Cardiff

We decided to skip the London Hype during New Years and took the train to Wales. When in doubt always go to the capital city, so Cardiff it was.

It only took us two hours and we had arrived.  I love traveling by train, especially in the UK, because the country side is so beautiful with the rolling green hills and reminds me so of home. A proper Welsh pub is the first place we went to when we arrived. Neither John or I could distinguish wether the locals were speaking very bad English or Welsh. It is such a funny language. Sounded like German crossed with Russian crossed with Irish - if that makes any sense!

 It was very cold and wet when we arrived so the comfort of a warm pub was in order!

Dinner at GBK

Castell Caerdydd

Cardiff Castle is one of Wales' leading heritage attractions and a site of international significance. During 2000 years of history, the Castle has been a Roman Garrison, a Norman stronghold and in Victorian times was transformed into a gothic fairytale fantasy.

We started the tour with a Firing Line exhibition and film presentation. We then got our audio guide to explore the Castle grounds which lasts approximately 60 minutes. Standing on top of the Castle's open air roof, you look out on the rest of the Castle and city skyline and the views are simply breathtaking. It started to rain heavily so we opted for  a warm coffee at the café.

 Welsh National War Memorial

Enough site-seeing for one day! It was time to hit the pubs! All the pubs had great buy one-get one free cocktail specials! I think we literally tried all the cocktails on the menu and then did some more pub crawling!

Wales Millennium Centre

 New Year's Eve

The weather was so wet and cold that we ended up seeking for shelter in pubs and restaurants quite regularly. Fortunately the rain stopped and we went strolling through the streets. There were carousels and market stalls everywhere. John even won a little Tigger for me!

This was a traditional Welsh dance (similar to our "Voortrekkers") which they were performing for live television. We had to cheer them on.

We grabbed a beer at the Heineken stall and bounced to the live bands that were performing. Our countdown to the new year was in Welsh and English! I know we were missing out on London's amazing fire work display, but being just the two of us in a foreign country, was truly something special!

Happy New Year!!!