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Published: August 13th 2010
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Hi Friends and Family,
Breakfast was at 08:30 and both Frank and I had a full English consisting of bacon, sausages and eggs whist the "The Small Young Gentleman" had bacon, egg, toast and lots of cereal.
Again, I had pre-arranged for Geoff to take us to Bristol Temple Train Station where we would take our train to Cardiff.
At the beginning of 2010, I had bought a one-way ticket for all of us from Bristol to Cardiff for a handsome fee of 10 pounds!
40 minutes later, we were there.
It has been years. Years since I last went to Cardiff. Eleven (11) years in fact! In those days the stadium was still being constructed I believe!
We were going to stay at The River House Backpackers Hostel,
59, Fitzhamon Embankment, Cardiff. CF11 6AN.
The River House Backpackers Hostel was a mere 10 minute walk from Cardiff Central Station and right NEXT TO the Millennium Stadium on the coast of the river!
The owners Charles and Abi were pretty neat and nice and went out of their way to make everything easy for us. The hostel was clean and warm with a
nice, friendly atmosphere of different ages and backgrounds with a huge jar of toffee and apples a plenty. The communal living room was packed with books, DVD’s and game consoles whilst the dinning room had a huge large screen and wooden tables to eat, chat or just chill out in. The patio had a lovely Med. look and whilst we were there the sun came out and so did everyone else LOL!
We also met a young German man who had just started working at the hostel and seemed eager to chat and play with "The Small Young Gentleman" and who am I not to let him do so!
Once we had checked in, we left our stuff at Reception and went out into the sunshine to see the capital city of Wales. Hopefully, the pictures speak for themselves. Cardiff is a modern European city with lots going for it.
After strolling a while, we decided to have lunch at the “KINGS CROSS” pub. Part of our walk included dropping into the local indoor market and picking up a couple of second-hand books and comics for "The Small Young Gentleman" to get his teeth into.
Average
prices 50p.
For those of you who didn’t know and where have you been if you don’t but 21st century Dr. Who was filmed and produced by BBC Wales in Cardiff and for the die-hards among you, you can easily identify various locations and spots especially at Cardiff Bay and near the stadium.
For those of you who live on the Continent one thing that you must always remember is that Britain adheres to early eating.
That’s right, no more leaving the house at 21:00 and meeting up with your mates for the first cocktail at 22:00. In Britain its time to “close shop” by then and as for eating. Most restaurants stop serving food between the hours of 20:00 and 21:00.
You have kids. Well, forget it then! By 19:00, the punters are beginning to look slightly dubious and dodgy or the premises are scarce with people wanting and willing to let go of their pounds. Family and Friends, that’s not quite the place that I would like to expose to my 8 year old child!
Happily, after wandering around like lost ghosts we took up the recommendation of Charles from The River House
who had recommended a family-friendly restaurant about a 20 min. walk away. Unsurprisingly, he was right and frighteningly, I liked it!
I could not believe that I was relieved to find a place that we could sit down in, was clean and smoke-free, did not have “over-bearing” music or dodgy hanger-ons and had decent food.
People, I’ve grown up!
See you on the morrow!!
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