In Ross-on-Wye...
I am now in a luxurious hotel at Ross-on-Wye, having just had a lovely meal of grilled salmon on a terrace overlooking the Wye Valley. It's an incredibly beautiful bit of the world that I've never seen before.
This day has been so full of serendipitous joys that I hardly know where to begin - and I really should be getting to bed. A few highlights:
- Cardiff Castle. I wasn't sure what to expect here. I knew it had a Norman keep, which makes it a must-see for that alone, but I also knew it was very big - though my only visual reference for it was from Torchwood "Exit Wounds". It is large. It is amazing. And the best part, about which I had no idea whatsoever, was the amazing archtectural art by William Burgess. Edwardian, I'd guess - I'll look it up later. It's beautiful and funny and smart and ... well, I absolutely loved it. Like the arches over a dooway in the library where chameleons climb up the woodwork, changing colour symmetrically as they go. Or the evolutionary monkeys who steel the book of knowledge from the tree of life. Or the angels holding up the names of the favourite authors of the man the library was built for: Shakespeare, Rabelais, Homer, and so on.
- I climed the Norman Keep to the very top. The difficult was not the physical exertion, but the fact that it is so high and so steep (with stairs both indoors and outdoors) that my fear of heights kept kicking in. I persevered to the highest point and it was worth it.
- With the Torchwood Forum group, I took a boat to the other side of the Cardiff Barrage, which will be familiar from the Torchwood episode "Adrift". I am used to locks and canals and water engineering: I've grown up with the Rideau Locks and the Rideau Canal. But that was all built in the 1830s, and however beautifully it has been maintained, it's not new. The Cardiff Barrage is only about a decade old and the engineering is amazing, and on a scale I can hardly imagine. Except that the basic principles are visually similar.
- From the Barrage, you can see Flat Holm Island.
- I won a limited edition Captain Jack Harkness action figure in one of the trivia sessions - an easy question where I managed to blurt out the answer before anyone else. I was thrilled because I desperately coveted this action figure.
- We walked around Cardiff on a tour of places familiar in Torchwood. Saw BBC production trucks, not currently active - perhaps set up for a night shoot? We were curious, but learned nothing more.
- I went back to Mermaid Quay, where the notes, flowers, and commentary to Ianto around the doorway to the Hub had grown still more. I overhead a man say to his wife, "Did one of the actors die?"
"No," she said. "One of the characters."
- I went back to the Doctor Who exhibit, to once again admire Captain Jack's greatcoats. There are two on display: one from Doctor Who, one from Torchwood. I took more pictures.
- I then left Cardiff with my friend Simon. Had a great time chatting to him in the car. He took me across the Severn Bridge just so I could say I'd done it. I don't know if he knows that's a Torchwood reference; he watches Torchwood but isn't really a fan.
- Tintern Abbey. 'Nuff said.
- My hotel room here is right adjacent to Ross Castle, making this a bonus castle of the day, if I wanted one. (And of course I do. A bonus castle never goes amiss.) But I already had a bonus castle today: Castle Coch, glimpsed in the mist from the top of Cardiff Castle.
- Had a great time talking to Simon over supper, discussing such things as the reasons Sybilla didn't break her promise to the First Baron, plans for the Dunnett gathering in Paris next year, mutual friends, the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, and the NHS. And more.