DAY 17 THURS. JUNE 16 ABERGAVENNY - CARDIFF

Despite having the route planned for us .... depite having iron-clad directions ... despite having confidence and a good car ... we still got lost in Cardiff. Signs are misleading, roads unmarked, trees obscuring signposts. Britain is insane for a North American. Despite all that, we didn't panic, and Lou did some of her best navigating on the trip. We found our B and B, owned by Charlotte Church's parents on the very handsome Cathedral Road area of the Welsh capital.

We toured Cardiff on a sight-seeing bus, which is our favourite way to get to know a new city ( done for the first time in Sydney Australia ) and got our bearings . Cardiff is impressive, cosmopolitan, and quite successful in its transition from the world's greatest coal port in the late 19th century to the modern capital of a not-quite-country in the 21st century. Austin Texas and Quebec City come to mind as rough equivalents.

The downside is that the transition in the 1960's to 1980's wasn't easy, and many neighbourhoods from the glory years have been bulldozed or re-modelled beyond recognition. Some of the city's old soul was lost.

But much remains and is in the process of rejuvenation and redefinition. There's a lot of good modern development too, some of the best in Britain. Cardiff is a capital city in truth: all that's left is for the country to emerge.

In all of this, one truth is crystalizing. Britain is changing, and I see a federal type of Britain on the horizon. It's not just Wales that's stretching its muscles. Scotland, Northern Ireland (painfully), Cornwall, the Isle of Man, maybe even Northumberland are all feeling their oats and seeking their distinct voice and, perhaps, destiny. Probably those voices will be within the UK, but I take nothing for granted. We'll see more of this capital tomorrow.

A final pleasant note. We discovered a wonderful pub with the name of "The Goat Major" in central Cardiff. It is a nice reminder of our former local in Newmarket.