Cardiff - February 2026
| Cardiff - February 2026 | |
| We decided to combine a trip to Ikea with an outing for Hild's birthday. Instead of going to our nearest Ikea in Brisol or Exeter, we went on a daytrip to Cardiff. That is a 100 km drive around the Bristol Channel. As the crows fly it would be 28 km. | |
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The main purpose of going to Ikea was that we had purchased a set of duvet
cover with two pillow cases, but the pillow cases were missing. We were
surprised by that, but the guy in "Returns" at Ikea was not surprised.
He said it is amazing what customers do, suggesting that a customer
squirreled away our pillow cases rather than an error in production/packaging.
Anyway, we got our money back and then bought a new set, and we checked
for pillow cases before leaving the store.
We did stop by the restaurant to enjoy a cinnamon bun and cup of tea since it was too early for meat balls. Notice the Welsh word for Restaurant: "Bwyty". I have no idea how to pronounce that! |
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| Even if the weather was cold and wet, we decided to do some sightseeing. It was our first time in Cardiff. Parking was not straight forward, so we ended up in a parking on the west side of Cardiff Marina (Havannah Street). The walk to Mermaid Quay took us past many modern apartment buildings and offices. | |
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| We also found a monument to professional rugby players known as the "Codebreakers Statue". It shows Welsh rugby players Billy Boston, Clive Sullivan, and Gus Risman. The "codebreaking" refers to them switching from rugby union to rugby league to make a living. | |
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| There was another monument to celebrate those making a living on the docks. The statue is called "People Like Us" (or Pobl Fel Ni in Welsh). Of course, we took a shine to the dog! | |
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We have watched a fair bit of the TV series Torchwood in our time.
So of course we had to swing past the often-featured columns and tower.
The water was not running down the Torchwood Tower as it sometime does,
but it was raining so the effect was still there.
The area is also named Roald Dahl Plass because he was born in Cardiff. |
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| Another piece of Torchwood memoribilia is the fan-made shrine to Ianto Jones - one of the main characters of the series. They wrote him out of the show by killing off the character. I guess the fans missed him so much that this shrine came to be. The latest news is that the shrine will be removed soon because they need to repair rotting wood and rusting metalwork on the dock. | |
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| We ducked into the Greggs at Mermaid Quay to hide from the rain as well as enjoy a cup of tea and a doughnut. We tested out their caramel custard one. It was close to our Tim Horton's Canadian Maple, but a bit to sweet. | |
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| On our walk we came upon this monument of a man with a rather unusual pose. Ivor Novello is a famous Welsh composer and playwright. Sadly my knowledge of Welsh people does not stretch beyond the two Jones' (Tom and Catherine Zeta). I liked the pose as if he is turning to see who is standing behind him: appropriate for a photo but rather odd for a statue. | |
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| We also found a small garden nestled into the marina. Rob spotted that one of the trees was planted by Max Boyce - a famous Welsh comedian and singer. Rob remembers him from the 70s and 80s. The photo shows him in true form with a pint in one hand and a leek in the other. | |
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| Back near where we parked Percy we saw the note about "Pure happiness from Denmark". We thought they might mean the shiny, yellow car. However, it turns out that "Nest Space" is a furniture company claiming to focus on Danish style. Not sure if a car or a comphy sofa can bring pure happiness, but maybe the Danes think so! | |
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| What did bring pure happiness to us was celebrating Hild's birthday at Liz' house with each our own representation of a banana split. Yum! | |
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Feb 2026