St Fagan's National History Museum

Between our house and Cardiff there is the Museum of Welsh history on the grounds of St Fagan's Castle - a 16th century manor house.  Its an open air museum that covers about 500 years of welsh history.  There are over 40 original structures transported and re-erected from different historic periods.  What great about this attraction is that its FREE via support from the Welsh government.  This weekend the weather was good on Saturday so we packed up a picnic and headed to St. Fagans for a few hours.

 

Here is a video of the boys riding a hand cranked amusment ride:

 

Here is another video of the smithy.  The boys were enamored with the blacksmith and I had to pry them out of there.  Hunter says he wants to be a blacksmith so he can make swords.  He's about 500 years too late.

 

Before we left, we wandered over to the Castle and Gardens.  A great spot for a picnic next time we visit!

 

Birthday and Cardiff Bay

Wednesday was my birthday and also my dads last day in before heading back to Canada, so I took the day off.  We had a birthday lunch with the kids. 

After some morning  rain it cleared in the afternoon so we decided to head down to Cardiff Bay and ended up having beautiful weather. 

For dinner we got a babysitter for the kids and Kelly, Dad and I went out and tried another new pub for us.  The Pelican in her Piety near Ogmore by the Sea.  A little more expensive than the average pub but the food was excellent, well presented with a nice pub atmosphere. 

Caerphilly Castle

Over the Jubilee holiday, there were lots of events going on at the local historic sites and one of them was a re-enactment of a castle siege at Caerphilly castle just north of Cardiff in the Village of Caerphilly.  Caerphilly is a massive castle (biggest in Wales and second biggest in Britian next to Windsor castle) complete with round towers and a moat! A great example of military architecture of the times. Also, unlike many of the other large castles in Wales this one was not built by the English to repress those pesky welsh from uprising.  It was built by a weathly Norman to defend his lands.

 

There was also some interesting demonstrations of the larger siege engines and some of the smaller weapons.  These demonstrations were on because of the holiday and not normally there.  The cross bow is the new favorite weapon for the boys.

 

They also learned how money was made back in the day - each coin hammered out by hand.

Royal Wedding Re-enactment

As part of the lead up to the Queens Jubilee, Noah's reception class re-enacted a royal wedding at the church across the street from the school.

Here is a photo of Noah with his buddy Emrys, who also happens to be our next door neighbor.

St. Donat's (Church, Castle, Beach... all in one!)

Noah had his first birthday party invite this weekend at a classmates house in the village of St. Donat's  He wanted Hunter to stay with him at the party, so Kelly, Abbie, Preston and I went exploring.  We first walked down and checked out St. Donat's church which dates back to the 11 century based on the exterior sign.  In some of the pictures you can see St. Donat's castle in the background.  There is also a picture of nice victorian stained glass inside the church.

Next we threaded our way down to a somewhat hidden beach below St. Donat's Castle which now houses Atlantic College.  It is difficult to find and we only found it after some advice from other parents of children at the birthday party.  Since the college is now out for the summer, it was quiet.  

 

 

St Donats Castle itself is very beautiful.  It was actually purchased by William Hearst - the newspaper baren in 1925.  He spent a fortune renovating the castle, and supposedly held lavish parties when he was visiting the site.  If you have ever been to Hearst Castle on the coast in central California, it had a similar feel - at least the parts we could see.  It is only open to the public once a year I believe.  A couple shots below of the castle pool area overlooking the sea.

 

The Plow and Harrow

After the kids went to bed, dad stayed home with the kids, while Kelly and I went out to another popular local pub called the Plow and Harrow.  This pub dates back to 1183 when the area was farmed by local monks.  They have a great selection of ales, and have live music there on saturday nights, and lots of outdoor space.  Beer festival coming up there in mid june too!  Preston has been feeling a little under the weather so we brought him along.  He was enjoying some good pea mash, and then abruptly decided he was done by throwing up in Kelly's lap. We were finished our dinner anyhow so made a quick exit, but got these couple pictures before leaving.