And to continue my recap of Cardiff, Wales….

As I mentioned, on Sunday I opted for a tour of the city. While the tour guide was kind of strange, and I did not learn too much, I still got some great pictures.

The place below was called Bute Park, Cardiff Castle (or Parc Bute, Castell Caerdydd). It was absolutely gorgeous, with the blue sky and autumn leaves…

When I saw this rock formation, I thought it looked really cool, and wondered if it was something historic and symbolic, like Stonehenge.

I felt kind of silly when my tour guide said it was build in the 2000s 😉

Lauren and I reconvened for lunch at a place called Bella Vita. I had the Salmon and Cannelini Bean Salad, which was really great. It had a nice lemony vinaigrette, and kept me full for quite a long time after.

After lunch, Lauren and I hopped on a bus to go to St. Fagans. St. Fagans is an outdoor, open-air museum – kind of like Colonial Williamsburg, if you’ve been there. Basically, the museum includes various buildings from different time periods since the 1500s that have been renovated and re-erected since St. Fagans opened as a museum in the 1940s. It is all built around St. Fagans Castle, which is a manor from the 16th century.

As a snack, I bought a little pack of fudge. I’m not sure if fudge is a big thing in Wales, but it was all over Cardiff, especially at St. Fagans!

And it was really good. 🙂

As you walked through the “museum”, little paths led you to various places. The final path we took led us to the manor house. It was a very impressive sight.

Pictures weren’t allowed inside the manor, but it was a pretty cool place. Like most old mansions in the U.K., there were loads of pictures of former owners of the house, and the furniture inside was from the various centuries the house had been around (1600s – today). The floors were creaky and uneven, and it was just overall a neat atmosphere.

For dinner, we went back to Cardiff and to a pub called O’Neils. It’s a chain restaurant (there’s one in Kingston, too), but it’s still really great food. I got the Chicken Bacon Potato Salad with balsamic vinaigrette. It was what I usually got at O’Neils, and, as always, it was delicious 🙂 Lauren got fish and chips.

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Monday was the day we were leaving, but before we did, next top thing on my list was checking out Cardiff Bay. It ended up being a nasty, freezing cold, foggy day, which was kind of a bummer. It was still gorgeous in a very “U.K.-weather” way 😉

Fortunately, along the bay there were lots of shops and restaurants, so we stopped at a Starbucks for a little warmth and chat.

After walking around for a bit more, it was time to head back. Cardiff was one of the most enjoyable cities I went to while living abroad, and I am so glad I got to go 🙂