13 & 14 June - At home and in Cardiff

June 13

The coldest and rainiest of rainy days kept me inside all day, but it was fine. I lounged around the house, worked on the blog and planned what to do tomorrow.

June 14

We'd had a few days exploring our neck of the woods so it was time to venture into Cardiff. It's a thirty minute bus ride, more or less, and passes through working class Cardiff. These are neighborhoods with rows of terrace houses and fast food shops. There was more litter than I've seen in other cities and it had a general feel of being a bit down at the heels. We arrived in the city center and saw this statue of Betty Campbell.

Betty Campbell was a Welsh community activist, who was Wales' first black head teacher. When she became head teacher, she started teaching children about slavery, black history and apartheid, which still existed at the time in South Africa. She was inspired by the US civil rights movement and said that she was determined to enhance black culture as much as she could. What an inspiring woman!

We walked to the high street and went to the famous Cardiff Market, a glass-topped Victorian market.

There were stalls selling clothes, fabric, hardware and misc. other things, but mostly this market was devoted to food. The upper floor was just restaurants and downstairs there were places to buy prepared foods as well as butchers, a fish market and two or three bakeries. One of the bakeries had a line that wrapped around the stall and down the next aisle. Their baked goods looked wonderful and I plan to go back and sample them. Back on the high street I noticed that virtually all the businesses were restaurants and bars, There are several shopping arcades off the high street that have shops along with more restaurants and bars. I was starting to learn that the Welsh are world-class drinkers. This was the first high street I've been on with a view like this, though.

That's Cardiff Castle, and we'll visit there later in the week. I popped into one of the shopping arcades. I love these. There are so many all over the UK and there's something so charming about them.

At the end of this arcade is what passes for al fresco dining. It's probably a better bet than actual al freso dining since you get the light from the glass roof and don't have to deal with the rain.

I walked around the city center and found this statue of Aneurin Bevan.

Bevan is widely regarded as one of the most influential left-wing politicians in British history (my kind of guy). During his time in parliament, he was a vocal critic of many Prime Ministers including Winston Churchill and David Lloyd George. It was under his tenure as Minister of Health that the NHS was formed. I wonder how many people passing this statue realize the significance of his efforts.

Just down the street from Bevan is a sweet little carousel.

Also on this street, though not pictured here, is a small population of homeless people. This is the first city in the UK I've visited where I saw homeless street people. That may be because I'm usually in more touristy parts of cities, but it was somehow jarring. I walked around some of the side streets and found some nice street art.

Bruce and I met up for lunch at Mowgli (our eighth different Mowgli for those keeping track.) It was delicious, as always.

I wandered around town some more, passed the Cardiff Castle entrance, and found The Animal Wall. The original part of it was finished in 1892. In the 1920s the wall was moved to accommodate traffic and six new animals were added, but the glass eyes that were in the original collection were not added to the new ones. In 2010 the entire wall was comprehensively repaired, repointed, cleaned and conserved. I found them charming.

Passed some more street art on the way back to the bus.

Back home I made dinner and enjoyed The Great British Sewing Bee on telly.