Cardiff

We headed off to Cardiff on the train. It was a nice sunny day and it doesn't take long, although we missed the train by about 2 minutes and had to wait 40 for the next. We weren't quite sure what there was to offer, but what the heck. When we got there there were temporary barriers up all around the railway station and security people shouting to go this way and that. We thought there had been an incident but it turns out it was worse than that - there was a football match. Wales were playing the Czech Republic which we hadn't banked on when we picked the trip. However, aside from the large police (heddlu) presence we weren't really affected at all.

We wandered down to Cardiff Bay which has recently had a multi mega-pound face-lift. There is very little of the old to be seen, but many new buildings and social spaces, and of course cafes and restaurants, so lots of people were taking advantage of the sun. We had a ride around the harbour in a little old boat called Daffodil, but strangely there was no commentary, so we didn't know what we were looking at. We later discovered the main features to be the new barrage that has turned the bay into a fresh-water lake, several new marinas, and the redeveloped docklands. We wondered what the bubbling areas were and it turns out they were aeration systems to keep the lake from stagnating. The strangest thing we saw was the old Assembly Building. It was a large Terracotta building that looked worth a visit. We entered, emptied our pockets, passed through the metal detectors, and went into the first room. We looked around - toilets... shop... exit... We had gone through all that security for an empty room! "What the fu..?" we asked each other and left again, laughing.

Then we ran into the Welsh National Springy-Stilt Things team. I'd only seen one or two of these things up 'til now, except perhaps on TV, but here were around 5-6 of these guys all getting around on Springy Stilt Things. I'm sure they've got a real name but who knows what it is?

This time we took the river taxi back to the city centre and, strangely enough, we got a commentary. Go figure. The football game was about to finish so we got into a cafe before they did. When we came out the streets were awash with red, along with the flouro yellow of the coppers. We wandered off to the castle but it was closed by now so we could only visit its shop. The railway station was still expecting trouble but we didn't have to wait too long for a train. It was a crowded trip but we had seats so didn't care. With hay-fever hitting I just wanted to get home...

As usual, for more pics of Cardiff click here.

On Sunday we went to the Natural Bristol fair, which was full of earnest people from Greenpeace and FotE and so forth. The hay-fever really knocks me out so I wasn't particularly enthused, but it was OK. A keen uni student told me about the Bristol Dinosaur, and J picked up a number of pamphlets on walks we can do. Then she made me go for another walk later that night. Humph.

I found a couple of possible sources for photos on the 'Net that I hadn't been aware of, as well as a site that has a forum for people researching WW2. That kept me up 'til late.