Our 2 day trip to Cardiff

(OK we went on this trip in October and I have only just got around to posting the blog...trying to get up to date you see - Enjoy!)

When I booked a week off work for half term I was determined that we would do something as a family.

Bill and Bret have always wanted to visit Cardiff to see where Doctor Who / Torchwood is made so I did a bit of research and booked an Hotel and then booked train tickets complete with seat reservations to get us there and back.

Tuesday morning I was up at 7am to get showered. I packed my things and made sandwiches for the train. Our taxi turned up late and seemed to take the longest slowest way to the station that he could. We got to the station with seconds to spare and ran in and jumped onto the train.
I had reserved a table for us but the train wasn't very busy for a change.
On the next table was a couple who had booked first class but the walk down to first was too far for them so they stayed in standard, What a big waste of money.

The journey flew by and soon we were pulling into Cardiff central.

We didn't have to looked hard for our hotel as it was right next to the station but we had a couple of hours to kill until we could check-in so we went in search of lunch. We walked around the city centre until we came across a little back street cafe called Servinis. It was obviously very popular as it was very busy.

Bret chose to have a Chinese chicken baguette and Bill had a plate of chips whilst I had a Jacket Potato with Cheese and Onion. It was huge and it was gorgeous.
After lunch it was time to go check in at our hotel.
This was a first for the children as they have never stayed at a hotel before and a first for us as a family as we usually get cramped into a caravan.

The Hotel is Sleeperz and although it is quite small and compact it is really nice - in fact the rooms were just right.
The kids were in a twin room with bunk beds a walk in shower and plasma TV. They had a massive floor to ceiling window with a great view of Cardiff.

I had a nice little double room with an en suite shower room a little desk and the most comfy double bed EVER!

Once we were all settled we went out to catch the bus to Cardiff bay.
We got on the bendy bus that goes all the way to the Bay. Only we didn't go anywhere for 20 minutes as the lights were broken and stuck on red. There was a long queue of traffic behind us but the driver refused to go because of safety of the public crossing the road.
Finally we were on our way and we weren't completely sure where we were going until I saw the Red Dragon centre and we got off there.

The Red Dragon centre is huge. It is basically an Entertainment centre including several restaurants, Multi-plex cinema, Bowling alley and of course the Doctor Who museum. Red Dragon FM is also located there and there is a big shopping complex, night clubs and dtive thru restaurants.

The main reason for the visit was the Doctor Who Museum so that is where we headed for straight away. We got special wristbands and if we had so desired we could use them to get in all day if we wanted to go out and come back later.

We spent a good hour in there looking at all the exhibits and taking lots of photos.

When we had been round the whole thing several times, we went for a Hot Chocolate and a piece of cake. Then we headed off to the bay to see where Torchwood is made. It was really weird walking down the paths that we have seen the TW team walk down so many times before and we even found the Door to the TW hub that had been turned into a shrine to Ianto Jones.


It was getting late and we were getting peckish. We fancied Pizza but all the pizza places seemed to be really busy with lots of people waiting so in the end we found a 50s diner and went in for a burger. It is a really cute place with proper booths and a juke box playing 50s music and 50 memoribilia all over the walls.



There was even a table made out of the front of a cadillac and the outdoor tables were all made to look like they were made from Cadillacs.



The burgers were very pricey so we ordered a burger each and fries betweem us with no drinks.
When our orders arrived it became apparent why the burgers were so expensive - because they were the size of houses!


We had another walk around the bay and then decided to go buy some goodies from the shop and go back to the hotel.

The next morning it was up bright and early for our all inclusive breakfast. This was in the style of an all you can eat buffet with all you could possibly want for a hearty breakfast.

I started off with Full English, Orange juice and toast and moved on to Pastries and fruit before finishing with a nice Hot Chocolate to warm me up and get me ready for the rest of the day's site seeing.


The Hotel dining room was very stylish with windows all around so we could look out on the city as we ate.

We had to check out by 11am so we gathered all our gear and headed out. Our big trip today was to the Castle which wasn't far away and as we had been to the DW museum the day before we were able to get discount on entry.

We took so many pictures that I just couldn't choose which ones to share so I made a little slideshow.

We spent about 3 hours in all walking round the grounds, Watching the wild birds and also doing the tour round the living quarters of the castle itself. Bret even went up into the keep but Bill and I didn't facny the very steep steps.

For lunch we headed to Piza Hut for the Happy Hour all-in for £4 meal. We had to queue for about half an hour but the food was lovely. There was some funky art work on the walls too.


After filling our bellies we took a walk back thru town and looked down the little shopping arcades that there seemed to be many of dotted along the way.

To end our trip we went into The Hard Rock cafe. We had been walking non-stop all day and our feet were sore and we were exhausted! It was another experience for us too as none of us had ever been in a Hard Rock before.


We even had a last little treat of a massive chocolate hot fudge sundae YUM!

...And then our trip was over...It was time to get to the station and catch our train home. Well we nearly didn't get it as we were sat on the platform an announcement came over the tannoy that out train was sat on another platform right over the other side of the station...But we made it into our reserved seats and homeward bound