The rain in Wales falls mainly...very heavily

Caerphilly Castle

“Waterproof”, apparently, is a subjective term that does not always mean what you think it means. This applies particularly to backpacks and to boots. While these items may have served me perfectly well in the past, keeping my belongings and my feet dry through many rainy days, Welsh rain has magical properties that allow it to permeate through waterproof surfaces.

It absolutely poured today, and was also extremely windy. I lost count of how many times my umbrella almost got carried away from me by the strong gusts. But hey, I had an entire day in Cardiff, and a tour to go on. There was no way I was going to let rain stop me from exploring. 

First stop, after a short train ride, was the beautiful Caerphilly Castle. I was expecting to go on some sort of a guided tour of the place, or to discover that I could only wander around the outside. But no, the admission price meant I could actually explore the entire castle, unless an area had been deliberately sealed off for safety reasons (those staircases aren’t built for modern OH&S requirements).

Exploring a great big old castle, by myself, in the pouring rain, was a fairly unforgettable experience. The weather successfully kept away a lot of other visitors, so most of the time I barely saw another human soul as I climbed winding staircases of stone, wandered through ancient rooms and hallways, and stumbled into rooms full of nesting pigeons. Plus there were many, many geese in the moat around the side of the castle, some of them midway between gosling and goose. However, nothing could beat the amazing history that seemed to radiate from every brick and stone.

Back in Cardiff, it took me a while to find the meeting place for my next mini adventure. You see, the main thing that brought me to Cardiff wasn’t the castles, or the fact that it’s the capital of Wales and my surname is very Welsh.

I went to Cardiff to go on the Doctor Who tour of Cardiff filming locations.

The appalling weather did put a bit of a dampener (ha!) on proceedings, but our tour guide was still happy to lead us around as we walked and caught a coach to several locations used for filming the show. Tour guide Matt had been an extra in several episodes and shared many entertaining stories of what it was like to work with the cast and crew of the show, and it was great fun seeing the shop where Rose worked in the first series, the church where her father was hit by a car, the hospital foyer from New Earth, the building that housed the Lazarus experiment…and many, many more. Of course the tour also took us back to the Cardiff rift and the entrance to Torchwood – still fun to see for a second time, especially surrounded by other fans.

Yes, I am a nerd. This much is clear. Shut up.

Once the tour finished up, it was back on the train to London, where I discovered that not all tube stations have lifts or escalators. Instead I got to build my strength hauling my luggage up and down several flights of stairs on my own. Following that, I almost got lost trying to find my hotel, and then trying to find my room within it, which turned out to be not so great. The rooms were pretty outdated, lacking a hairdryer, and the mattress was rock hard, leaving me wondering why I’d paid $147 for it all. Still, it gave me a chance to grab a precious few hours of sleep.

Alas, David Tennant was not inside.