I’ve discovered a theorem for predetermining the relative worth of Welsh Castles — the gift shop will be inversely interesting in relation to the castle itself.
When we entered the Caerphilly gift shop (well, the first of three) and saw ceramic coasters, delightfully playful welsh dragons in various amusing poses, unique Beanie Babies at clearance prices, native jams, honey, and cheeses, and racks of books on local folklore, I should have realized the castle itself would be lackluster. (If I ever found a shop with proper goblets inside, I think the castle it represented would consist entirely of one worn stone and an informative placard written entirely in Welsh.)
Visually, Caerphilly is impressive and historically it is interesting, but most of the interesting and impressive bits were closed off for repairs, leaving us (or at least me) feeling a bit robbed.
We loaded up on cool knick-knacks non-specific to the site, hit the local “castle-net” internet cafe (there the ‘castle nut’ host recommended Raglan Castle in glowing terms), and took off in search of craft shops after a rest (Caerphilly’s a very large site, so unfortunately it was tiring without being entirely uplifting.)
Combined with several no-gos on the craft shops (again, many great wooden bowls that I liked but wasn’t prepared to cart home), we were tired when we got back to the B&B and opted to hit The Bear again, early, for dinner, since it was close.
We arrived at 6.10 pm.
Remember what I what I said about 6pm?
The food was (eventually) quite good (several folks walked around town while the rest stayed at the bar and slept or (in my case) work on journal entries). We all got starters, meals, drinks (I particularly enjoyed the Worthington’s Creamflow Bitter and the ubiquitous Strongbow Cider), and deserts — for the first and last time managed to cleanly break the 100-pound mark on the final bill. Cold comfort to that achievement, let me tell you :) Still, I felt it was worth it, since I thoroughly enjoyed the place both times we went.
With that, it was back to the house and some lounging about, playing a party game called “I’ve Never” that was about as complicated as I could handle at that point. (Participants get a point if they truthfully make a statement beginning with “I’ve never…” regarding some event which everyone else playing has experienced.)
And wow, that was the day. Short entry.
