Tag: Cardiff

Our last day, and just time to take a turn round the main architectural feature of the city, Cardiff Castle. There are remains of a Roman wall, a Norman keep and a house that was started in 13C and been improved upon by successive owners until the 3rd Marquess of Bute transformed it into the gothic revival fantasy it is today.

The Marquess’s architect William Burges was as keen on the Middle Ages as his patron, and they spent 16 years working on the house until Burges died in 1881. Many of the decorative elements are religious and others romantic in tribute to his wife who he had married for love. In 1947 the Bute family gave the house to the people of Cardiff.

We took a guided tour of the house and oohd and aahd over the gorgeous gilded ceilings, mounded and painted plasterwork and stained glass.

We walked round the battlements and climbed up to the top of the Norman keep then bought a romantic souvenir in the shop, a heart with a Welsh love spoon!

Our trip to Cardiff ended where it started, with a cuppa at the Hayes Island Snack Bar … made with love since 1948 … before we caught our train home … catching sight of one last Dr Who reference!

Today is the day, our fourth anniversary, and we have now spent more of the time we have known each other married than not! Time just seems to be flying by while we have fun!

After breakfast we got lost and tetchy trying to find the most direct route back to Cardiff Bay, not helped by the fact a bridge was closed and we had left a bit late. Fortunately we had made up by the time we arrived and Joe and Megan were waiting to show us round the Millennium Centre.

Their knowledge of both the design features and day to day working really made our visit special and we were the only people in the tour. The first striking feature is the inscription which is by the Welsh poet Gwyneth Lewis and has one phrase in Welsh which means ‘Creating truth like glass from the furnace of inspiration’ intermingled with ‘In these stones horizons sing’ in English. Once inside, we were able to walk behind the inscription.

There is a nautical theme throughout, beginning with the outside, where the metal cladding has rivets to resemble a ship’s hull, and the slate either side is for the cliffs and the glass below is the sea.

Once inside the stairs have the look of a liner and the lighting in reception looks like stars in the sky by which sailors navigated.

There are huge lights resembling either lighthouses or miners lamps …

We saw backstage where they were rigging the lighting for a new show, and even saw the seating being reconfigured and the floor rising. The auditorium is warm and inviting clad with a red stone which assists the acoustics and finished with natural wood. We had a cup of Welsh tea and some excellent welsh cakes in the cafe!

We walked down to Mermaid Quay to see Daffodil’s timetable, only to find she was just about to leave and there was room for us, so we went aboard! Seated with a blanket tucked round our legs, the small but perfectly formed Daffodil carried us valiantly round the bay, while Captain Gorgeous Ben pointed out this and that all for £3 … fabulous!

The next stop in our action packed day was a visit to the Dr Who Experience. We arrived early and started by looking round the museum which has different reincarnations of the Tardis, both inside and out … and we can confirm that it is definitely bigger on the inside!

Yes Readers, we were both there!

Our time slot arrived and we entered into Gallifrey where a time travelling adventure happened all around us. We travelled through time and space to help The Doctor save the Tardis while being attacked by Daleks and took care not to blink as we passed the Weeping Angels. Fortunately we prevailed and are here to tell the story! It may have been a little corny, but we both had grins on our faces and the floor really wobbled as we helped to fly the Tardis! The rest of the museum held memorabilia and costumes and it felt like more time travel talking about which Doctor we had liked best and which aliens we remembered.

So there was the first Tardis …

and the last …

Then Cybermen, Daleks, a Weeping Angel and The Scream …

Which Doctor do you remember?

Tired but happy, we walked back to Mermaid Quay and caught another boat, this time the Lady Katharine, back up the River Taff to Cardiff Castle where w3 spotted more dads and a dragon!

We wandered though the arcades, picking up some welsh cakes to take home and some Welsh Teifi cheese with seweed to try with a glass of celebratory fizz back at the Ibis. The cheese was very nice but we couldn’t detect the seaweed … that might have been a good thing!

Later we went to The Spice Quarter for dinner, suitably twinkly, and had a lovely meal.

After a good night’s sleep and an excellent breakfast, including Glamorgan sausages for Chris, we set off back to the River Taff, this time to follow the path southwards, passing the Millennium Stadium and Brains Brewery on the way.

We knew we were almost at the bay when we caught sight of the front of the Wales Millennium Centre, with the copper coloured front catching the light. It is a Welsh performing arts centre dedicated to music and dance and we will be visiting it tomorrow. Looking towards the bay, the area is dominated by a huge tower sparking in the sunshine, a 70ft high metallic water sculpture, constantly bathed in flowing water.

This stands at the head of a bowl shaped amphitheatre, surrounded with several metallic towers (under which the headquarters of Torchwood is hidden) that is Roald Dahl Plass, named after the famous author born here. There are several Norwegian connections in the bay as in the 1860s, many Norwegian sailors came here, employed by the Norwegian Merchant Navy when the West Bute Dock was part of a busy coal port. Others followed and settled, including Dahl’s parents, and the word Plass means Place in Norwegian as a tribute. In fact a church was shipped from Norway and erected here for the community and Dahl was baptised there, named after Roald Amundsen, the famous Norwegian explorer who beat Scott to discover the Antarctic. Today it is an arts centre and cafe, serving excellent Welsh rarebit.

Nearby stands the Scott Antarctic Memorial representing Scott and his men trapped in the snow during this fatal expedition which had set sail from Cardiff.

Two other buildings need a mention. Pierhead stands in prime position on the Bay, once the headquarters of the Bute Dock Company and now a museum of the docks and Welsh devolution.

Next door is The Senedd, designed by Richard Rogers, which opened in 2006 and houses the Welsh Assembly. It is made mainly from Welsh materials and the curved red cedar roof is meant to represent the waves in the Bay and reminded us of a similar ceiling in a museum in Auckland. The wind cowl on the top of the roof rotates, drawing all the hot air out of the debating chamber!

Continuing round the bay we caught our first glimpse of the real existence of you know Who … and then continued over the barrage and on to Penarth, where we checked out the marina and caught a train back to Cardiff.

Walking back through Cardiff centre, we took a detour down several of the lovely Edwardian shopping arcades filled with little independent shops. We remembered similar arcades in Paris when we made our 2012 anniversary trip.

Dinner was at Toni’s Amici, a family run Italian just down the road. We walked in and were the only guests, but didn’t let that spoil our evening! I had mussels in a tomato and garlic sauce followed by wild boar pappardelle and Chris had bruschetta and cannelloni, sharing an amaretto sponge desert to finish … needless to say reminding us of our many trips to Italy!

 

Well the first treat is sitting in the first class carriage, complete with reclining seats and complimentary coffee! Not sure it was worth Chris having his car vandalised for, but a kindly gesture from Great Western Railway nonetheless.

We arrived in Cardiff a couple of hours later, left our luggage at the hotel and set off towards our very own part of town! In the 16C The Hayes was a piece of open ground within the town walls, and today it is a bustling shopping centre, except for the leafy centre where we found the Hayes Island Snack Bar.

J

They have been serving up fabulous bacon sandwiches since 1948 and Chris was pleased to spot a veggie burger on the menu.

Replete, we set off for a walk and were soon reminded that Cardiff is the home of Rugby and we had chosen a few days to visit between World Cup matches. There were banners in the street and as we reached the castle saw rugby mania had breached the wall, nice try!

The castle is quite eye catching, with the huge clock tower, and surrounding wall, part of which is decorated with sculptures of animals, not unreasonably called Animal Wall.

Some like the lynx and lioness date from the 1870’s and others are later but still get a mention like the pair of raccoons and the anteater because I thought it looked cute!

We entered Bute Park, some 130 acres which was once the gardens for the castle, but now a public park and dodged the squirrels as we walked along the side of the River Taff to Llandaff Cathedral.

Our first impression of the Cathedral was how light and airy it was, with a huge modern statue of Christ taking centre stage. The cathedral was damaged in the war, hence the addition of a central reinforced concrete arch above which an aluminium statue of Christ in Majesty by Sir Jacob Epstein stands.

Other treasures include the Triptych of the Seed of David by Dante Gabriel Rosetti which was made for the high altar but is now in a side chapel …

… and a series of porcelain panels showing the Six Days of Creation by Edward Burne-Jones.

Returning along the river we stopped at tea rooms for refreshments and a slice of Welsh fruit loaf called Barmbrack. We checked in and the bears checked out the room at the Ibis … perfectly adequate and a snip at £50 a night including breakfast!

Every dining taste is met here in Cardiff and we felt unable to pass by a chance to eat just down the road at Wacaca … hopefully with tastes to remind us of our trip to the Yucatan … and a lot closer than going to the Southbank. We had a lovely time! The restaurant was decorated with colourful banners for the Day of the Dead at the end of October and we were shown to a table with a good view of the restaurant for us both. After margaritas and guacamole, we had three rounds of small dishes including tacos, tostadas, quesadillas and taquitos, all washed down with coronas!

 

This year we have chosen to come to Cardiff to celebrate our wedding anniversary.

Chris was sent a couple of free rail tickets following his car being vandalised in Slough station car park so we searched for a destination served by Great Western Railway where we could also celebrate with a boat trip as our wedding reception was held on a boat.

We are looking forward to our trip round Cardiff Bay on the Daffodil as well as popping in to see Dr Who and a turn round Cardiff Castle.

Journal Entries

The River Taff North to Llandaff Cathedral

The River Taff South to Cardiff Bay

Daffodil and Dr Who

Cardiff Castle

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