Cardiff

July 15, 2025

Our hotel was in an excellent location. This is the view from our room overlooking a portion of Cardiff Castle with Bute Park behind it.

The castle was built in the late 11th century.

Bute Park was AMAZING! It's over 7 miles long.

There are over 3000 species of trees.

Not an ancient site (built in the 1970's).

We didn't mind the drizzle on our walking tour since it had still been warm in Cardiff.

Known as the City of Arcades, Cardiff has more Victorian and Edwardian arcades than any other city in the UK. Under glass covered passageways, you'll find over 100 shops, cafes, bars, and restaurants from family-run businesses to big name brands.

Spillers is the oldest record shop in the world (1894).

Of course, we must go to the local Farmers Market!

The busiest stall was Bakestones. It had a line of about 10-12 people.

They are known for their Welsh cakes that had many different flavors.

Although they looked like a dried-out scone, they were quite fluffy and tasty.

The market was formerly a prison (gaol) adjacent to a square where they did public hangings. The last public hanging was in 1857 where 12,000 people showed up for the hanging of a man who had murdered his wife.

Every sign is in both Welsh and English. Welsh hadn't been taught in schools for years but recently was reinstated so that the language doesn't die out.

Literally EVERYTHING is in both languages... grocery stores, menus, the sides of garbage trucks, etc.

Rugby is the national sport and they are fanatical about it. However, their national team just won it's first game in two years!

Our hotel was right next to the stadium, but there were no games while we were there.

Saw a few of these around the downtown area.

At this pro-Palestine rally, they were reading the names of the people who have died. I wonder how long it takes to read nearly 60,000 names?

Wow! That's $1,355! I'd hate to be out walking a dog without a poop bag.

July 16, 2025

In the Castle Arcade for breakfast.

These giant breakfasts are how you can walk 20,000 steps a day and STILL gain weight!

We decided to take a very long walk to the end of Cardiff Bay.

Some interesting benches along the way.

Several beautiful abandoned buildings.

I wonder how much...?

This is named “Radio Flat Holm,” a four-metre-tall hardwood sculpture of a radio commemorating the first wireless radio transmission over open water from Lavernock Point in Cardiff to Flat Holm Island in 1897.

Having a pastry so we can use the bathroom... not a bad tradeoff. I'm using the umbrella because the sun was quite strong.

We can take the water taxi all the way back to the downtown area.

Great area around the Millennium Center in Cardiff Bay.

We ventured inside the Pierhead building to see the exhibit about the importance of coal in the Cardiff early days.

But it was the building itself that was way more impressive!

We are back in Cardiff to have lunch at Fresh that supposedly has the best baguette sandwiches ever. Our guide told us yesterday that there is always a long line. We were happy that it looked quite short, not realizing there was a sign on the orange and white post letting us know that the queue...

...went down a side alleyway. We decided to stay and it was 45 minutes before we ordered our lunch.

Thankfully, they did not lie and it WAS the best baguette sandwich ever! The husband and wife owners are the only two people working at the front of the line and they've been doing this for 25 years.

We made a last-minute decision to go back to Cardiff Bay to see The Book of Mormon at the Millennium Center.

It was a beautiful venue and the play was hilarious. A great night to end in this wonderful city --- a place that we could definitely live!