I was up with the birds.  It was day trip day!  I had not thought about it before, but when my work colleague Radka, asked if I would like to go with her on a day trip to Wales to see Caerphilly Castle, I jumped at the opportunity.  Who am I, to refuse the chance to visit such a beautiful, romantic Castle?  It was going to be a long day, but it was going to be worth every minute of it.

Our pick up point was at Kings Cross at 07:55.  Be there ten minutes before, our itinerary said, but there is always that one person, who is never on time.   So eventually we lift King’s Cross at about 08:20 and we were on the road.   I was going into a different country and the good thing was, that I didn’t have to fly to get there.

After a quick 20 minute stop, to stretch our legs and use the facilities if needed, we were back on the bus and what lay before us was a vast array of green fields, such a picturesque vision.

We had finally made it to Cardiff in Wales and after picking up our Welsh tour guide for the day, who did sound a lot the comedian and fellow Welsh man, Rob Brydon.  He was very softly spoken but threw in a few one liners, to which the bus joined in laughed along.  He knew his stuff.  We were treated to a mini panoramic tour of Cardiff.  It was too beautiful for words.

After about 30 minutes or so, we were allowed off the bus to stretch out legs again and have an hour’s free time to ourselves.  For me and my traveling buddy that meant a quick skip to Cardiff Castle for a few photo opportunities.

This is myself and travelling buddy Radka, just at the entrance to Cardiff Castle.

On the day of our journey, it was the first day of the mediaeval joust that they had going on, so we could only go so far in the entrance.

The weather was definitely on outside the castle was bathed in beautiful sunlight and stood proud.  It was built by the Bute family, who used the castle  as a holiday home for only six weeks of the year.  The Bute name is mentioned quite a lot around the Cardiff area.

Then it was time to search for food and what better than old faithful KFC.  Only time was not on our side and after throwing the food down the back of our throats, it was practically a sprint back to the bus and onwards to Caerphilly Castle.

It wasn’t long before we were standing outside the beautiful Caerphilly Castle.  It was simply breath-taking.  It was surrounded by a giant moat, where on the grass verge next to it, geese and a few fluffy goslings were soaking up the sun.

We entered the famous castle where we were greeted by a smoke blowing dragon.  This dragon was actually touring round the castles and we were lucky that it had only been at Caerphilly castle a week when we got there.

As if this castle wasn’t romantic enough, one happy couple were actually getting married there.  It was a perfect setting, the bride was glowing and they looked so happy.

We had a brief tour around the castle thanks to our personal tour guide, and then we had just over an hour to please our selves and continue to wander around the castle.  There was also a beautiful little gift shop and after a few little trinkets purchased, our time in Wales had come to an end.  Of we trotted to go and pick up our bus up to take us back to London and back to our normal everyday lives.

It did feel good to step out of the ordinary and try something different for a change.  Onwards to the next day trip with a difference.