In winter, with all leaves having fallen, the trees no longer look elegant. Nevertheless, their trunks and shapes are still there, showing their masculine look and vitality.

In January this year, Norwich had its first snow falls in this winter.

To people like me who live in subtropical area and never have a chance to see snow in their home countries, the snow falls made me very excited.

The heavy snow falls happened in night time. The next morning when I woke up, the first thing I did and could not wait doing was, to pull open the curtain of my window, and looked! The world seemed to have changed - now everywhere was white! Everything looked different under the snow - the grasses, the houses, the roads, the cars…

The only pitiful thing is, when the snow starts to melt, it becomes very slippery and people easily fall over on icy roads.

Cardiff was the second stop of my Christmas trip.

When getting out of the train station of Cardiff, broad roads and busy streets were in front of me. I was lost, where to go, how to get to my hotel. I asked a nearby newspaper stall vendor. He shaked his head, not wanting to speak a word. I walked on. I came to an old man waiting for a bus at a bus stop. This time I got a friendly answer.

There are a lot of Victorian town houses in Cardiff. Some of them are really beautiful. Many cheap accomodations in Cardiff can be found in these town houses. (The left-most picture shows my hotel - St. Hilary Hotel)

I walked about half hour. Finally I found my hotel. This hotel was not known to me. I got its telephone number from internet and made the booking over the phone. The hotel is the kind of accomodation between a typical B&B (Bed and Breakfast accomodation) and a typical hotel. It has more rooms than a typical B&B but unlike a hotel, it is run by a proprietor who also lives there. The proprietor of the hotel came out to answer the door. She was in her thirties. She let me in, confirmed my booking, then asked me to pay the whole charge. (This was the only accomodation in my entire trip which required me to pay the whole room charge on arrival, not on departure.) I wanted to look at the room first before payment. The wall papers were old and the low-quality framed paintings occupied every usable space of the walls. I accepted the room although it was not delighting.

In the late afternoon, the heating radiators in the hotel broke down. The proprietor gave me a hot fan for warming the room. The evening was very cold. I put on me all the blanets available in the room. The next day the radiators were fixed but they broke down again in the evening. This time, I could not get any hot fan. The proprietor told me that it had been given to another guest. I said nothing. The room charge had already been paid.

I was to leave Cardiff the next next day morning. The proprietor told me that the breakfast started at 7:30 am on weekdays. The notice posted in my room also so stated. At 7:30 am, I got to the dining room. It was locked. I rang the bell of the proprietor’s room. She popped out her head from her door. I asked, “Can I have breakfast?” She said, “Breakfast starts at eight o’clock”. “Eight o’clock?” I could not believe my ears. I needed to catch a train that morning. Before I had a chance to say further, she repeated, “Yeah, eight o’clock”. Then she shut the door. Fortunately, at eight o’clock, the dining room was opened as she said. I asked her to hurry up my breakfast because I needed to catch a train. This time she complied. Luckily I did not have a quarrel with her earlier. Although I was dissatisfied, before I left her hotel, I still needed her cooperation.

When I left her hotel, I was happy. During the entire stay in her hotel, she had never greeted me.

Cardiff is the capital city of Wales. The castle is the landmark of Cardiff. The original castle was destroyed and the current one was built about 130 years ago. The Bute family who then owned this castle liked the Muslim arts and had applied a lot of Muslim arts into the interior design of the castle. It was a surprise to me that I could find the traces of Muslim arts in Wales.

The visit of the castle must be a guided tour. I was the only visitor in that hour of tour. So it had become a one guide to one visitor tour. The staff in the castle were helpful and friendly.

Inside the castle area, there is a Welch Regiment Museum housing the guns, swords, uniforms and other military items as far back as the Battle of Waterloo. Unfortunately, after watching for a few minutes, I had to run away. All these items made me think of the horror of wars and human killings. The sight of them simply made me sick.

There were some peacocks inside the castle area. They were free to move. It was me only who was scared that they might bite me.

The Law Courts, the City Hall, and the national museum and gallery of Wales, all line up on the same street near the castle.

It was before Christmas. An amusement park was temporarily set up there. The kids were excited in the ice-rink.

There was an old indoor market as well as open markets in the city center.

The mega Millennium Stadium looms over the streets, with three tiers and 72,500 seats. It also sours besides the River Taff.

Along the River Taff, there was the Bute Park.

Salisbury was the first stop in my Christmas trip. 

The Salisbury Cathedral is Britain’s finest 13th century cathedral and has Britain’s tallest spire (123 m). Its Chapter House (the meeting place for the “chapter” - the cathedral’s governing body) was beautifully built with one column in the centre supporting the whole Chapter House. The Chapter House also houses the finest of only four surviving original Magna Carta dated 1215. Magna Carta is particularly interesting to the people who study or work with law. It was a concession agreement by King John when he agreed to give more power to the then powerful nobles. It established freedom for the church and trial by jury and other principles of democracy and provides the basis for many countries’ constitutions.

When I entered the cathedral, I was attracted, not by the interior (I have visited too many cathedrals and churches in my life and their interior or exterior extravagance can no longer attract me), but by the sound of organ. Maybe they were practising for the Christmas performance. I have not stepped into a church for around ten years. The music of organ was so overwhelming. I was suddenly moved. How long I have not sit still and thought about life while my life seemed to be always in a hurry. I sat there… silently… 

In the cathedral, I met an old man, a retired British soldier. He had served in Hong Kong and Malaysia and had experienced World War II. He is living in Salisbury and comes to the cathedral every day. He is lucky. He has never been injured or captured in the war. Some of his friends in the army were not as lucky as he was. I asked him, if he could live his life again, whether he would choose to be a soldier as his career. He said probably not. He would like to be a doctor to cure people.

Why we need soldiers? Because there are wars. But why there are always wars? Is human so hopeless? I wish I could say no.

Salisbury is a beautiful old town. Its river brings to it both liveliness and serenity.

There was an open market.

Many people go to Salisbury because it is the resting point to see the Stonehenge. I was no exception. Stonehenge is thirty minutes’ bus from Salisbury.

On the day of my visit to Stonehenge, it was very foggy. But the Stonehenge showed its another kind of beauty and mystery in fogginess. The area of the Stonehenge is not big, but its wonder lies in the puzzle that about 4000-5000 years ago, some very wise people moved the stones from very far places to the current site. How did they make it? Why did they do it? There is no answer yet.