Wales, Old And New
In May of 2023, to celebrate my fortieth year and also my parents' anniversary, we travelled to England, Wales, and Ireland. This is the tenth segment of our trip, and our last one in Wales.
On May 24th, we visited Dan-Yr-Ogof. It was a highlight of the trip, but we managed to pack more into the day than just that. After going there, we returned via bus to the busy town of Neath. On the way, we passed a colliery. With its generous endowment of natural resources, Wales was a hotbed of the industrial revolution. Our trip to Neath, however, would delve even further back in time.
Wales is known for castles, and truly, they are a sight not to be missed. For me, though, the greater draws in medieval architecture are the cathedrals and abbeys. Those tall Gothic arches always draw me in. My parents were not very keen on visiting any abbey ruins, but I convinced them to take a quick look at Neath Abbey.
Slate is a solid and heavy building material. The ability to create vaulted spaces with stone is one I find fascinating. I was very excited to see some of the centuries-old craft still in place, even when so much of the structure was destroyed.
The Abbey itself flourished between 1129 and 1539. A Tudor mansion was put near it in 1600, but by the 1730s it had become an industrial site. The beautiful buildings were used as an industrial dump until the 1920s. Now it is quiet park, sometimes used for filming locations. When we were there, one other fellow was enjoying it, and a pair of kids were parkouring across the tops of the ruined walls.
The next day was our last full day in the UK. We got up early and took the train from Burry Port to Cardiff Central station. From there, we spent a few hours rambling around Wales' capital city. The train station is grand in a way that seems to be lost to us now, but the high-tech highrises jostling for their place among the historic buildings have a style all their own. Cardiff certainly seems to be a dynamic place.
One of the places we visited was an indoor market. In addition to the ground floor, which was filled with stalls, there was a gallery running around the perimeter with more shops. I went up to the balcony to get a top-down view of the place.
Our walk through the city took us beside Cardiff Castle and into Bute Park. The park's walls have regular turrets, and each one features a sculpture of a different animal. There were lions, and tigers, and bears, oh my, and even an anteater!
There was so much to see and do in Cardiff, we could have spent days in the city and not explored it all. Alas, we only had a few hours before our train. For the final segment of our trip, we spent an evening in the English city of Reading.