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| Inside Cardiff Castle Dining Hall |
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| Jason atop the inner keep (speck by the flag) |
We awoke for our first morning in Cardiff to find the sun was shining brightly and the city was bustling on this beautiful Friday morning. As Jason looked out the window to the street many floors below he looked at an arena building which was quiet the night before. This morning, though, there were queues of people gathering at each door of the building behind fences obviously set up to contain the people. As we took time to get ready for the day and as we went down for breakfast the lines kept growing. As we left the hotel for our day's adventures we walked past the lines and noticed people holding signs referring to "Simon." One of the fences had a sign taped to it which explained the situation--they were taping for The X Factor at the arena that day and these were people gathering for the event and the "Simon" on the signs was Simon Cowell! We're not sure if the people were members of the audience or if they were auditioning, but it was fun to be a part of that!
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| E&J inside Volcano Exhibit |
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| Erika inside Museum |
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We really enjoyed Cardiff! We spent a good part of the day visiting Cardiff Castle and the Welsh National Museum Cardiff. Cardiff Castle was an amazing specimen! We enjoyed climbing up (Jason all the way to the top) of the inner keep and Erika enjoyed her adventures with wildlife. She found a mama duck with ducklings as well as tiny frogs about the size of your little fingernail! The castle also had amazing restored rooms which showed what the castle would have been like in its living days.
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| Jason and the mammoths |
The National Museum Cardiff was an amazing interactive adventure and a place that was friendly for all ages! We enjoyed interacting with many of the exhibits, and even though the animatronic wolly mammoths were pretty cheesy, we had to admit they were a pretty impressive exhibit! The museum also had art and pottery galleries filled with priceless treasures including 9 Monet paintings!
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| Cardiff along the bay at night |
We ended our Cardiff adventures with dinner and a walk to the 18-screen Odeon theater to see a movie and then a drive to the seashore to walk along the boardwalk.
