Elaine's Tender Loving Cakes: TRIP TO LONDON/CARDIFF- DAY 3

17/7/2014

This is indeed a city of strange words which we just cannot pronounced properly, but welsh language is still being widely spoken here.

We went for a late breakfast at the hotel again with Sarah joining us today before we made the day trip to St. Fagans National History Museum. It is just around half hour bus ride from the city central bus station.

On the way, another interesting architecture and.

....."All Hands" a sculpture on the site of the Glamorganshire Canal.

The hands are a reminder of the once busy canal and the efforts of the workers as they pulled their boats along.

the Railway station and the central bus station is next to it.

As it was summer holidays, the bus was full and I am glad that it is only half hour ride as the bus was not air-conditioned! Was we glad to get off the bus and into the open space.

how far are we from London?... an old milestone in St Fagans.

St. Fagans is an open air heritage museum and it is also a working farm. Here we can see how the people of Wales have lived, worked and played and also to meet some of the animals at the farm. The Museum was opened in 1948 and set on the grounds of the St. Fagans Castle. There are no entrance fees and you could just spend 2 hours or maybe the whole day wandering around here and have a picnic too.

the Kennixton Farmhouse- the oldest part of this cottage was built in 1610.

The red colour of the walls were supposed to protect the house from evil spirits.

Notice the thatch roof... I think hollow reeds.

this is a circular pig sty

The giant water wheel...

instruments used for corn milling

the surrounding greenery..

one of the many small cottages that were scattered around the area. It made you wonder how a family of 6 could stayed together here and the door and windows are so small.

Inside the toll-house (of course these are ornaments to show the way the toll collectors were living)

Can you guess what this building is for? Tip: see the animal on top of the roof.. (answer in the next post)

The general store catering for the farmers and families

Some of these items are for sale

close of the barn aka wood house... see the wonderful weaving of the wooden strips!

There is also a bakery behind the ...

Derwen Bakehouse Shop drew us with the aroma of the breads, so we sat down outside for a well deserved rest.

I bought a piece of Bara Brith aka "speckled bread", a tradition welsh tea time fruit cake.... but it was disappointing as it was very dry.

There were more exploring of the grounds and the castle courtyard and gardens though we did not enter the castle. There are supposed to be shows by skilled craftsmen ie blacksmith, tannery, corn milling but most of them were closed for the day. Even the animals, but we did get to meet the one and only..........

......black sheep! hahaha.

After buying some soveniers from the store, we made our way back to city center and then to the other side of the city to Cardiff Bay..

We made a beeline for the Senedd first as it was almost closing time and we had just 15 minutes inside before they close for the day.......

yet we still have to go through a security check before entering the place.... nothing lax around here.

The chambers of the council.... there are free guided tour during the day but we were too late.

Loot at this awesome and beautiful roof of the Senedd. This building is designed with highest environment friendly standard. Rainwater is collected from the roof in a large tank which can holds as much as 100,000 glasses of water, which is generally used for washing the Senedd, general maintenance and for flushing the toilets of course. Glass walls all around to reduce the need for artificial lights. Just love this building!.

The pier and on the right is the Pierhead Building also known as the "mini Big Ben" ...

A sculpture dedicated to the seafarers..

The World Harmony Peace Statue....

Touch the statue and say a prayer for world peace!

.....and also prayers for the victims and families of the MH17 tragedies....

Next we come to the Norwegian Church where the author Roald Dahl worshipped when he was a child. The Roald Dahl Plass is the public plaza next to the Millenium Centre named in honour of the author.

Some of the interesting sculptures around the bay..

This piece is called from Pit to Port... the coal-miners

Another dragon....

Young couple with dog ... celebrates the people who lived and worked locally in Cardiff Bay.

The Pierhead building...part of the National Assembly of Wales.

The most iconic building gotta to be this... Millenium Centre.

It was opened by the Queen in 2004 and is now an art, music and performance venue.

As we only have light teatime at St. Fagans, we were ready for our dinner. We went for Harvesters and their value meals @ GPB4.99 each with all you can eat salad..