Cardiff

When Brandon approached me a few weeks ago and said, "Would you like to go to Cardiff for an ethnomusicology conference?"  I said, "Yes, as long as we can go to the Dr. Who Experience!" So we planned a trip to Cardiff, Wales.

But let me backtrack, last weekend Brandon asked me if we could go to a geocaching event, and the way he talked me into that one was by telling me that the Tardis was nearby.  So...I've been a total Dr. Who fangirl this week!

The Tardis in London

 Back to Cardiff...we took the train from London Paddington (which is just about the complete opposite side of London from us and was an hour bus ride just to get to the station).  Upon arriving in Cardiff we took a few minutes to find our bus to get to our Air B&B homestay (Air B&B is a website where people rent out their extra rooms and apartments).  Once on the bus we had no idea what stop to get off, since the buses there do not announce where they are...so we went one stop to far and had to backtrack.  We did find the place, thankfully, and dropped off our bags to head to the Cardiff Bay. A spin-off show of Dr. Who, called Torchwood, is filmed in Cardiff and according to the show, the Torchwood headquarters is located at the Bay. So we were pleasantly surprised to find a Ianto Shrine and Memorial at the fictional location of the Torchwood visitor entrance. (Ianto is a well-loved character of the show...)

Entrance to Torchwood, where there is a Ianto Shrine and Memorial

 

The Millennium Centre at Cardiff Bay, a giant performing arts theatre

Following a short walk through the bay area we found the Dr. Who Experience!  The first part of the exhibit is an interactive walk through "experience" including video filmed by Matt Smith (the current Doctor) in which we helped free the doctor from a slew of his enemies (weeping angels and Daleks included).  The second part is a display of authentic costumes and props used in the show.

Costumes of the ninth and tenth doctors

In the Tardis of the ninth and tenth doctors

Evolution of the Dalek

Jack and Rose (she is still my favorite companion!)

Amy and Rory

 Following our Experience, we went on a nice walking tour of the Bay Area, which was provided free of charge by the Ethno conference.  We learned a lot about the rich coal history that made Cardiff the town it is today as well as we got to see where the Welsh government happens.  Wales is a part of the UK, but is allowed to make their own laws and have a governing body just like states in the US.

Cardiff Bay

The conference was the next day at Cardiff University.  Once again we were confused by the bus system and got off at the wrong stop, but eventually made it just in time for a cup of tea before the first session.  We attended many interesting (some boring) paper presentations on "Music in the Atlantic Rim," and ended the day at a dynamic performance by an African ballet and drum ensemble called Ballet Nimba.

The final day of our trip included exploring the city centre and Cardiff Castle (a fort built about 1050AD on top of a roman fort from about 50AD... you could still see some of the old Roman wall).  At this point we gave up on the bus system and just walked the whole day!

The following are all pictures from Cardiff Castle.

At the top of the Castle Keep looking out over the city

Our trip home was also interesting, our train was delayed by 30 minutes due to lightning striking some track signals in our path causing a back of trains ahead of us.  Thankfully it was only 30 minutes, because they were originally predicting two hours!  Back at Paddington station we once again had to take the hour long bus journey home.  As we walked outside we could see out bus coming so we literally ran waving our arms to catch it at the stop before it took off, only to get stuck in some construction traffic one block later...oh London bus routes!  But we are now home and have some wonderful memories of our first visit to Wales!

Hwyl am nawr!  (Welsh for "Bye for now!")