Mini-break in Cardiff

Last week was the half-term holiday for school kids, so we took the opportunity to take a mini-break to Cardiff (or Caerdydd in Welsh). My approach to identifying Cardiff as our destination of choice was very simple: I googled a map of the UK, looked around at cities that seemed not too far from London and were relatively largeish and (most importantly) I had already heard of, and said, "ooh Cardiff. How do you like the sound of that?" Keith said it sounded good to him. This is why we're married.

We took the bus from downtown London (which required a bit of backtracking westwards) and in about 3 hours were in the city centre. Cardiff is a lovely Ottawa-sized city, the capital of Wales. Although my selection of this destination was pretty random, it was a great choice for a short holiday. Our super-budget hotel was ideally located between downtown Cardiff (to the north) and Cardiff Bay (on the Bristol Channel to the south) about 15 minutes walking distance from each.

When we arrived in Cardiff we passed by some North American-sounding tourists in the midst of asking each other the age-old question: What language do the Welsh speak? One really interesting aspect of Cardiff (and another reason why it reminded us of Ottawa) is its bilingualism. All the English-Welsh signs were interesting to look at and try to pronounce (we had more success with the English parts). Our hotel tv also had an all-Welsh channel that made for some fascinating (if mindless, on our part) listening.

One of the highlights of our trip was a visit to Cardiff Castle - - like many historic sites in the UK the site has been in use as a fort or castle for 2000 years (originally by the Romans) but the current buildings date from 1000AD and the late 19th century (a wealthy local family moved in to the castle grounds and added some fantastical buildings to live in, in the gothic revival style). We also visited the National Museum Cardiff (or Amgueddfa Genedlaethol Caerdydd in Welsh) which houses historic information about the geological and early history of Wales as well as an art gallery on the second floor. There are some very interesting exhibits about the early people of Wales including lots of archeological findings - arrowheads, pots and jewelry - and some paintings and portraiture by Welsh artists of the 18th and 19th centuries. We also went to a fantastic concert held at St. David's Hall (or Neuadd Dewi Sant) in the centre of town, played by the Orchestra of the Welsh National Opera - Rachmaninov's Isle of the Dead, Ravel's piano concerto in G, and Stravinsky's Firebird Suite were fantastic.

We finished our trip on Saturday with a walk down to Cardiff Bay and a waterbus tour across the bay. A barrage built about 10 years ago has created a freshwater lake and has also resulted in the increasing worth of waterfront property - there were many new condos all along the waterfront and this has hopefully brought greater prosperity to the city.

We would love to go back to Wales in the future and see more of the countryside. Perhaps when we are a bit braver about driving in the UK we will!