I’ve just had a great 24 hours in the Cardiff area. The
weekend was booked months ago. It was
one of those annual outings to meet old friends that George usually declined to
attend. But he always provided a chauffeur service either to the area we chose,
or to and from a convenient railway station. I hadn’t thought that I’d have to
make my own arrangements this time, and it took some thought and organisation.
Cardiff is north-west from here. Going from my nearest
railway station, though, would involve travelling directly east to Southampton
before going north to Salisbury and changing to the line that heads westwards.
It would be very expensive and take so long I wouldn’t have the time I wanted
at my destination unless I went the day before.
Driving all the way would wear me out and I’d be so nervous about
finding the hotel and parking etc. it would spoil my enjoyment of the reunion.
In the end I decided to drive to Salisbury – a bit under an
hour away by road - and paid for a private parking space with justpark.com,
thinking it would be safer than leaving the car overnight in the station car
park. That should have been a perfect solution if I hadn’t found someone else
parked in the space allocated to me. And if the owner of it had not been working
all night in a hotel and had to be woken by my urgent phone calls so he could get
up to sort it out. I had to double park behind his car and leave him my key.
But he would be at work when I returned for the car the next evening, so we
also had to agree a hiding place where I could find it.
That sorted, the rest of the journey was a straightforward
train journey. Coming back was another
story that involved a bus journey between two stations because of work being
done on the railway line. I determined to avoid thinking about that while I was with my friends - and abut whether I’d be able to get my car and drive home through the Dorset countryside
in the dark.
Isn’t it great when you can get together with people you
only see about once a year and find you are just picking up where you left off? We met in a pub at noon and spent some time there, then went off by bus to
Cardiff Bay to see how it has been developed.
We were quite impressed. It was heaving with people who were not all from
the UK. We took a look at the Norwegian Church where Roald Dahl was baptised.
That was a little disappointing since, although it has a perfect black and
white exterior and some stained glass windows, the inside has been turned into
a café. (The pristine toilets were appreciated though.)
photo by Pauline Eccles
Months ago I had booked us all into the Mount Sorrel Hotel
in Barry, a few miles from Cardiff. Hotels in Cardiff were either far too
expensive or full up, probably because Cardiff were playing Leeds (at football/soccer) in the city
that afternoon. We timed our travels to avoid meeting up with fans and were in
Barry for the evening. The hotel was a gem, inexpensive so we weren’t expecting
any frills, and didn’t need them. Full English breakfast was included and the
rooms were comfortable. £30 is very reasonable for all that.
The next morning we took the 10 am train back to Cardiff to
visit the castle.
photo by Wolfgang Sauber
When I’d been in Cardiff before, it had been for work and I’d
never had time for sightseeing. I had walked past the castle many times with no
time to visit, so I had looked forward to that. And I wasn’t disappointed. I
think a description of it will need to be covered in another post as I’m now
running out of time.
I was on the 2.40 train for the first leg of my journey
home, which all went to plan despite my anxieties. At about 6.50 I was welcomed
back by Jade who had been collected by my son from the dog minder. He had also undertaken
to cook a roast dinner for us before going back to the flat he shares with his
girlfriend, so they could get ready for work on Monday morning. They said they thought it was better for me than coming back to an empty house.
I must count my blessings.
2 comments:
Sounds like a really interesting weekend. My only knowledge of the word "Cardiff" is the association with the hoax in New York known as the Cardiff Giant.
Hi Joan. Thanks for introducing me to the Cardiff Giant. In the UK, Cardiff is the capital city of Wales and has been known as such since the 1950s when the new Queen Elizabeth came to the throne and wanted to visit all her capitals. Cardiff's castle was first built in the late 11th century on the site of an ancient Roman fort. There are still echoes of the Roman site to be found, and of the earlier castle buildings, but of course it has been remodelled and changed a lot over the years.
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