Cardiff

Cardiff is a place on our bucket list mostly for the Dr Who experience. We decided to go for a couple of days during our half-term break as we could get there by a very cheap 3.5 hour bus trip. It technically means you could do Cardiff in a day, as some people on our bus were doing, but we wanted more time to explore, so we booked a night in a hotel.

Cardiff is a beautiful city, especially draped in the colours of autumn. The people seemed friendlier than in London, moving out of each other's way with a smile instead of barging through. The houses that lined the main streets are perfectly beautiful, with gorgeous front gardens, though I know not all of Cardiff will be like that.

It was fun to see all the signs written in English as well as Welsh - I'd have as much luck pronouncing it from the signs as I could any of the Asian languages. Having the two days meant we were able to do the Dr Who experience, explore the bay around it. It also gave us time to wander around Sophia Park, Cardiff Castle, and through the enormous city centre full of shops. We went through that centre about five times, each time turning a corner to a new section of yet more shops we hadn't seen before. I feel like we could spend the two days just familiarising ourselves with this section alone. I could easily spend days on end in Sophia Park, though I don't necessarily feel the need to go back to the castle.

Between exploring Sophia Gardens and the castle, we stopped for a lunch of Afternoon Tea at Pettigrew Tea Rooms, located in a building that is part of the Animal Wall. This was a unique afternoon tea in that we were able to choose the fillings of the sandwiches - we chose salmon and cream cheese, ham and mustard, and brie and fruit chutney. Each of them was delicious, I don't think I could pick a favourite! The second tier of our stand had our scones sitting with little pots of clotted cream and strawberry jam that was so thick it was almost like a gel. The scones were perfectly fluffy and paired with the toppings wonderfully. Following this was a slice of cake of our choice, instead of the usual selection of mini cakes. We were so full, however, that we opted to have these boxed for us to take away to have later (on the bus back to London that night actually!). To accompany all this we both chose a luxury hot chocolate (we'd both had a lot of tea at breakfast, and it was true hot chocolate weather). These were thick, rich hot chocolates topped with a full layer of mini marshmallows, further topped by a mountain of whipped cream. In hindsight, perhaps the pot of peach white tea would have been better, the hot chocolate was a meal on it's own.

Although it was a short trip, we loved every minute of it, even if we walked so much we had swollen feet and cramping legs by the end of it. We will definitely be back to visit again, in amongst our other European travels. If we decide to stay for the second year of visas, we may just do it from Cardiff instead of London!