DAY-15: Cardiff Castle & The Roadshow (Wed, Sep 6, 2017)

DAY-15: Cardiff Castle & The Roadshow

Day – 15: Wednesday, September 6, 2017

Starting Location: Cardiff, Wales, UK

Ending Location: Cardiff, Wales, UK

For breakfast we headed to the lounge for the continental type food though eggs and bacon were on the menu. From the there we had a good view into the grounds of Cardiff Castle and noticed a number of red umbrellas and quite a few people milling around.

Around 11 AM we headed over to the castle our major event for the day. Turning the corner toward the gate we came upon a brightly painted lorrie (big truck) parked in front of the castle emblazoned with signs "Antiques Roadshow"; so that was the basis for the castle yard's activity we had seen.

Turned out that today was a filming day for a BBC episode of The Antiques Roadshow. We walked around the castle yard while awaiting our appointed time for a tour. Basically I'll let the "roadshow" pictures speak for themselves, with a bit of overheard commentary, and then get on to the house tour. If you are questioning whether this was a real castle, please take notice of the moat!

RAF Dam Busters: Value = Not much!

Sterling Silve Pacifier.

21st Century iPhone.

It's basically a reproduction pot!

Did you pick these up at the Pound Sterling Store?

"Signed" cricket bats but sorry, these were mass produced.

Cricket player cards, if you only had a mint condition Honus Wagner.

We're being filmed for the show.

Look what I have found!

Are you kiddin' me, you brought this all the way from London?

Our organized tour of the castle "house" began around noon and lasted for an hour or so. Though the castle property has a history of royal ownership, it turns out that the house wasn't built for kings and queens, it was the 19th century estate of a business tycoon who made money in coal and shipping among other business ventures. As with many of these large estates in the mid-20th century the family could no longer afford the castle and house upkeep so the entire property was gifted to the city of Cardiff to be a people's park.

Rub-a-dub-dub, Three Men in a Tub ...

Heh Diddle Diddle, The Cow Jumped ...

Following the tour we resumed our roadshow viewing but soon called it a day, but not before posting another dual language sign.

As for the roadshow, most of the folks bringing goods for appraisal went home no wealthier than when they came. There were moments of eager anticipation but for the most part the stuff being appraised was no different than we all have in the storage lockers, basements and attics.

Before leaving Sheila found a couple that were interested in talking about New Zealand. Well actually they were from New Zealand as could be reckoned with the "All Blacks" cap the gentleman was wearing.


We returned to the hotel and spent the afternoon relaxing, catching up with mail and for me a bit of Helium work. Again in the lounge we had drinks and cookies as a sorta "not-so-high tea". There are stories from people met in the lounge but they'll have to wait, as they're easier to tell than to write.

For dinner we stayed in the hotel dining at the Restaurant Grey. This had to be one of the best meals we've had to date. Sheila had some type of melted cheese wrap with steamed spinach and I had Dover Sole on a slab of pink Tibetan sea salt with an order of "skinny fries". The sole had to be one of the best fish dinners I have ever had; better but certainly not as great a story as the Aruba Dover Sole. 

So how can you turn away ice cream made in-house, you can't; that was the night's topper and again it was great.

We worked on our travel itinerary and established a plan for tomorrow. It was then time to turn out the lights.