we had a bird’s eye view of Cardiff and the Castle grounds.

We had barely time to look around the Keep. Our bus was waiting for the long journey back home. I had just time to purchase a small souvenir of my visit to Cardiff – a small molded figure of a Ddraig – not a Ddraig Goch but a Ddraig Gwyrdd.

Right opposite was a signboard directing tourists to the town with the longest name (in the UK) - Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch – yes there is a town by this name in Wales around 190 miles from Cardiff. I wonder how it is pronounced!