When we left for the train at 7:45 am, I was worried that the weather was going to be miserable. The forecast for Cardiff was a high temperature in the low 40s Fahrenheit and a 70% chance of rain. Looking out of the windows on the train ride, our spirits lifted as we saw white clouds with some bursts of blue sky. Since being in England I have learned to appreciate any little bit of blue that manages to peep through the almost constant cloud cover.
However, all of these hopes were dashed when we emerged from a long underground tunnel under the Severn River into Wales, to be greeted with a sky that was dark with an almost greenish tinge. All l could think was, "What have we gotten ourselves in to?" and "Don't worry. They do not get tornados here in England even if those clouds do look really ominous."
We had to transfer trains several times in Cardiff until we reached the stop for Cardiff Bay. By this time we were running late, it was 11:45 am and the entrance time on of Doctor Who Experience tickets was for between 11:00 am and 12:00 pm. We were planning to use Libby's iPhone for directions but neither the Apple version or the Google version were working properly, so we walked briskly towards the bay since we knew that it was somewhere in that area.
We were in such a rush that we had little time to appreciate the fact that it was actually very sunny with fluffy white clouds in the sky. Time ticked on until we found a tourist information centre and the woman working kindly gave us a map and the directions we needed. We just needed to walk right along the bay for about ten minutes to get to the Doctor Who Experience, and even though we arrived ten minutes after 12:00 pm, the employees did not even check our designated times on our tickets. We had been worried that they would not let us in.
(Full details on my time at the Doctor Who Experience are posted here)
After leaving the Doctor Who Experience, we strolled casually along the waterfront admiring the modern architecture of the surrounding buildings and the way the sun glistened on the water of the bay. The rays of sun made it feel unusually warm and we unbuttoned our coats and found little use for our scarves and gloves.
We were starving by this time and decided to take the recommendation of our British friend Beth's friend Daniel who studied in Cardiff, and eat at Eddie's American Diner. It might seem strange to want to eat American food while abroad, but sometimes it is just nice to be able to look at a menu and know every dish being offered.
Eddie's American Diner was a long, rectangular restaurant decorated like a 1950s diner. Red, vinyl booths lined the right-hand wall with the open kitchen on the left, separated by a counter with bar stools. All of the booths inside were taken so we had to sit at the tables outside, though it was colder now that we were in the shade. The tables outside were small and silver with two matching chairs on one side and a red and black bench seat designed to look like that of the seats in a 1950s car on the other. The place looked strangely familiar to us. We figured out why when Amy returned from the restroom to tell us that a scene in a Doctor Who episode had been filmed in the restaurant.
We all ordered various kinds of burgers
and a side order of french fries to share. This diner at the little
things that we had been missing since leaving America. Things like
ice in your drinks, the square, orange cheese slices, and, for me
personally, mustard for my burger. The only thing not typically
American were the buns which tasted freshly baked with a crisp
outside instead of the soft, full of preservative kind that we would
have gotten in the States.
Sitting at our table deciding what to
do next, we watched as an employee left the Starbucks Coffee Shop
next door with a tray of free samples. All we could see in the cups
was a bunch of whipped cream, we wanted to try some even though we
had no idea what it was. We then walked by her post on the sidewalk,
trying not look like we had taken that route for the express purpose
of being offered the samples. The small red, Christmas themed cups
were filled with a new toffee flavored coffee that was actually
pretty good considering I do not typically enjoy anything coffee
flavored. The best part though was the frothy whipped cream sprinkled
with crunchy toffee bits.
Our coffee cups in hand, we walked back
to Roald Dahl Plass to take pictures of the Millennium Centre and the
Millennium Tower. The Millennium Centre is the setting for operas,
plays and concerts. It is a newer building constructed in a modern
architectural style, its most notable feature being the curved, copper frontage embellished with the phrase "In These Stones Horizons Sing," in both English and
Welsh.
 |
| Millennium Centre |
The Millennium Water Tower is a semi-circular sliver tower set directly across from the Millennium Centre. It is basically a tall water feature, with water cascading down its flat, metallic sides. This area of Cardiff Bay was also strange to be in
because I had seen these sites before when watching Doctor Who
and its spin-off series Torchwood.
 |
| Millenium Water Tower |
Knowing that it would be dark in
several hours, we chose to leave Cardiff Bay and head into the city centre to visit The Cardiff Story, a free museum
about the history of the city. I found it very interesting because it
was more interactive than most museums and it focused more on the
individuals who had lived in the city throughout the years.
All of the exhibits were found in one
main room with alcoves dedicated to different subjects like the coal
and steel industry, the docklands and the city's beginnings. One
station held a dollhouse with each side showing the progression of
family life over the past two hundred years. The little rooms were
decorated for the time period with hand carved wooden people. With
the press of a button some parts of the people would start moving.
The little boys sitting at the dinner table holding knives and forks
bang their fists on the table. The modern woman typed loudly on her
laptop while her husband was in the kitchen cooking.
Caitlin, Amy and Libby had a fun time
rolling a dice which was just light dots projected on a table which
you touched to roll, and then moving their pieces along a game board
designed to relfect the history of Cardiff. The person with the
train piece invariably won because it was so much more useful to the
development of the city than the horse piece.
We exited the Cardiff Story just before it closed at 5:00pm. Not wanting to wander around Cardiff in the dark, we decided to end our day trip and return to the Cardiff Central train station. Luckily, we only had to wait on the train platform for about twenty minutes as the temperature had dropped considerably with the setting of the sun.
The nearly two hour train ride was uneventful. I wrote notes for my day to aid it writing blog posts later (this post in fact) and then spent the rest of the ride listening to an audiobook version of Peter Pan on my iPod.
Our first day trip was deemed a success. Our main goal of visiting the Doctor Who Experience was attained, and it never rained more than a brief sprinkle.
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