Twelve of us, eleven members from the Aston and the Rotherham groups along with a former member from Dudley NWR made their fourth annual city break to Cardiff in early May 2016. On previous trips we have visited Glasgow, Bath and Newcastle.
We travelled by train, arriving at our hotel early Friday afternoon. Some of us took the Hop On/Hop Off bus as an orientation tour whilst others set out to explore the city on foot. We all met up for dinner then some of us went to the cinema to see the Meryl Streep in Florence Foster Jenkins – highly recommended – while the others walked to the waterfront.
On Saturday morning some visited the Millennium Centre then went on to visit the Welsh Assembly where they were lucky enough to see a new MP being sworn in. Others did a 2 hour historical walking tour while the rest visited the National Museum of Wales. After getting together at a rather nice Bohemian cafe – Garlands – to sample delicious Welsh delights in the form of Welsh Rarebit and Welsh cakes then everyone visited The Castle
Saturday evening we ate at a Turkish restaurant – The Bosphorus – overlooking the harbour. Sunday morning the group visited the green heart of the city – Bute Park – then took the Aquabus down to the harbour where we ended our trip with a long lunch or a walk along the barrage,
We were all pleasantly surprised by what Cardiff has to offer – far more than we were able to fit into a weekend – and the friendliness of the Welsh people. It was well worth a visit.
