Day 19: Liverpool - Cardiff

Another bright and early morning, heading off at 8:00 to Chester for our first break. Chester is a wonderful medieval  town with the old Roman walls and many gates still intact.

Julie took us for a quick tour around the town, showing us the Eastern Gate and a number of other interesting little tid-bits before leaving us to our own devices. It is amazing to know that Chester still has a town crier; a tradition dating from the medieval times.

Elisha and I were joined (or did we join them?) by Pete and Toni and headed off to the Roman Amphitheatre. Nothing of the seating remains but the actual arena is still intact. The arena doesn't look very big when standing where the seating used to be, but once you get into the arena, there is quite a bit of room. You can almost imagine the gladiators fighting here.

Walked along part of the walls, but were forced off due to restoration work being carried out on the Eastern Gate. This was a real shame as just on the other side of the Eastern Gate is a great spot (or so we were told) to get some photos of the walls as they curve around the city.

The Eastern Gate is surmounted by a clock built for Queen Victoria. So it is not very old (in comparison to the rest of the wall) but it is a great piece of machinery.

Back on the bus for another couple-o-hour trip into Ludlow for lunch. Called Mum then lost Elisha taking photos of the castle so headed off with Henry for a pint and a bight to eat. Some really old buildings about, in fact, the pub Henry and I went into was built in the 14th century.

After lunch, a short walk led to The Parish Church of St Laurence, then back to the bus to learn Elisha had gone into the castle to be cuddled by a python. She walked away unscathed so I guess everything was ok.

Arrived at Cardiff in the early afternoon to have a quick look around and shop. During WWII, the Castle sustained some damage to the walls. For a change, instead of leaving the castle walls in a state of ruin, the walls were re-built. It is interesting as a line of bricks has been left to indicate the level of damage the walls sustained, and in some places, the walls were almost totally
destroyed.

Had a quick walk around and a shop before heading to the hotel to get ready for our dinner back in the castle.

Back at the Castle, we had a great opportunity to get some photos of the grounds before receiving a private guided tour around a small section of the Castle. Although we didn't tour any of the Norman Keep, we did see the smoking room, children's play room and the banqueting Hall decorated by the Marquis of Bute, whose family owned the Castle until 1947.

After our tour, we were lead to a small chamber partially underground for dinner and a show. Our MC (John) is actually an actor in the theatre, and was extremely funny. We started the night with a small glass of honey mead made especially for the Castle with our John attempting to teach us some Welsh. He failed miserably but we all got a good laugh.

Had a chat to the guy handing out the mead, and happened to mention that we had some mead very much like this at our wedding, and as was ours, this mead was lovely. Since the mead would have gone to waste as no-one else was drinking any, I was able to have an extra glass or 5!.

We were then led to our tables where the show began with some Welsh singing by some very lovely young ladies. It was such an exquisite sound.

Part of the show involved getting patrons up on stage to make a fool of themselves and we were lucky that 3 members of our tour were requested to go up on stage to let our their inner fool.

Lorraine was asked to play the part of an avalanche whilst Nicole played the sought-after love interest of the singer in the shame skit. It was extremely funny to see Lorraine "swish, swish" and Nicole "kiss kiss".

Kevin had to dance in another separate skit. After the amount of mead and wine that had been consumed, I think he did great - gee it was hilarious.

Julie had mentioned to John (the MC remember) that Elisha and I were on our honey-moon, so between a couple of of the performances, he made an announcement to everyone. It was absolutely fantastic and something that Elisha and I certainly did not expect. Everyone in the hall sang "For They are Jolly Good Fellows" and the atmosphere was amazing. I couldn't thank Julie enough and the smile on her face told me she was happy to see the tears on mine.

The show then concluded with 3 beautiful solos by 3 of the very lovely your ladies. The voices of these girls in incredible, and I later learned that one of the girls had performed with Pavarotti, so you can imagine the standard of these girls.