(Cardiff, Wales, United Kingdom)

Cardiff is the largest city in Wales and it’s hard to avoid if you are travelling in southern Wales. We actually visited it twice on this trip: once (briefly) on the way to Llandrindod Wells, and then again for a night before continuing our around-the-world adventure.

My first impression of Cardiff wasn’t great. Of course, this was the area around the train station…and sometimes that isn’t the most wonderful part of town. It looked a little rough around the edges, and I frankly didn’t see much that I wanted to explore further when we returned for an overnight stay.

When we returned two weeks later, our hotel was just a little bit northeast of the station district. When we got there, we were pleased to discover (1) a very good hotel, and (2) a completely different vibe to the neighbourhood around our hotel. The pedestrianized main street felt less seedy and much safer than the (also mostly pedestrianized) streets that ran north from the train station area.

After checking in, we went for a walk around Cardiff’s imposing castle (see photo at very top of this post). We didn’t actually go inside the walls separating the castle from the city, but vowed to do so the next morning. We also explored the large park (and river) to the north of the castle.

Hunger soon set in, and after two weeks of fairly traditional British food, we were ready for a change. We opted for a Thai restaurant on a cozy side street near the castle…and had a very good meal there. I’ll include some pictures in my next post. We also had a very relaxed (and excellent) breakfast in our hotel the next morning. We can definitely recommend the Indigo Hotel, even if the floor plans were a little baffling.

But a funny thing happened after that. We needed to pick up a couple of items for next part of our trip, and we found ourselves having more of a snacking/shopping day. Soon, it became clear that we wouldn’t have enough time to properly explore the castle. That would have to wait for a return vist. To celebrate our decision, we had a high-end gelato experience at Amorino.

Okay, so it turns out that Amorino is a chain. They even have a Canadian location in Montreal. And all of their locations feature gelato served in an unusual “flower petal” format. But the origins are indeed Italian, and the gelato was excellent. Vacations are better with the occasional treat like that! In a bizarre coincidence, I just discovered that I had taken a photo of Amorino in Paris 8 years ago…but we didn’t actually go in then. I’m glad we did in Cardiff.

We wandered around the historic Cardiff Market – an indoor, two-storey collection of independent food “trucks”, specialty shops, and even a record store. I picked up some Indian food to go, and before long it was time to start thinking about catching the express bus to Heathrow Airport.

After a little bit of confusion at the depot, I was quite happy with the National Express airport bus. Taking it from Cardiff saved us a lot of time and hassle. The bus arrival area at Heathrow is a little chaotic, but we also knew that we would be able to decompress in a departure lounge before catching our flight to Bangkok, Thailand. And we would have a nice stopover there (4 hours, including a shower and another nice lounge) before catching our onward flight to Melbourne, Australia. I had booked that seemingly seamless itinerary way back in January.

But even the best-laid plans can go wrong. Stay tuned for the story of what really happened…