Half of my objectives for Wales were achieved, I saw many excellent castles!

Castles! My 3 days in Cardiff were full of castles and history. Now I know more about Cardiff than I really wanted/ needed to... but I do feel like I have a surprisingly clear picture of the history of the city and the growth and changes it has experienced over the ages. It began as a Roman fortification with good sea access and a connection by road to the large fort of Caerlon in the east. After Roman retreat it crumbled for years until the Normans, shortly after the conquest, came to Wales to subdue the Welsh harrying their western boarder. Waelas was the name used to refer to the native Britons and remaining Roman descendants occupying the land before the waves of Angles, Saxons, Jutes, and various other Germanic tribes, as well as the later Normans, came to push them further west and north. Ooops, historical digression with perhaps too much detailed info...
Anyways, the Normans built fortifications in Wales to hold back the Welsh in the 12th and 13th centuries. Of the three castles I visited Cardiff was the oldest, without even counting the Roman fortification. There was a wooden motte and bailey fortification built in the late 11th century by the Normans towards the northern side of the earlier Roman enclosure. It was later replaced by a stone keep and there were walls thrown up along the lines of the Roman walls. The area within the was divided into two wards. Below is the accumulated building that started out as a reasonably small hall for the lord's family, towards the center of the building. This was added onto in the 15th and 16th century, but then later during the Civil War it suffered significant amounts of damage and became derelict. In the 17th century it was renovated and added on to, but the man hired to do the job, "Capability" Brown, was more interested in making the castle grounds fit modern tastes in lordly estates. Left in his hands "capable" hands the wall dividing the wards was torn down, along with the gate house and towers attached to the keep. He filled in the moat and smoothed the grounds over with grass. Fortunately the 3rd Marquess of Bute was more interested in Medieval architecture than he predecessors. In the late 19th century, using his vast fortunes made from his family's ownership of the coal rights in the region, Bute employed the very capable William Burges to restore the Cardiff Castle, as well as two others he owned further north. The interiors of Cardiff Castle and Castell Coch are pretty much accurately described as "Victorian fantasies" but they are stunning fantasies of medieval inspiration. My favorite of the 3 castles Bute had worked on is the 13th century Cearfili, at the top of this entry. He had the Great Hall and main Keep fully reconstructed, but mostly just made repairs to Cearfili. Unlike the other two, Bute never meant to live there, but did have his coming of age feast there. It is the second largest and most complete castle in the UK, being preceded by Windsor Castle. I loved it and took millions of pictures and vehemently hated the noisy French students who arrived shortly after I did and spoiled its tranquility with their incessant noise-making and running around. Hmm I sound a bit cantankerous, but they definitely did not feel the proper amount of respect and awe for so excellent a castle.This is the courtyard from Castell Coch.

This is from the interior of Castell Coch, a scene of the 3 norns created by William Burges.

From the forest near Castell Coch.
The interior of the Dining Hall in Cardiff Castle, interestingly it was painted by a Welsh painter who had lived in New Mexico previous to this commission.
This is from the library of Cardiff Castle, the firgures represent 5 ancient languages: Latin, Greek, Norse, Egyptian, and... something I've forgotten and can't see the figure well enough to recognize. And now, I'm tired of ranting about castles, I'll pick up again later.

Homage to Christopher Wren, postponed

So after reading the Baroque Cycle by Neal Stephenson I have a very clear impression of Christopher Wren, who became the most prolific architect of London after the Great Fire in 1666. I noticed in my guide book an abundance of Wren churches in the vicinity of St. Paul and the Monument, so I thought it would be fitting for me to visit as many possible to see what I could see and put it all in one post. Silly, silly me. I believe I have seen the outsides of most of them by now, but most of my pictures are boring and several of them were closed when I arrived, so I didn't even get to look inside to satisfy my curiosity! Beyond that, I have now tried twice to see St. Paul's and have arrived too late for the last entrance both times!

Oh well, I did manage to climb the Monument yesterday and take multiple unsatisfactory pictures from, and of, its towery heights. The picture above is a down the massive, vertigo-inducing, narrow spiral stair I climbed to the top. 311 steps. 311 little short slippery stone steps.
Here is the base of the Monument with its typically 17th century sculpted scene full of allusion.
The Monument is 60.6 m high, which is how far it is from the origin of the fire. There was in fact a spectacular view of the city from the top, albeit somewhat obstructed by suicide prevention mesh. Not only did I spot my favorite bit of odd London architecture, the Gherkin, but there was also a lovely Wren church a stones throw away.
St Magnus-the-Martyr was closed when I got to it after I climbed down, and I didn't have enough time today to get to it. I have a growing list of churches that I now wish to return to, between the hours of 11 and 2. Hopefully by the time I get around to it I will have the gall to take pictures of the interior boldly, and with good results... Indoor pictures of large spaces are quite difficult. Sigh.

I also went to see the Bank of England and the Royal Exchange yesterday.
There were prodigious beautiful daffodils out front of the Exchange and magnificent architecture.
And fancy bankers eating fancy lunch, surrounded by very famous luxury goods shops. And that was it. I was kinda disappointed I couldn't even go up to any of the higher levels because they were part of an expensive bar and restaurant that was closed until 5, which I wasn't about to stick around for.And finally, sitting forlornly in a rear entryway corner:Mr. Lincoln.

Finally, after I got bored with the financial center I went back to church hunting and ended up in St Mary-Le-Bow, another Wren church that was bombed out in WWII but was nicely restored. It's known as Mary of the Arches because the crypt beneath, which were so old that there were bits of tessellated tiles dating back from the time of Roman habitation, as well as many layers from the succession of churches put up on the spot.
And... there was going to be a lovely picture of the stained glass Mary, but the gods of the internet hate me.
That's it for now.

Welcome to London

I was shocked to find that the Dallas airport had a most magnificent blue glass sculpture in my departure terminal. Imagine rings of concave glass panels of varying heights and tints arranged sort of like an onion blossom, but with room in between layers for children to noisily run in circles to the center. My departure was pleasant, even if the flight itself wasn't particularly.

Arielle met me at the station and kindly escorted me back to her 4th floor flat. After a refreshing shower I felt more like a person and was ready to face the significant amount of day left before I could sleep, which I was looking forward to, because naturally, sleeping on the plane was unsuccessful. Arielle's neighborhood isn't exactly ghetto, she says everyone is well-behaved, but there are English versions of housing projects and lots of graffiti. The graffiti is of varying qualities, but there is a particularly lovely collection to be seen on a walk down the canal near the flat.The big mural says "Killing yourself in a bid to get free." The letters of FREE are filled in with lovely patterns as well as coloring.

We were on our way to a lovely, but kinda hipster, little cafe where my coffee was pretty and my bacon sammich was huge.
Creep powerbox huh?
And then there was lots of lounging about and getting to know the area better. ...And eating of A Roast. I learned that A Roast refers to more than a particular hunk of beef. It included semi-fried potatoes and parsnips, as well as boiled vegetables and a proper Yorkshire pudding, which is just a puffy cup-like egg bread thing meant to sop up gravy. Oh and the roast itself can be any kind of beast you like.
This is a sundial outside the Tower Hill tube station. Its base is surrounded by a brass depiction of the history of the city of London in brief. Significant things such as populations, wars, and of course plague, are the most frequently included bits. The city of London was struck by plague many times so the eerie skulls appear quite a lot.

The laptop is running out of juice and I'd best go to bed anyways, if I'm going to make a reasonable start tomorrow. There are lots of other things from today, mostly architectural, since I spent the day wandering around just looking.