Travel Tuesday: Cardiff Castle, Wales

This week's edition of Travel Tuesday features another Welsh Castle - Cardiff.  Cardiff Castle began as a Roman fort circa 50AD, and after the Norman Invasion in 1066, the Norman Keep was built on the site of this fort.  This Keep still stands today.   In addition to the Norman Keep, Cardiff Castle also includes the main Castle itself, and the current Gothic Style dates backs to the mid 1800s.   The Castle lies right in the heart of Cardiff, the Welsh capital. 

More information on Cardiff Castle and its history can be found on the Castle's official webpage: http://www.cardiffcastle.com/content.asp?parent_directory_id=1

Here are some of my pics:

The Norman Keep (one picture taken from the Castle grounds, the other from inside the Keep)

Castle (looking towards the Castle apartments)
 

For anyone planning to travel to south Wales, Cardiff Castle is well worth a visit.

Literary Link:  Cardiff Castle is featured, albeit briefly, in my current read - Susan Higginbotham's Hugh and Bess (synopsis from Chapters.indigo.ca:


Forced to marry Hugh le Despenser, the son and grandson of disgraced traitors, Bess de Montacute, just 13 years old, is appalled at his less-than-desirable past. Meanwhile, Hugh must give up the woman he really loves in order to marry the reluctant Bess. Far apart in age and haunted by the past, can Hugh and Bess somehow make their marriage work?

Just as walls break down and love begins to grow, the merciless plague endangers all whom the couple holds dear, threatening the life and love they have built.

Award-winning author Susan Higginbotham's impeccable research will delight avid historical fiction readers, and her enchanting characters will surely capture every reader's heart. Fans of her first novel, The Traitor's Wife, will be thrilled to find that this story follows the next generation of the Despenser family.

Travel Tuesday: Caerphilly Castle, Wales

I missed my Travel Tuesday post last week, so I thought I'd make up for it by sharing a few pictures from one of my favourite castles: Caerphilly Castle, which is in southern Wales.   I had the opportunity to visit Caerphilly a couple of years ago and was impressed by its size.   Given little restoration of the Castle has taken place, it was not hard to imagine the Castle in all its glory way back in the 13th and 14th centuries.    

Caerphilly Castle is the second largest castle in Great Britain (Windsor Castle is the largest).   Construction began during the 13th century by Gilbert de Clare, Lord of Glamorgan.    More information on this castle can be found at: http://www.castlewales.com/caerphil.html

Literary Link:

Caerphilly Castle is featured in Susan Higginbotham's novel The Traitor's Wife,  which is about Eleanor le Despenser, niece to Edward II and wife of Hugh le Despenser (the younger). 

Travel Tuesdays: Prince Edward Island

For this week's edition of Travel Tuesdays, I've decided to feature one of my favourite places: Prince Edward Island, Canada.   PEI is perhaps best known for being the home of one of literature's greatest fictional heroines, Anne Shirley.   It is also the birthplace of Canadian Confederation.     

Here are some photos from my most recent visit:

Green Gables 

 

Anne's Bedroom in Green Gables

The lake that inspired The Lake of Shining Waters

 Cavendish Beach (PEI's most famous red sand beach)

Literary Link: 

To most people outside Canada - and many Canadians, too - PEI is most often associated with the works of Lucy Maud Montgomery, the most famous of which is Anne of Green Gables.  

As soon as Anne Shirley arrived at the snug, white farmhouse called Green Gables, she knew she wanted to stay forever...but would the Cuthbert's send her back to the orphanage? Anne knows she's not what they expected--a skinny girl with decidedly red hair and a temper to match. If only she could convince them to let her stay, she'd try very hard not to keep rushing headlong into scrapes or blurt out the very first thing she had to say. Anne was not like anybody else, everyone at Green Gables agreed; she was special--a girl with an enormous imagination. This orphan girl dreamed of the day when she could call herself Anne of Green Gables.   Synopsis from Chapters.indigo.ca

If you haven't already read the Green Gables series I highly recommend you do so.   I also recommend spending time in PEI if ever the opportunity arises.

Travel Tuesdays: Arundel Castle

This week's edition of Travel Tuesdays features Arundel Castle in West Sussex, England, which I had the opportunity to visit last year.   Construction of Arundel Castle began in the 11th century during the reign of William the Conqueror.  The Castle is now the home of the Dukes of Norfolk.      

For any of you who have seen the movie The Young Victoria starring Emily Blunt, Arundel Castle was used as a stand in for scenes that took place in St. James Palace and Windsor Castle.

You can visit the official Arundel Castle site at the following link: http://www.arundelcastle.org

Here are some of my photos of the Castle:

Various views of Arundel Castle, including (at left) the Castle motte and keep, which is the oldest part of the Castle. 

  

Literary Link:

One of the reasons I selected Arundel Castle for this week's edition of Travel Tuesdays is that it is featured in the book I am currently reading, Lady of the English by Elizabeth Chadwick.   Adeliza, widow of Henry I and one of the key figures in Chadwick's novel, makes Arundel Castle her home when she marries William D'Albini.   While at Arundel she plays hostess to Empress Matilda, who at the time was battling her cousin Stephen of Blois for the throne of England - Empress Matilda is the other key figure in Lady of the English.

Arundel Castle is also featured in one of my all-time favourite novels, When Christ and His Saints Slept by Sharon Kay Penman, which is set during the same time period as Chadwick's novel and features many of the same characters. 

Arundel Castle is definitely worth a visit!

Travel Tuesdays

Welcome to Travel Tuesdays, a new weekly feature here on Confessions of an Avid Reader where I'll share photographs from my recent travels.   This feature has been inspired by the weekly photo posts I enjoy viewing on some of the blogs I follow.   Although this feature won't always be book-related, I intend to tie novels in to my travel themes when applicable.   

To kick off Travel Tuesdays I have some photos of the Grand Canyon to share.   I spent this past weekend in Las Vegas and while there took the opportunity to take a day trip out to the Grand Canyon, this trip included a helicopter ride to the base and back, as well as a short boat trip on the Colorado river.   I've visited Vegas a few times previously, but this was the first chance I had to visit the Grand Canyon.   It was spectacular!    

Here are a couple of photos taken from the helicopter:

Here are a couple of photos taken from the Colorado River:

And, lastly, here are a couple of shots from Eagle Point, West Rim: