UK, Day 5 - Cardiff, Wales

The Norman Keep

Monday was an Emma day. There were several things that looked cool, but we didn't have our heart set on anything, so we let her decide. We knew we were going to visit the castle, but she got to choose after that. She chose Techniquest, the science museum. We got to sleep in a bit, since our first stop, Cardiff Castle, didn't open until 9, and it was right across the street. We had breakfast down in the dining room and then headed out. Cardiff Castle was pretty cool. It was actually used from Roman through Victorian times, and so has many different parts. We could see the old Roman walls, the Norman keep, the World War II bunkers, and the Victorian living quarters, many rooms of which were decorated to look like a medieval castle.

The ceiling in the Arab Room. That's all real gold.

Roald Dahl's church

 We then took the hop on, hop off bus downtown. There was supposed to be a stop right where we wanted to be, We wanted to go to the Dr. Who Exhibition at the Red Dragon Center. It was gone. It had been there since 2005, and we missed it by a month. Ah, well. We walked down to the harbor to find some lunch on our way to Techniquest. On the way, we spied the church where Roald Dahl had been baptized. It was out of the way, so we didn't go all the way down to it, but we could see it across the harbor.

We had lunch at the Gourmet Burger Kitchen. It's a fun concept, pretty much just burgers any way you want them. But fancy burgers, not like Five Guys. We made our decisions and went up to the front to order them. While at the counter, though, we saw a flyer for the Will & Kate burgers. Will was a big burger with bacon & blue cheese, and Kate was a small burger with bacon & cheddar. Em & Max each got a Will, and I got a Kate. They also came with onion "wedding" rings on top. They were quite yummy. Ooh, if you ever go there, you have to try the fry dipping sauces. We had garlic mayo, blue cheese, and satay. The satay was my favorite, though we liked all of them a lot. Em, who claims to hate mayo, even really liked the garlic mayo.

We then went to Techniquest. It was OK. We've seen a lot bigger and better science museums, but Em liked it, and that's the important part. She had been so patient with all of the stuff we (I) wanted to do, we really wanted her to have a day where she could make the decisions.

On our way back to the hotel, I managed to do something to my knee when I was crossing the road. I have no idea what it was, but it just started burning horribly. I was really mad - I had gone up and down stairs, and over castle ruins, and I hurt myself crossing the street. So, we went on a trek to find a Boots so I could get some codeine. (It's over the counter there). You do have to go talk to the pharmacist, though, so she can tell you not to take it for more than 3 days in a row. We found one, paid for it, and walked around to see if we could find another Boots. We did! I picked up another package of painkillers and got in line. Max looked up and said, "Hey, that's the same lady that helped us when we got the last package." Dammit. We had walked all around only to find a back entrance to the same Boots. I still don't have it straight in my head how we managed to do that. So, we put the box down and went back to the hotel. None of us were hungry, since we had eaten those huge burgers, so we didn't end up getting dinner at Jamie Oliver's after all. We couldn't see spending that much money on dinner when none of us were hungry. We just had Pop Tarts. Ah, well.

Emma says - Cardiff Castle was really awesome, because it had several different time frames, and a really cool audio tour. The Will and Kate burgers were the most delicious burgers ever. The onion wedding rings were so cute. Techniquest was awesome, because I like science museums, and all science museums are awesome.