of Food and Friends: Wales

We arrived in Cardiff, Wales after a long coach ride from England. There we had one of our favorites of the trip – fish and chips for dinner. The irresistible combination of a hunk of battered cod resting atop a mound of steaming hot chips (french fries in America), is the quintessential British comfort food. Many meals were served with peas, usually mashed. They added color to the meal but not much else!

See the green under the fish? Mashed peas.

Wales is a country, bordered by England, in the southwest part Great Britain. It is known for its rugged coastline, mountainous national parks, distinctive Welsh language and Celtic culture. It is 8,023 square miles in size (compare to Kansas’ 82,278 square miles. Wales is 130 miles from north to south and varies in width from 40 – 100 miles. Wales has been home to over 600 castles, 100 are still standing today. We stayed in Cardiff which is the capital and largest city of Wales.

A walking tour of Cardiff included the government buildings, churches, and an open market. Wales is also known for limericks – “There was a young woman from Wales….” Our group at dinner even won the limerick writing contest!

Government building

The guide was explaining that this church was built from the stones that were ballast in ships that came to Wales to buy goods to take back to their home countries. The stones were discarded when the ships took on their cargo.

"Open Market", but under a roof, lots of vendors of food, produce, clothes, and other things to buy.

Cardiff Castle was once a Roman fort, a Norman castle, and a Victorian Gothic palace. The original castle was built in the 11^th century on top of a 3^rd century Roman fort. During WWII air raid shelters were built in the castle walls. It was given to the city of Cardiff in 1947 and has been restored and many rooms furnished in antiques and reproductive styles.

The Main Range of the Castle. Many rooms were furnished in styles of the past.

The library

The Clock Tower contained bedrooms, servant's room, and smoking rooms.

The most interesting stop in Wales was St. Fagan’s National Museum of History, an open-air museum chronicling the history culture, and architecture of the Welsh people. Buildings from all over Wales had been taken apart, moved, and reassumed at the museum grounds. They represented a wide range of history showing how people had lived.

This row of houses depicted how the Welsh people lived with displays of every 50 years. The latest was 1985, which looked pretty modern with a microwave oven.