Now...I won't deny this from the start. The motivation for this trip, at least on my part, was almost entirely a desire to see the city where Doctor Who and Torchwood are filmed. It's like Covina! In Wales! Plus, it just looks pretty, particularly on Torchwood, and I just thought it'd be a nice little visit, on top of a nice excuse for me to dork out.
We took the train out to Wales on Saturday morning, found our way to our B&B to dump our bags (even though it was too early to check in) and then jumped on a bus from the City Centre (where we were staying) down to Cardiff Bay.
I have to take a time out to share that it’s ridiculous how quickly I started dorking out on Doctor Who stuff. The train station where I arrived was, in fact, the same train station where Mickey arrived in Boomtown
And between the train station and our B&B, we were surprised by this sight along our way!
We also came across Millennium Stadium, which was a pretty impressive sight, and was directly across the river from our B&B!
Anyway, as I mentioned, we dumped our stuff and headed down to Cardiff Bay, which is the area I REALLY wanted to see. And yes, my suspicions were correct. It is JUST AS GORGEOUS as it looks on TV. The Millenium Centre with its impressive façade, the pillars of Roald Dahl Plass. The Pierhead building, Mermaid Quay, and the Bay. It was utterly fantastic. I think I was barely off the bus before I fell in love with Cardiff Bay. Actually, I might have been still on the bus. I caught a glimpse between two buildings of the wording on the front of Millennium Centre from the bus, and my heart immediately started racing. It was an incredible sight.
We got lunch at this terrible Chinese restaurant with this fabulous view of the area, and just kind of sat and soaked it all in for a while.
After lunch we might have done a little bit of this for a while:
And then we just wandered around Cardiff Bay and soaked in the gorgeousness of the whole area for a few hours.
We had to bus ourselves back up to Cardiff City Centre in the late afternoon to properly check into our hotel, and then took a bit of a break in the room, before taking a wander through City Centre. There was a faire or festival of some sort going on that we scoped out, but we finally decided that what we really wanted to do, more than anything else, was to go back down to the Bay and see that area by night. So we did! We had a long, relaxing dinner out on the balcony of a lovely Italian restaurant in Mermaid Quay, and just stared out over the bay for something like two hours or so. It was fabulous.
Sunday in Cardiff was a bit more of a bust. Our B&B was less flexible with us leaving our luggage with them, and requested us to be back by 2pm for our bags. And we had a 6:30pm train, so suddenly we found ourselves with only a morning to explore City Centre, before we were stuck with our bags for the rest of the day. Unfortunately, what that meant is that we had to skip Cardiff Castle.
We wandered City Centre for the morning, and eventually ended up walking through this lovely park beside the Castle which had this cool fairy circle in the middle of it.
And then, alas, it was time to get our bags, so we spent the rest of the day in a local pub drinking Brains (the Cardiff beer of choice) and waiting for our evening train.
In the end, Saturday was utterly lovely. But Sunday was a bit of a bust. But so it goes, and I still had a lovely time in Cardiff and I’m so very glad I went. It’s definitely staying on my list for a repeat visit on my next trip to the UK. Among other things, one of the things I simply loved the most about Cardiff? It wasn't remotely touristy. I didn't hear a single American accent the entire time I was there. Plenty of English and Welsh accents, but I felt like I was the only American in the city, which was kinda cool. It's just not the obvious place to go, and yet, I thought it was a gem. It was really refreshing after the crowds of London and Prague to spend a weekend in a quiet city like Cardiff.
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