After spending some time in Shropshire, hearing about the Savage Welsh, I decided to go into Wales to see them for myself. I took a beautiful train ride through Wales (on the ‘Heart of Wales’ line) to Cardiff, the Welsh capital.
If you go to Cardiff you have to visit the Comeston Medieval Village. It’s a recreation of a 14th century village, on the exact same spot. The houses that are built are in the EXACT same spot and layout. They currently only have a few houses built, but they are working on more. The inside of the cottages are filled with realistic goods, and tours of the village are given by costumed guides who stay in personna. When I asked our guide if he minded if we stayed behind to take pictures, and I warned him that I had a 12th century dress (yes, I was travelling with garb), he said without pause “Well, I’m in need of a wife!”. The village has realistic sites and sounds, there are live animals running around.
Cardiff also has a spectacular castle, thought it was redecorated in medieval style by a Victorian, which means it is very gaudy and not very accurate (I was good, I didn’t point out mistakes to the guide). The castle is elaborately decorated, with lots of gold trim and paint everywhere. It’s worth a tour, but it was a bit upsetting that a lot of the non-english speaking tourists probably believed that the castle was medieval because it had medieval elements. As for the savage Welsh, I didn’t meet many of them. I did meet some really nice people in some of the local pubs though, but I think the most savage of the lot were the rugby players!
Other Travels of Rowanna:
London|Shrewsbury|Ludlow|Clun|Cardiff|
|Chartres|Anjou & Angers|Cognac|Saint Emilion|Toulouse & Foix