Cardiff

　　It rained on the last day in Bath. I visited Cardiff, which is the capital city of Wales. It has some medieval castles and a coal mine museum called "Big Pit National Coal Museum". This coal mine used to be a major driving factor of the development of the U.K. after the industrial revolution. When I was checking the location of the museum, I happened to find the town of Aberfan. I recalled a miserable coal mine accident. No, not the coal mine accident. It was the worst-ever industrial accident, which killed a hundred school kids. The small town was said to have lost one generation. Anyway, the weather was bad, and the driving seemed to be hard and we stayed at Cardiff and enjoyed wandering the streets and department stores. I wasn't interested in shopping and visited Cardiff Castle alone. In the outer wall of the castle, the preparation of events or something was under way. It robbed the castle of the medieval atmosphere and it was regrettable. The outer wall was a hollow structure and I could walk inside the wall without being caught in the rain. Was this space used to repel enemies? 

　　The streets of Cardiff were generally clean. There were few litters. One thing, most signboards were written in English and Welsh. I tried to pronounce some Welsh words, but their spelling was very unusual and I couldn't even imagine the sound of the words. I'll show you an example later. 

 

(Vocabulary)   

medieval 中世の   

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

　旅行中、初めての雨。カーディフは言うまでもなくウェールズの首都。いくつかの中世の城が残っており、また産業革命以後、イギリスの発展を支えた炭鉱が博物館になっていると聞き行くつもりだった。Big Pit National Coal Museumだ。場所は南ウェールズ、悲惨な炭鉱事故というより、イギリス史上最悪の産業事故で、ウェールズ南部の小さな、ほぼ一世代を失ったという村、aberfanの近く。しかし、天気が悪く、運転が大変そうだったのでやめて、カーディフ市内のぶらぶら歩きに変更した。カーディフ城では何かイベントの準備で中世の風情は無くなっていて残念だったが、内部は雨も掛からず快適だった。   

　街は総じてきれい。余りゴミはない。が、いろいろな表示が２カ国語表示、ウェルシュ語と英語。発音を真似ようとしてもできない綴り。消えゆく言葉なのかもしれないと感じた。