Great British Cheese Festival in Cardiff Wales

Got up today and had another traditional Enlish breakfast with a very good black pudding.  Not gamey at all.  They did have Marmite, which is like Vegaminte.  Had some of that on my piece of deep fried white bread.  It tastes a bit like very salty gravy or thick soy sauce with gravy.

Took a drive to Wales. We decided to drive to a Park and Ride a little north and east of Cardiff. Easy driving down the M5 travelling south from our hotel. Was able to turn on to M4 East with no problem. Crossed the Severn abridge which covers the sea east of Cardiff. Did not see our exit as we really did not know how to read the road signs thus far.

Had to pay a toll which worked out to be about $11.00. When you add that to about $130 to fill the car up with fuel, you don't want to have to drive much.

Went about 35 miles out of the way and found the lot. Hopped on the bus to ride into downtown Cardiff. Driving is in the UK is an interesting challenge.

There were no seats left for me so I stood in the isle next to a mom with her two sons. The boys were cute and started to ask me questions. They immediately could tell I wasn't Welsch and asked me lots of questions. Their names were Jack and Ollie. Ollie was 6 and asked me in his English accent if I was on TV. I said no and I could tell he was suspicous and didn't believe me. I could tell Ollie's mom was curious why he was asking me that. Then Ollie said, "do you sell insurance?" I said no and looked at his mom and she was thinking. Then I saw her face brighten up as she realized what he was getting at. She said to me, "he thinks you're (sounds like) Morgan Freeman." After research, she must have said "Morethan Freeman," who is a fictitious character in a British insurance commercial. He has the voice of Morgan Freeman but might look a little like me I guess. The company is More Than Insurance. I guess all Americans sound the same.

Went to Cardiff Castle where they were having the Great British Cheese Festival. They had lots of food and a gigantic beer and cider tent. They must have had 50 different kinds of beers and as many ciders. In the cheese tent we probably tried 30 cheeses from all over Britian. We tried four beers, listened to music. Had a pheasant, venison, cranberry pie, which Katie didn't like. Toured the castle, listened to music.

Ate some cheese and drank some beer at the festival.  Katie had some kind of Persian dish with some extremely perfumey berries.  Very flavorful.

Went all over downdown Cardiff and checked out the shops and one cathedral. There were a some very trendy food shops and many old type market shops. There were many butchers, pie makers, fish mongers etc. We went to a Welsch cake baker three times and ended up buying more than a dozen. They look like small English muffins but smaller and not as high. To me they tasted as if they had potato, but the baker said no. We loved them.

We did want to try laver bread, but decided it looked so horrible, we were going to waste our money. Laverbread (Welsh: Bara Lafwr or Bara Lawr) is a traditional Welsh delicacy made from laver. To make laverbread, the seaweed is boiled for several hours then minced or pureed. The gelatinous paste that results can then be sold as it is, or rolled in oatmeal.

It looked like a seaweed, jelly mud mixture.