Cardiff Castle and Bay

Today they skies have been blue and rain cloud free for the first time in.... ooooh... weeks.

And it was on a similarly sunny day several weeks ago that I took the train to Cardiff, just two hours from London. The main reason for the trip was to witness a bailiff go about his business which was most informative and efficiently done.

So I had time to visit Cardiff Castle with its Norman keep (above) and surrounding walls that were used as air raid shelters in WW2:

The was a background sound track of bombs falling as Vera Lynn sung about bluebirds and the white cliffs of Dover, a combination that always moves me.

Within the walls there is a fantastic Victorian mansion with fake medieval banqueting hall, mock Arabic room with "jelly mould" Moorish ceiling and a "the butler did it" library:

All very impressive.

After that I was hungry so went down to Cardiff Bay for lunch. Its a bit out from the centre, too far to walk easily, so I took taxis though there is a train.

It seemed pretty familiar as a couple of episodes of Doctor Who were filmed there (as well as, I understand, some other TV programs).

Despite the restaurants being full it had an empty feel: the marina, for example, had just a couple of boats moored up.

Cardiff Bay is a space too big for the people in it (now that is a real Doctor Who sentence)

Then it was back to London and the tube in rush hour, which most definitely didn't have an empty feel to it.