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Published: June 30th 2011
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The girl
Sculpture by famous Welsch Sculptor Robert Thomas in the Gorsedd Gardens outside the national Museum of Wales. Have been rather lazy at updating the blog - apologies. Will try to get it up to date as best I can.....
Last Tuesday morning saw me rushing around to pack my bags again, this time for the capital of Wales – Cardiff. – When WILL I learn to pack the night before??? Fortunately I made it Victoria Coach station with about 30 minutes to spare. I am quite aware that me not wanting to get a sim card for my mobile has made a few people in the UK a bit uneasy. A friend I know from the cruise ships, was panicked that we would not find each other once I arrived, as he has no mobile communication with me. This makes me laugh as it reminds me of when I was a LOT younger and the days before mobile phones. Meeting someone at an agreed location at a specific time was done all the time – and sans mobile phone, all it meant was that you had to honour your arrangement. No room for tardiness.
With the coach trip as exciting as watching grass grow, I became super excited at the crossing of the River Severn on the
Stones from Gorsedd Circle
Relocated to Gorsedd Gardens from where the Town Hall now stands, and in the wrong order, is the Gorsedd Circle, dating back to 1905 bridge between England and Wales. Sadly, the view below was one of brown sludge, otherwise known as the River Severn. That aside, it was an incredible sight. It takes about 2 minutes for the coach to cross the bridge. The River Severn is the largest in the UK at about 350km’s in length and is sadly one of the most polluted in Europe.
As soon as I arrived in Cardiff, I knew that I would love my time there. The city is beautiful. Standing at the coach drop off area, I am placed between the sights of the National Museum of Wales and the Cardiff Castle and grounds. Beautiful.
Apart from watching shows, enjoying the night life and eating, I find that Cardiff really has little else to grab me with. I found more preserved history in Manchester, but the visual beauty of Southern Wales and it’s friendly locals definitely make up for any other shortcomings. I fully emersed myself in the scenes that Cardiff has to offer. - eating and going out.
My accommodation was in the Valleys (Pontypridd) where I stayed with two amazingly great hosts. Surprisingly we had ordered a box of Chinese food for three that fed 5, with left overs. It is not often that you get more than you have bargained for. Cardiff is refreshingly cheaper than London It was also on this night that I realised why it was that I get completely drunk on only 3 pints of beer. A pint has over 500ml of beer. Meaning that 2 pints is already over one litre of beer. Why have I only figured this out now?
Our full day out in Cardiff involved the Magnificent National Museum of Wales. It really does not look too big from the outside, however once you are inside, the place is huge with amazing exhibitions and displays that captivates the minds of not only youth, but also a 27 and 31 year old kid at heart that visited that day. They have a life size mammoth that moves, (and I’m not going to tell you that we stood in front of this mammoth for about 10 minutes, in awe at its sheer size and the ability to move), huge display screens that show the formation of Cardiff, and an INCREDIBLE collection of art. Artwork from Renoir, Van Gogh and Monet that were donated by the Davies sisters fills an entire gallery. Their collection is not out in full in the Museum as they do not have enough space, and a lot of their collection is on loan to various art Museums across the world.
After the hard work of paying attention at the Museum and feeling somewhat cultured now that we gazed at art for over an hour, we had a well deserved and yummy lunch at the Las Iguanas on Mill Lane, where I had a welsh styled cottage pie. Utterly delicious considering that the restaurant is Mexican.
The evening was spent out at various locations in Cardiff Central for the evening and ended up with us rolling home at about 6am. And we paid dearly the whole next day. Having a bit of a hangover to nurse we took it easy and got up at about 3pm for lunch at The Bunch of Grapes – a really great pub about a 45 minutes’ walk from the house. On the other side of lunch we walked along the Taff Trail to get home. (The Taff Trail is an 88km walking and cycling trail that starts in Cardiff Bay and ends in Brecon). A really lovely walk, with loads of trees and here it is easy to see why people love Wales. The view of the huge Glyntaff Cemetery left a somewhat eerie undertone to our journey, albeit spectacular to see its size.
I left a cold, wet and windy Cardiff last Friday to meet a cold, wet and windy London for the next two weeks. Very glad that I made the trip to Cardiff and got to experience it with my hosts – welsh born and bred. Would certainly love to visit other parts of Wales in the future.
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