Na rathaidean fada, lùbach tro Chuimrigh agus Alba

Today’s trivia:

According to Cardiff tourism . . .

Cardiff is buzzing with spring activity, featuring Six Nations rugby excitement, new local food openings in Cardiff Market, and cultural performances at the Wales Millennium Centre🤔

The national flower is the daffodil and the national vegetable is the leek.

And again, the day started with . . .

There’s a gremlin in our room . . .

the air conditioning! It comes on every 5mins. I couldn’t work out how to stop so told reception. They sent maintenance up. All fixed they said. Well it was until 12am, 2am, 4am, 4:05am, 4:10am, 4:15am etc, etc. You get the picture? Told reception this morning (again) and they’ll send maintenance up, again!

Cardiff must be off the tourist radar as we haven’t seen any . . .

First mistake of the day, was we drove to Cardiff Castle in lieu of the 41min walk. It took us about 40min to drive to the carpark and an additional 5min to the castle.

Second mistake was parking in a car park. It was almost as expensive as the castle entry fee plus guided tour for the both of us.

The guided tour was excellent and the tour guide was very knowledgeable and his voice was easy listening.

The podgy bachelor art-architect, William Burges designed the rebuild of the castle for the 3rd Marquess of Bute who made his fortune from coal mining.

A roman wall from 4th century was found during reno works and has been reconstructed. It’s about 50m long and opposite is a brass mural also 50m long depicting Roman times.

The Men Only Room . .

The arab room with gold leafing everywhere. Why? Because the 3rd Marquess of Bute could afford it . . .

Modern bathroom fixtures . . .

The Animal wall near the castle . . .

We then did some window shopping in Cardiff’s historic arcades. They are a bit like the Strand Arcade.

After a not too memorable coffee we went to Roath Park for a stroll around the lake. Parking was free✔️. Toilets free✔️✔️. Park was enjoyable✔️

On the way, a random house surrounded by roads . . .

and in the park . . .

a soft serve with a flake. My currency for ice creams is based on a raspberry ice block. I could have had about 5 or so ice blocks for one soft serve and flake😱

Lots of birds . . .

Lots of greenery and flowers . . .

Another monumemt to Scott . . .

Arriving back at the hotel reception, who knew us very well by now said the air conditioning has been fixed🤔. At the room we checked the air con out before putting the key into the key thingie to activate the power. All looked good. With power on, all looked good🤞. The air con remained off.

We had dinner downstairs in the brasserie. The specials looked pretty good and cheap . . .

I asked the waitress how big are the bowls. The waitress said that was for the dogs that stay at the hotel. The waitress was horrified when I asked for the carrots, apple & cucumber sticks tapas. She said that was for the dog’s also. I still asked why can’t I order the tapas? She just looked at me blankly😪

I suppose the doggy word should have given it away but I thought it’s a Welch thing seeing the mains didn’t have “doggy bowl”.

So we both settled on the spatchcock. It was the biggest spatchcock we’ve ever seen and I struggled to finish it. PS: didn’t think to take a photo.

Back at the room, the air con was still off🙏.

Today’s travels . . .

Coming soon, I hope once connectivity is regained