Romancing history
PAROMITA PAIN
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Head to Wales, with bath houses, amphitheatres and castles in plenty, for a quiet tryst with the past…
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Cardiff tourist information centre can be contacted at +44 (0)870 1211 258 or emailed at visitor@cardiff.gov.uk. Visit http://www.visitcardiff.com/Contact-Us.html for more information.
Photo: Paromita Pain
Raglan castle: The last true medieval castle in Britain.
What would you get if you put a few million people and a few million sheep together? No, a very happy bunch of people wearing thick woollen coats and eating giant lamb burgers doesn’t quite cut it. The right answer is Wales and its capital city Cardiff — with weather as unpredictable as the rest of the UK, generous dashes of Roman and Norman history, 641 castles, verdant golf courses and of course, the Tintern Abbey.
At first glance it’s easy to think that much of Wales is just about scenic beauty. Its gently undulating hills, the ponderous sheep and lack of jostling crowds (especially if you have travelled from any where remotely Indian) can be a bit intimidating.
How do you get about travelling in the Wales? What are the roadways and your options like? After all if you are an English literature graduate you possibly can’t leave without a look at the Tintern Abbey. Now these are important considerations and thankfully stuff that’s easily addressed. Over to the Cardiff tourist information for rescue.
Must-see
It would be sacrilege to leave Wales without a visit to the Roman bath houses and amphitheatres. Hop over to the Roman fortress town of Caerleon. Along with a Roman amphitheatre you also get to understand why the Roman bath houses were considered the precursors of the modern spa business. The drive thankfully is a smooth and short one so even those with a tendency for car sickness can hang in quite well.
History and modern change exist quite harmoniously in historical Caerleon and there is little end to its claim to fame. Believed to be King Arthur’s Camelot, the modern houses, buildings and the changes that the town has required over time have been done with care. Nothing is even covertly out of place. These are towns exist close to the bastions of Roman history and take the idea of looking after them very seriously indeed.
The Romans were famous for their amphitheatres and Caerleon houses the best preserved one in Britain. The large sporting arena today looks like a giant soup bowl full of rich green broth. “The sand’s been taken over by the grass now. The Romans used sand, lots of it, to line the floor. It was easier to remove limbs, blood and bits of animals that were inevitable after any show,” informs Paul, a friendly local guide, with relish. The Roman bath is not in the scale of the baths at the English town of Bath town and nearly not as famous. Rather, they are a miniature of what to expect when you do finally get to Bath. The Romans took bathing so seriously that they used their bath spaces to exercise, eat, socialise and do all the normal things you would do at your club except that they also did them sitting in large pools of hot, warm or tepid water and probably without clothes too.
Not too far away is the famous Tintern Abbey, dear to many as the icon from Wordsworth’s poem that has tortured generations of students. Rest assured, people hate Wordsworth here so there is no mention made of the poet or his poem anywhere around the area. And when you come upon the ruins, Wordsworth doesn’t come to your mind, for, magnificent doesn’t quite describe this old, old church that rises like an old man of the sea, seaweed clinging to torn, barely-there robes.
Awe-inspiring
Built by Walter de Clare, lord of Chepstow, the Cistercian abbey of Tintern was never very important. Its monks led a life of extreme deprivation and being cut away from the mainstream. Today only stone skeletons of this once glorious wonder remains and they inspire both awe and poetry.
Travel in Wales doesn’t mean much if you haven’t explored a castle. While 641 can be an awesome number of castles to even plan visiting, drive down to the 641st one, grandly titled the Raglan Castle. This “last true medieval castle built in Great Britain” today stands like a stately lady, skirts slightly askew. A long avenue leads to its interiors which are stark, open to the elements and strangely as dignified as a monastery in its poverty. Raglan has wide open windows, not the usual cuts in the walls to shoot arrows from. Take a while to stand and wonder in the great hall about the people who lived here.
Then slowly lift your eyes where the jagged edges of the fallen roof stand out against a greying sky. In an instant you will know why saving up for a Wales venture should be on every travel buff’s agenda.
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