Scotland2005: Hello from Wales (of all places)

And you thought we were in London. We had to get out of the city after yesterday. I don't think I've ever seen more people in my life than I did yesterday in London -- most of them on the tube. If we hadn't gotten out of town we likely would have gone quite devistatingly mad. On top of it being a very nice sunny weekend which drew lots of tourists to town, two of the tube lines were shut down so it dramatically increased the traffic on the other lines. It was almost summmer-like weather, so it was warm, stuffy and humid inside the tube, and the streets were very crowded with folks walking about too. We walked around late into the evening in t-shirts. London is a very big city anyway, and it was truly miserable yesterday. Tony and I both said if we lived in the UK, it would have to be in Edinburgh, follwed by Glasgow.

Not to say we didn't have a good time, London is a very fun city -- but we did do a lot of walking and lining up and being squashed like sardines in subway cars. We first went up to the theatre district and bought tickets for the matinee performance of "Guys and Dolls" which is my pennance for taking Tony on so many train rides. It was a good show, and like everything else in London yesterday, packed to the rafters.

We also did some shopping and wandering about the streets of London, along with doing one touristy thing. We'd done the usual sights on previous visits, but we both realized we had never gone through Westminster Abbey. Apparenly a lot of other people hadn't gone through either since the line to get in was 40 minutes long. Unlike Disneyland, it dindn't weave back and forth, it just went straight out the doors and down the street.

The inside was quite fascinating, particulary since we'd both read Da Vinci Code, so naturally we went looking for the Chapter House and the Isaac Newton memorial (if you've read the book you know why). Virtually every King and Queen of England are burried there as well, including Elizabeth I and Mary Queen of Scots and Edward I (known as the Hammer of the Scots for the destruction he brought fighting with Robert the Bruce). It makes a fitting end to our trip since so much of what we saw and experienced in Scotland this trip was directly related to all of that, to visit those graves on the last leg of the trip made the circle complete.

We did some night clubbing last night as well -- not really Tony and my scene, but it was fun, and much different that going out in the states. Crowded and sweaty venues there as well, so we were quite tired when we got back to the Hotel and needed to get out of town -- hence the side trip to Wales.

Neither Tony nor I have been to Wales, and since our rail passes were still good today, we decided to head out to Cardiff, which is about a two hour train ride out from London. We got here a bit after lunch and toured their ancient castle at the center of town. It is composed of three parts -- an ancient Roman fort built in the 1st Century, a Norman castle from the 12th Century, and an exceedingly ostentatious mannor house built by the Marquess of Butte in the 18th Century. They gloss over the Roman and Norman history -- indeed they don't even charge you for admission to that part. The 18th Century manor house is what apparently draws people and which they charge admission for. It's the kind of place I think that the lady we ran into at Linlithgow in Scotland earlier in the trip would have loved. Even the guide called it "Victorian Disneyland".

This is the kind of place that Cal Hockley (Rose's fiance in "Titanic") would have built no doubt. At the time the Marquess was one of the richest people in the UK -- in today's dollars he'd earn about £3 Billion from his estate each year, because he had all the mineral rights to the coal in Wales. The House was rather over the top to say the least,ánd he only used it 6 weeks a year. I have to wonder if 200 years from now people will be touring Bill Gates place in Medina like we were touring this house and marveling over the excess and excentricites.

It was a nice train ride out to Wales as well -- though not terribly scenic. The rail line was First Great Western, another franchise owned by the giant First Company. We flew along at 120mph for most of the trip, and had one of the 1st class cars to ourselves. It was a nice respite from the crowds of London.

We are sitting in a nice sushi bar/Internet cafe in Cardiff just up from the train station. It seems like a nice city, dominated by a huge soccer/rugby stadium. Since we've already explored much of Scotland, this might be a nice place to explore down the road.

We leave for home tomorrow morning -- actually, about the time you go to bed on Sunday night, we'll be getting up and making our way to Victoria station then out on the Gatwick Express to the airport -- then on to Atlanta, and home to Seattle. We are both anxious to get home -- it's been a wonderful and very memorable trip. We hope you have enjoyed coming along with us.

From the Sushi and Internet Cafe in Cardiff, Wales ...

Goodbye

Gary and Tony