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| Us in front of the Cardiff Castle Keep |
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| Stone Circle |
On Saturday the third of March we went on a trip to Cardiff,
Wales with the Study Abroad Program. An hour's ride on our chartered bus took
us straight to the center of Cardiff. We were dropped off right in front of
Cardiff Castle, which was a spectacular sight. Being from Idaho we had never
seen a fortress quite like this before. We had a tour of the Castle in the
afternoon so we started the day by walking down the street to the Cardiff
Museum.
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| Dakota at top of the keep |
Cardiff
Museum was by far my (Dakota) favorite museum I have been to since we arrived
in the U.K. After seeing dinosaurs, fossils, a lot of artwork and an
animatronic woolly mammoth we went into the section on the Origin of Wales.
Wow! As an Archaeology student I was in heaven! They had artefacts (it is
spelled with an 'e' here) from the Neanderthals all of the way to medieval
times, including a few skeletons. The skeleton's were especially interesting
because in the United States we hardly ever see actual human remains due to the
Native American Graves Repatriation Act, so that was quite a shock to us! We
filled in a lot of gaps in our education on the United Kingdom in that museum.
In a park in front of the museum we stopped at
a bench to eat our lunch and realized that we were sitting around a stone circle,
apparently ancient stone circles are common enough here that they didn't feel
the need to identify the landmark in any way... It was interesting to see our
first stone circle though!
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| Dakota and the Dalek |
Before
going to our tour of Cardiff Castle we did some exploring around Cardiff. They
had lots of little shops in what they call arcades. They were a lot like
covered alleyways full of stores. We had a blast exploring the arcades and bought
some Tintin Adventures and a Doctor Seuss book in an awesome three story book
store, and barely survived an encounter with a Dalek! Hopefully The Doctor will
realize they have invaded Cardiff!
After
exploring the numerous arcades we made our way back to Cardiff Castle where we
were given a tour of the portion of the Castle that was inhabited during the
Victorian Era. It was very grandly decorated; all of the ceilings were painted
and had beautiful artwork and gold decorations. Of course the castle would have
never looked anything like that in the medieval times, but the Medieval Revival
in the Victorian era greatly romanticized the idea of medieval life and the
castle greatly reflected that exaggeration. The most interesting portion of the
Fortress was the Castle Keep in the center of the Fortress, complete with moat
and tower. There was a portion along the stairs where we were informed by our
favorite tour guide Elvyn that people were walled up alive in when the castle
was in use! That was a little disturbing to think about but we soon shuddered
that thought away. As we explored the walls of the fortress we came across a tunnel
into the wall and when we entered a motion sensor activated an audio track of a
WWII air raid! You should have seen us jump as a speaker shouted at us "I
AM TALKING TO YOU!" amidst the drone of air sirens and explosions in the
distance! Apparently the walls had been used as a bomb shelter, we found out
the exciting way! After a brief walk through the Wartime Museum below the gift
shop we headed back to Bristol after an exhausting day in Wales.
Cardiff
Museum was by far my (Dakota) favorite museum I have been to since we arrived
in the U.K. After seeing dinosaurs, fossils, a lot of artwork and an
animatronic woolly mammoth we went into the section on the Origin of Wales.
Wow! As an Archaeology student I was in heaven! They had artefacts (it is
spelled with an 'e' here) from the Neanderthals all of the way to medieval
times, including a few skeletons. The skeleton's were especially interesting
because in the United States we hardly ever see actual human remains due to the
Native American Graves Repatriation Act, so that was quite a shock to us! We
filled in a lot of gaps in our education on the United Kingdom in that museum. In a park in front of the museum we stopped at
a bench to eat our lunch and realized that we were sitting around a stone circle,
apparently ancient stone circles are common enough here that they didn't feel
the need to identify the landmark in any way... It was interesting to see our
first stone circle though!
After
exploring the numerous arcades we made our way back to Cardiff Castle where we
were given a tour of the portion of the Castle that was inhabited during the
Victorian Era. It was very grandly decorated; all of the ceilings were painted
and had beautiful artwork and gold decorations. Of course the castle would have
never looked anything like that in the medieval times, but the Medieval Revival
in the Victorian era greatly romanticized the idea of medieval life and the
castle greatly reflected that exaggeration. The most interesting portion of the
Fortress was the Castle Keep in the center of the Fortress, complete with moat
and tower. There was a portion along the stairs where we were informed by our
favorite tour guide Elvyn that people were walled up alive in when the castle
was in use! That was a little disturbing to think about but we soon shuddered
that thought away. As we explored the walls of the fortress we came across a tunnel
into the wall and when we entered a motion sensor activated an audio track of a
WWII air raid! You should have seen us jump as a speaker shouted at us "I
AM TALKING TO YOU!" amidst the drone of air sirens and explosions in the
distance! Apparently the walls had been used as a bomb shelter, we found out
the exciting way! After a brief walk through the Wartime Museum below the gift
shop we headed back to Bristol after an exhausting day in Wales.
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