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It's been a few days since the last travel post, WIAD entries are up and read and judged (for those who can) and so I thought now would be a good time for another N and C in Cardiff post. Sound good to you? To me too!
Be sure to click the pictures to make them bigger. Not sure I am completely in love with LJ's gallery, but it worked well enough.
We had a very long walk to get to the Bay. We walked that very long walk several times. Miles and miles, that long walk was--sometimes down Bute St., other times down Lloyd George. LOTS of exercise whenever one travels with Nick, let me tell you:
DISCLAIMER: The following pictures were taken over several visits.
We ended up at Mermaid Quay quite a few times--for hamburgers, for Starbucks, for beer, just to hang around a certain door and eavesdrop on passersby to see if anyone else knew what that door actually was (several did) and to just watch people walk about and do their thing.
I suppose first I should include a little chat about the Plas. Unfortunately, preparations for a strawberry(?) festival were underway. Okay I know it wasn't all about strawberries but that was the motif chosen, so that's stuck in my head.
First off, the Millennium Centre. From a distance, it is amazing. Up close? Even more amazing. I took several pictures I rather liked of it, and put one on my cell phone as the wallpaper.
What intrigued me was the part of the building connected to the big shiny bronze part. The material used was different colored slate, and glass. The effect is really quite stunning, shiny, and lavender-gray:
And here of course is what we always see in pictures. The first picture is my cell's wallpaper.
This building really is huge--it is stunning of course because of its shape, the words in English and Welsh. Standing underneath it and looking up was way cool.
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amand_r, a couple of pictures of Nick. He has his man-purse in the one pic--because Bebe, Duckie and Puppet are tucked safely inside, lol (more Ask!World stuff for those who didn't follow the rpg):
We were very sad. What with all the festivity preparation going on, we couldn't stand on the invisible lift. (okay maybe we were relieved? lol) The festival started the day we left so we didn't get to see what it was really all about:
View from the Plas--kind of above it, by the restaurants:
Hello, Mermaid Quay!
(I worked with a woman once who thought the word 'quay' would make a great name for her new son. She thought it was pronounced 'kway' and discovered otherwise when he was 2. LOL. He's probably in his 30's now. Grin.)
Or, one could walk around the other way, (and when you got at the end of the street, if you turned around you couldn't help but say WOW because then you could really see the Millennium Centre in all its imposing glory) and then--being careful not to be run over by taxis, to the little shopping area that leads directly to the Bay.
I found a slightly awkward to use but interesting street map of the area. Click it to see the big picture. Pretty nifty:
This little area had some shops and restaurants, bars, coffeehouses, etc. Since we were on a Welsh cake mission for51stcenturyfox we decided to explore them first off. She wanted Welsh cakes from Cardiff and by golly she got them. This is a Welsh cake! Plain, cinnamon, lemon, plain...a couple of other flavors. Tasty! I hope Foxy liked them. My daughter liked hers.
We watched them being cooked, right there in the store on a flat griddle. Really, they looked rather simple to make. I should find the recipe. I bought several for myself but Nick only had a tiny piece of one, shrugged. Just a biscuit-cookie-whatever... LOL. I had a lemon one a few days later and liked that one the best.
Imagine our hilarity though when we turned to the shelf opposite of where the store person was cooking and found THIS!
YES! SHEEP POO PAPER! A produced favored by the Ask!World, we were delighted to see postcards and stationery w/envelopes available. Nick knew right then what to do. So he bought Foxy her Welsh cakes, and lotsa post cards and cards. Grin. (These were of course later filled out on the beach in Sully).
All delighted now with our find, we exited the shop, noted a hamburger place (where we ate later--really good burgers, ridiculously huge and expensive--Gourmet Burger Kitchen was the name) and headed toward the tourist office door.
Of course, we stayed nice and calm. Did not let on to the people definitely not paying any attention to us what we were looking for. I regret now not taking more pictures of this area...it was nicely busy, a Starbuck's, a LOL American food place and the hamburger place, a second coffee shop RIGHT outside of Starbucks (and as I pointed out in a previous post--quite close enough for Max to fetch coffees if he went through the tourist office door and up the ramp.
With our best nonchalant moves, we headed for those stairs. YOU know which stairs and why we wanted to go down them... LOOKY!
And of course, I had to peek in (Nick was embarrassed to walk down there at first, the silly):
Not embarrassed at all, that's how I roll:
But I caught him looking, yes I did!
Looking down at our feet, this is what we saw, what we were walking on:
Do you recognize this face? We sure did.
(Apparently, the Slitheens were real!) Shiver.
And looking out we saw this:
Another view, with a good view of the hotel where JB and SG had their civil partnership ceremony:
BTW, N and I weren't impressed with the hotel much. It looked...grimy.
We liked to drink our Starbucks on this bench. At one point, a bunch of silly 12-13 year old girls asked Nick to take a picture of them--was I ever that silly, giggly? No. Never. Seriously, I never was. I was into camping. Really! I was a Girl Scout!
One night, we decided to go have a beer at the bar that is right over the tourist office:
We made our way in, and ordered BRAINS, which is of course produced in Cardiff. The plant is right in the heart of the downtown area. Nick had the hardcore and I had the wimp version. It was hard to drink at first but somehow I managed to get it all down. LOL.
We had to pay a deposit for the glasses because they had BRAINS on them then decided after much discussion to keep them. We sat outside, grinning as we listened to the other patrons chattered--there were two guys who made us laugh a bit. They were in Cardiff, as so many were, for the cricket (the Ashes was going on the second half of the week) and were discussing how they were to take the water bus, as it is called, up to the Ashes site. How to describe these two? *rolls eyes* They were English. (Next day, we saw them again, still good-naturedly arguing...and waiting for their boat).
Nick finished his glass and set it next to him on the bench...we were talking about this and that (which we do alot of lol) and he looked down and someone had traded his Brains glass for a regular one! Guess they wanted our deposit. Found another one and we scooted off with both glasses at that point. They made it back to Germany and are now both in Nick's cabinet. Excellent!
We also got two excellent mugs from Starbucks. So big! Perfect for soup as well as coffee of course :) I use mine alot:
And of course, once we finally got our luggage, and Bebe, Puppet and Duckie arrived, Nick wanted to take pictures of them at the tourist office door. (If this isn't the ultimate example of fandorkdom, I don't know what is! It was fun though, and of course I had to take pictures of Nick placing them: I am evil like that.)
Here they are posing before their upcoming photo shoot:
And Duckie on the bench, no doubt wishing he had some coffee:
Nick working to get Puppet just so:
Puppet in place:
And of course, the famous Bebe herself:
Mission accomplished, and no one looked at us strangely. Of course, we were there during a workday, when it was very quiet...smart huh. (The fewer to witness our dorkiness, the better, right.)
Oh! Nearly forgot--here's a lovely picture Nick took. Be sure to click for the bigger view:
We had fish and chips there but I think we both thought eating them at a restaurant took away all the fun:
At night, this area is really fairly quiet. Like the rest of Cardiff, there isn't an overwhelming number of people milling about. Our last full day in Cardiff, we drove down there and parked by the train station and decided to walk around the way we hadn't been before toward the Norwegian Church which is now a coffee shop.
On the way, one passes the Celtic Ring first (I will not tell you what Nick said it was...*rolls eyes*):
And then the walk goes down this way:
Here's a view of the tourist office area from around the way:
And this statue may be familiar to some (and another picture of Nick--always diving into my shots, isn't he):
and this bizarre building, the Tube, is on the other side of the Norwegian Church:
I liked being in the Mermaid Quay area quite a bit. So did Nick...quiet, peaceful, as always friendly people abound, the cool breezes and the cloud formations were all things we enjoyed. I loved getting Starbucks and just relaxing, watching people (met up a nice young couple with their huskymute--a husky malamute boy who had been swimming for exercise--of course I had to chat with them! I think we helped them decide to get a second husky to wear out their boy as he was wearing THEM out), just enjoying being there, away from all the pressures of work, away from home and responsibilities, just being with Nick. That of course was the best of all.
I'll leave this post with a last lovely picture as the evening waned at last:
I miss it. Seriously. The weather, the clouds, the quiet hush, the coffee, the company. Just hanging out and relaxing. If I lived in Cardiff, I'd no doubt go there often. Take my dog for a swim in the water--Maddox would love that--take a book and read. Wish there was something like this in Fort Worth. Actually, there will be--lots of changes afoot in the future for my city--but it will be years, and it won't be in Wales.
Next up, we go on car adventures! Boe! The Atlantic Ocean and Suspicious Sheep! Windy turny curvey roads! Getting lost on C roads--omg okay not really but...well, just wait for that tale next time.
C&N
Be sure to click the pictures to make them bigger. Not sure I am completely in love with LJ's gallery, but it worked well enough.
We had a very long walk to get to the Bay. We walked that very long walk several times. Miles and miles, that long walk was--sometimes down Bute St., other times down Lloyd George. LOTS of exercise whenever one travels with Nick, let me tell you:
DISCLAIMER: The following pictures were taken over several visits.
We ended up at Mermaid Quay quite a few times--for hamburgers, for Starbucks, for beer, just to hang around a certain door and eavesdrop on passersby to see if anyone else knew what that door actually was (several did) and to just watch people walk about and do their thing.
I suppose first I should include a little chat about the Plas. Unfortunately, preparations for a strawberry(?) festival were underway. Okay I know it wasn't all about strawberries but that was the motif chosen, so that's stuck in my head.
First off, the Millennium Centre. From a distance, it is amazing. Up close? Even more amazing. I took several pictures I rather liked of it, and put one on my cell phone as the wallpaper.
What intrigued me was the part of the building connected to the big shiny bronze part. The material used was different colored slate, and glass. The effect is really quite stunning, shiny, and lavender-gray:
And here of course is what we always see in pictures. The first picture is my cell's wallpaper.
This building really is huge--it is stunning of course because of its shape, the words in English and Welsh. Standing underneath it and looking up was way cool.
For
amand_r, a couple of pictures of Nick. He has his man-purse in the one pic--because Bebe, Duckie and Puppet are tucked safely inside, lol (more Ask!World stuff for those who didn't follow the rpg):We were very sad. What with all the festivity preparation going on, we couldn't stand on the invisible lift. (okay maybe we were relieved? lol) The festival started the day we left so we didn't get to see what it was really all about:
View from the Plas--kind of above it, by the restaurants:
Hello, Mermaid Quay!
(I worked with a woman once who thought the word 'quay' would make a great name for her new son. She thought it was pronounced 'kway' and discovered otherwise when he was 2. LOL. He's probably in his 30's now. Grin.)
Or, one could walk around the other way, (and when you got at the end of the street, if you turned around you couldn't help but say WOW because then you could really see the Millennium Centre in all its imposing glory) and then--being careful not to be run over by taxis, to the little shopping area that leads directly to the Bay.
I found a slightly awkward to use but interesting street map of the area. Click it to see the big picture. Pretty nifty:
This little area had some shops and restaurants, bars, coffeehouses, etc. Since we were on a Welsh cake mission for
51stcenturyfox we decided to explore them first off. She wanted Welsh cakes from Cardiff and by golly she got them. This is a Welsh cake! Plain, cinnamon, lemon, plain...a couple of other flavors. Tasty! I hope Foxy liked them. My daughter liked hers.We watched them being cooked, right there in the store on a flat griddle. Really, they looked rather simple to make. I should find the recipe. I bought several for myself but Nick only had a tiny piece of one, shrugged. Just a biscuit-cookie-whatever... LOL. I had a lemon one a few days later and liked that one the best.
Imagine our hilarity though when we turned to the shelf opposite of where the store person was cooking and found THIS!
YES! SHEEP POO PAPER! A produced favored by the Ask!World, we were delighted to see postcards and stationery w/envelopes available. Nick knew right then what to do. So he bought Foxy her Welsh cakes, and lotsa post cards and cards. Grin. (These were of course later filled out on the beach in Sully).
All delighted now with our find, we exited the shop, noted a hamburger place (where we ate later--really good burgers, ridiculously huge and expensive--Gourmet Burger Kitchen was the name) and headed toward the tourist office door.
Of course, we stayed nice and calm. Did not let on to the people definitely not paying any attention to us what we were looking for. I regret now not taking more pictures of this area...it was nicely busy, a Starbuck's, a LOL American food place and the hamburger place, a second coffee shop RIGHT outside of Starbucks (and as I pointed out in a previous post--quite close enough for Max to fetch coffees if he went through the tourist office door and up the ramp.
With our best nonchalant moves, we headed for those stairs. YOU know which stairs and why we wanted to go down them... LOOKY!
And of course, I had to peek in (Nick was embarrassed to walk down there at first, the silly):
Not embarrassed at all, that's how I roll:
But I caught him looking, yes I did!
Looking down at our feet, this is what we saw, what we were walking on:
Do you recognize this face? We sure did.
(Apparently, the Slitheens were real!) Shiver.
And looking out we saw this:
Another view, with a good view of the hotel where JB and SG had their civil partnership ceremony:
BTW, N and I weren't impressed with the hotel much. It looked...grimy.
We liked to drink our Starbucks on this bench. At one point, a bunch of silly 12-13 year old girls asked Nick to take a picture of them--was I ever that silly, giggly? No. Never. Seriously, I never was. I was into camping. Really! I was a Girl Scout!
One night, we decided to go have a beer at the bar that is right over the tourist office:
We made our way in, and ordered BRAINS, which is of course produced in Cardiff. The plant is right in the heart of the downtown area. Nick had the hardcore and I had the wimp version. It was hard to drink at first but somehow I managed to get it all down. LOL.
We had to pay a deposit for the glasses because they had BRAINS on them then decided after much discussion to keep them. We sat outside, grinning as we listened to the other patrons chattered--there were two guys who made us laugh a bit. They were in Cardiff, as so many were, for the cricket (the Ashes was going on the second half of the week) and were discussing how they were to take the water bus, as it is called, up to the Ashes site. How to describe these two? *rolls eyes* They were English. (Next day, we saw them again, still good-naturedly arguing...and waiting for their boat).
Nick finished his glass and set it next to him on the bench...we were talking about this and that (which we do alot of lol) and he looked down and someone had traded his Brains glass for a regular one! Guess they wanted our deposit. Found another one and we scooted off with both glasses at that point. They made it back to Germany and are now both in Nick's cabinet. Excellent!
We also got two excellent mugs from Starbucks. So big! Perfect for soup as well as coffee of course :) I use mine alot:
And of course, once we finally got our luggage, and Bebe, Puppet and Duckie arrived, Nick wanted to take pictures of them at the tourist office door. (If this isn't the ultimate example of fandorkdom, I don't know what is! It was fun though, and of course I had to take pictures of Nick placing them: I am evil like that.)
Here they are posing before their upcoming photo shoot:
And Duckie on the bench, no doubt wishing he had some coffee:
Nick working to get Puppet just so:
Puppet in place:
And of course, the famous Bebe herself:
Mission accomplished, and no one looked at us strangely. Of course, we were there during a workday, when it was very quiet...smart huh. (The fewer to witness our dorkiness, the better, right.)
Oh! Nearly forgot--here's a lovely picture Nick took. Be sure to click for the bigger view:
We had fish and chips there but I think we both thought eating them at a restaurant took away all the fun:
At night, this area is really fairly quiet. Like the rest of Cardiff, there isn't an overwhelming number of people milling about. Our last full day in Cardiff, we drove down there and parked by the train station and decided to walk around the way we hadn't been before toward the Norwegian Church which is now a coffee shop.
On the way, one passes the Celtic Ring first (I will not tell you what Nick said it was...*rolls eyes*):
And then the walk goes down this way:
Here's a view of the tourist office area from around the way:
And this statue may be familiar to some (and another picture of Nick--always diving into my shots, isn't he):
and this bizarre building, the Tube, is on the other side of the Norwegian Church:
I liked being in the Mermaid Quay area quite a bit. So did Nick...quiet, peaceful, as always friendly people abound, the cool breezes and the cloud formations were all things we enjoyed. I loved getting Starbucks and just relaxing, watching people (met up a nice young couple with their huskymute--a husky malamute boy who had been swimming for exercise--of course I had to chat with them! I think we helped them decide to get a second husky to wear out their boy as he was wearing THEM out), just enjoying being there, away from all the pressures of work, away from home and responsibilities, just being with Nick. That of course was the best of all.
I'll leave this post with a last lovely picture as the evening waned at last:
I miss it. Seriously. The weather, the clouds, the quiet hush, the coffee, the company. Just hanging out and relaxing. If I lived in Cardiff, I'd no doubt go there often. Take my dog for a swim in the water--Maddox would love that--take a book and read. Wish there was something like this in Fort Worth. Actually, there will be--lots of changes afoot in the future for my city--but it will be years, and it won't be in Wales.
Next up, we go on car adventures! Boe! The Atlantic Ocean and Suspicious Sheep! Windy turny curvey roads! Getting lost on C roads--omg okay not really but...well, just wait for that tale next time.
C&N
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(no subject)
Date: 2009-07-26 03:02 pm (UTC)Too bad Bebe was sans Myfanwy. I'm thinking about making a pteranodon (knit) as soon as I finish my gajillion other projects and if I did we could totes have the wedding at the reunion we sadly can't have.
(no subject)
Date: 2009-07-26 04:41 pm (UTC)OMG that would be cute. Another knitter! What's with this fandom? :)
(no subject)
Date: 2009-07-26 03:05 pm (UTC)OMG you guys no longer make me feel dorky about what Blue and I did yesterday at the museum.
(no subject)
Date: 2009-07-26 04:11 pm (UTC)So, you gonna share? I hope so! I wanna hear all about your adventures!
(no subject)
Date: 2009-07-26 05:47 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-07-26 03:05 pm (UTC)What a lovely time you must have had, and what great memories you brought home. Thanks so much for sharing them with us!
(no subject)
Date: 2009-07-26 04:22 pm (UTC)YES wonderful memories, just amazing. I am glad I decided (and had a reason, you guys) to write all this down before I forgot it--as it was I had to look some things up!
(no subject)
Date: 2009-07-26 03:49 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-07-26 04:33 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-07-26 05:01 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-07-26 08:41 pm (UTC)And yeah that sounds weird about 'being Texan' but you know how empty it is here--we see lotsa skies and I usually, on return from a trip, get a sense of 'oh yes, my big skies! no more claustrophia!' even though I don't have it. LOL.
This time, I did not have that feeling. I loved Wales ridiculously much, and the beautiful clouds and skies were a huge part of why.
More pictures to come...
(no subject)
Date: 2009-07-26 08:15 pm (UTC)Next time I'm in the area, I'll make a little time to explore. Thanks for the inspiration.
(no subject)
Date: 2009-07-26 08:42 pm (UTC)But now and then? Yes...enjoyed being there, will go back next Spring...using Cardiff and Ty Rosa the BEST B&B around lol as a jumping-off point. Home base.
(no subject)
Date: 2009-07-26 10:05 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-07-26 08:47 pm (UTC)Is that what you can see in an aerial shot from google maps? B/c if so, I have to agree w/ his assessment...
I think the posing of the puppets does beat me posing in the medieval torture device section of the museum from yesterday. Nick is officially dorkier. Sweet!
(no subject)
Date: 2009-07-26 08:48 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-07-27 06:42 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-07-27 07:49 pm (UTC)Lovely lovely pics this time around though. I especially love the one looking up at the sign.