Quite cool, windy and cloudy this morning. After the heat and humidity of our recent trips to Italy and Thailand it was a welcome change.  It will be a travel day as we work our way to Cardiff, Wales (country # 105 for me).  It turns out that Wales is more Celtic than Anglo-Saxon, something I did not appreciate. John also said they speak with a distinctively different accent than in others areas of England. Wales is known for their singers. Probably the most famous is Tom Jones. Shirley Bassey (Goldfinger theme song) is another. Wales is also noted for their men’s choirs.

We had a few more miles of travel within the Lake District before existing the area. For some reason I had expected the area or be larger than it appeared to be. The landscape is now changing  as we head south. The roads are bigger, the land is more flat and there are more towns and people. We stopped after two hours for a “comfort break” at one of their great service areas. They are really nice with several different food options, almost like a mini food court (McDonalds, Costa, Pret a Manger), snacks, sundries and  every other imaginable item one might need on the road. These road stops put the ones we have in the US to shame.

Two more hours on the road before we reached our lunch stop in the town of Ludlow, Shropshire County.  Ludlow was and has been a market town for the surrounding farms for over 1,000 years. We only had an hour so we did not have an opportunity to see the castle, the church and the local market as we wanted to eat lunch! You would ideally have several hours to really appreciate all that Ludlow has to offer. We did find a cute little pub, called the Rose and Crown hidden in the back of a passageway. John told us the area is noted for its cider which we tried along with some good homemade sandwiches and soup. 

As we exited the pub we saw a woman with a fairly large dog napping on her lap which reminded me to add something about dogs in England to my blog. It turns out that the English must love dogs!  I have never seen so many people with dogs, always on leashes by the way (Americans take note!) anywhere else. People own dogs of all shapes and types although most seem to be of a smaller variety. The other amazing thing is dogs are seemingly accepted almost anywhere; there are signs welcoming them. Furthermore the dogs are extremely well-behaved. I do not believe I ever heard a bark or saw an aggressive move when two dogs passed each other on the street. It was amazing.

By 4 PM we had arrived in Cardiff and those of us who had signed up for the tour of the Cardiff castle were dropped off there. I wondered if it would be yet another castle but ended up being pleasantly surprised. Although the original castle and fortress were built in the 11th century (part of the William the Conqueror’s conquest) in the mid 19th century the then richest man in Wales (John Bute-coal magnate) purchased and converted part of it into a Victorian gothic mansion. That is the part of the castle complex we toured. It was quite unlike any castle we have ever seen. It was richly decorated with ornate wooden and painted ceilings, a bath with 50+ different marble panels, painted and ceramic murals on the walls and stained glass windows. Religious themes ran throughout the home. And the crowning room was a rooftop fountain and garden open to the skies. It was quite a home.

Dinner was also an optional event that involved dinner with entertainment of Welsh singing. Not wanting to miss something we signed up to go. (As an aside, we tend to sign up for virtually all the “extra” events offered on these types of tours because they are usually well selected and offer an opportunity to see and/or do something unique to the area). We did not know what to expect other than thinking it would be similar to the event we saw in Edinburgh- large crowds, average food, and some reasonable entertainment. This event turned out to be totally different. We went to their new, modern entertainment center on the riverfront, led to a beautifully decorated room where there were at most 100 people. We were seated on long tables right next to the stage. Two bottles of wine were in the table (red and white). There was a menu with three choices each of starters, mains and desserts. Oh, I forgot to mention as we entered to venue we were offered a small glass of mead (honey wine) and a wedge of Welsh rarebit. When seated and meal choices were being selected we were entertained by a harpist.  Between meal courses the mistress of ceremonies and her singing colleagues (2 males and 2 females) entertained us with Welsh songs. We understood not a word but thoroughly enjoyed the music. The whole event was like being in a Las Vegas cabaret. It was a thoroughly enjoyable evening.