Well, we've been lucky again. We arrived in Cardiff on Friday afternoon and checked into our hotel. We walked up to the city centre and spent some time looking around there. It was busy but not very interesting - lots of 'high street' shops, chain restaurants, discount shops, etc. It's all been pedestrianised so its easy to get around, but pretty uninteresting really. When we got back to the hotel we decided to walk the other way, down to the dock area. WOW, was this a way good idea! It was the Cardiff Food and Drink Festival!!
We spent some time down at Mermaid Quay, had some dinner in a very nice Italian restaurant and went back to the hotel. We decided to spend Saturday enjoying the festival and the fabulous dock area. It's all been redeveloped and is fantastic. Melbourne's Docklands should come here to see how it's done! The weather is lovely - blue skies, sun and temps in the high 20's!
We spent most of Saturday down at the dock area. It's a very big area with lots of nice restaurants, museums, theatres, exhibitions, boat trips, sailing lessons, bars, farmers market and even the BBC. They make several programs here including Doctor Who. It's a really excellent redevelopment. At the moment it is also holding the Food and Drink Festival so it's absolutely packed. There is plenty of free entertainment and a great variety of food and drink.
We went on a boat trip around the bay to see the sights. It was lots of fun. We saw the raised bridge that opens to allow large boats into the bay as they have sealed off this end from the more industrial end that was where the coal was exported from. We saw the barrage which is the man made strip. This makes Cardiff Bay a huge marina as well as a fantastic entertainment area. We saw lots of swans and cygnets . They have retained a large area as a wildlife area and lots of water birds live and breed there. They even have a white water rafting centre!
We had a lovely day. Next stop Ross-on-Wye.....
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You really have been so lucky to have been present for soooo many incidental events and festivals!
ReplyDeleteEnjoy the warm weather.
Miss you both heaps! Xxxxx
Thank goodness you pre-booked your accom with all these unexpected major events popping up everywhere you go!!!Cardiff looks absolutely lovely. Did you go into The Doctor Who experience? The meal you photographed looked absolutely scrummy.
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