Cardiff doesn’t define Wales but it’s a city of proud people & a cosmopolitan city hosting Stevie Wonder and Alice Cooper Summer 2025. Arrived at the Parador boutique hotel, exquisitely located close to train station, the Cathedral, the Castle and the river where I get the water taxi to the harbor.

The Castle exhibition and tour brilliant! In 1865 Lord John Butte was the richest person in Britain and third richest in the world. Lord John inherited land, but made his money from exporting coal or black gold using the Cardiff docks. Lord John was a fanatic of all things medieval, he purchased the castle. He situated his bedroom (en suite bathroom) 75 steps high up the spiral staircase.

Lord Bute was not only the richest person in the world but spoke 21 languages, world traveler, a self proclaimed interior decorator and a collector transforming his castle into Welsh Victorian Camelot. He visited Italy adorning his roof garden with mosaics, statues, gardens and aqueducts reminiscent of Pompeii. Despite all the wealth, family members died early: renal disease, victims of war, more recently, cancer.

Before descendants stopped living in the Castle, they provided bomb shelters in the strong outer wall during the Blitz of WWll.

Water taxi to Tiger Bay, man made harbor in Cardiff, Wales. Walked a section of the Wales Coast Path covers entire Wales coastline. Amidst the quay marketplace, the harbor boasts several modern buildings: the Opera house, the Harbormaster and the Welsh Parliament building.