Because the Peugeot had been pranged, we took a punt on a Punto
to get our wheels on to Wales, thereby taking a car to another country. It was now
nine months on from the last time we’d driven a car (Week
8), but this time instead of collecting it from the outskirts of London at the
airport, all we had to do was walk around the corner and collect the easyCar Club
Fiat Punto. This was convenient, but also a bit daunting. Brendan nervously took
control, having never really been in control of a moving vehicle within central
London before.
We managed to make it out of the city and onto the motorway without
incident. Cruising along we detoured in to grab some breakfast and eventually crossed
the Second Severn Crossing, a bridge of over five kilometres long between England
and Wales, above the River Severn. There are tolls on the motorway to cover the
cost of crossing the bridge, but oddly you are only charged to drive from England
into Wales while there are no tolls to on the return journey from Wales to England.
Around two and half hours since leaving home, we arrived at the
Cardiff East Park and Ride where we left the car for the day, and boarded a bus
into the city. Something that is perhaps not widely known is that even though everyone
in Wales speaks English, Welsh is a language in its own right and most of the street
signs are written in both Welsh and English.
As we strolled around we saw Cardiff Castle, one of Cardiff’s
main tourist attractions. We didn't pay to go in (the ticket price seemed quite
steep), so settled with viewing what we could see of the complex from the main entrance.
From there we wandered through the street markets, picking up
a Welsh souvenir and gardening book (so Brendan can recreate a British garden once
we are back in Australia), heading towards Cardiff Bay.
Ronald Dahl Plass is a large public plaza at the centre of Cardiff
Bay, named after the Cardiff-born author. The plaza is bordered on one side by shops
and restaurants, and on the other by the contemporary Wales Millennium Centre and
historic Pierhead Building. Architecturally, the imposing Millennium Centre has
been constructed of timber, slate, steel and glass, with a huge Welsh/English bilingual
inscription on the front façade - the Welsh “Creu Gwir Fel Gwydr o Ffwrnais Awen”
which translates to “Creating truth like glass from the furnace of inspiration”
and the English, “In These Stones Horizons Sing”.
The Pierhead Building faces onto the bay and when completed in
1897, originally housed offices for the dock company. Its clock above is unofficially
referred to as the Welsh Big Ben.
We ducked into a café adjoining the Millennium Centre for an
afternoon snack, complete with bilingual menus, before heading back into the city
centre to catch the return Park & Ride bus out to the car.
Highlights:
- Picked up our easyCar Fiat Punto
- First time driving a car in nine months
- Second Severn Crossing bridge
- Cardiff Castle
- Street markets
- Cardiff Bay
- Ronald Dahl Plass
- Wales Millennium Centre
- Pierhead Building
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