Welcome to Wales

The idea of visiting southern Wales pre-cruise bubbled to the surface after booking a Princess Cruise from Southampton.

With ports in England, Ireland and Scotland --- albeit somewhat interrupted by a return to Iceland, which circumstances prevented us from completing on our last ocean cruise --- Wales seemed like the perfect addition for us.

Jay and Sasha had Wales on their travel list.  They considered attending the Formula One Race at Silverstone before meeting us in Cardiff, but they decided instead to take an extended trip to Wales beginning in the north and concluding in the south where they would meet us at a house in Cardiff which they booked.  They wisely deemed that the better option for travel with baby Owen.

I appreciate all the careful planning Jay did, coordinating with Julie and Sasha, to make our time in Cardiff and nearby highlights we visited in their rented Range Rover wonderful.  They selected a lovely, spacious home with modern amenities as well as plenty of bedrooms plus three bathrooms for all of us plus Sasha's mother Libby to comfortably share. 

In one area, this house had way too much: keys. There was a basketful of keys awaiting us in the kitchen, and no two doors shared a key.  Oddly, despite the plethora of keys, there was only one for the front door.  Getting the car out of the garage required unlocking the backdoor leading to the garage backdoor to the primary garage door to the narrow alley's gate.

The same locks in reverse order upon return, of course.  Driving into and out of the garage with an almost impossible angle of turns required to squeeze in.  Jay displayed the patience of Job. 

For Julie and me, getting to Wales began with a Lyft from home to an odd bus stop under a bridge in Philadelphia, where we caught FlixBus to Newark. We stepped out of the bus station in Newark and had another Lyft within a minute.  The driver whisked us to EWR Airport.  The overnight United Airlines flight to London Heathrow was uneventful, which is the best that I generally hope for.

Relatively well-rested --- I only remember watching Indianna Jones and the Dial of Destiny during the flight --- we picked up our bags and cleared customs, a process made easy with LHR's facial recognition system.

We stopped at an Information counter where a helpful lady sold us tickets for the correct National Express bus to Cardiff.  Advance purchase would have saved us a few dollars, but we weren't sure about our plane arriving on time or airport hassle factor.  In any case, we were soon on a modern coach that stopped only twice en route to our destination of Cardiff, Wales.

We arrived at the bus depot situated in a lovely park in Cardiff a couple of hours before our house would be available, but Julie had pre-searched to find a Holiday Inn nearby.  We were able to drag our bags and enjoy very good coffee and a big cookie with free internet while we bided out time.

I needed to catch up on some cruise planning work that came up during our flight, so for me the time really flew by.  Too soon, we had reached the check-in time for our rental house.

Julie and I found some unintended detours before reaching our house, but along the way several Welsh natives did try to help us navigate our way despite none of them ever having heard of the street we sought.

Most amusing to me was when we thought we had found our rental home upon entering a code that seemed to work and walked in.  The cleaning crew told us that we were not at the right address, though it too was a rental.  We weren't even close to the right address.

Eventually, we found the correct course and settled into the second-floor bedroom at the back of the rowhouse that Jay had rented.

Feeling a bit peckish, as Monty Python taught me the Brits say, we walked past the medieval castle to the nearby old town.

Cardiff is a lovely city on a very livable scale.  While there are several different districts, the old town is historic and well maintained, probably recently gentrified.  The residents and vacationers alike seem friendly and cheerful.  Soccer (European football) fans will appreciate the stadium is conveniently located nearby.

We ended up on a charming side street near a clocktower at Honest Burger, where Julie had a Smashed Burger while I had a Double Smashed Burger.

Jolly good meal.

Oh sorry, that's probably more English, and the Welsh are distinctly different, even if most commerce takes place in English rather than their native tongue.

Anyway, the burgers had some distinctive herbs that made them not the typical American burgers but still excellent.

The chips --- what we in the USA call French fries --- were also delicious.  Not exactly stretching culinary boundaries, but a good welcome to a country we would enjoy immensely during our fleeting four-night stay.

Shortly after we returned to the house after our meal, the others finally escaped a long traffic jam in their rental Range Rover Discovery and arrived at the house.

They were all hungry, so Jay and I walked in the opposite direction of downtown to get take-out Indian meals for them.

Baby Owen --- who most times seems to be smiling like a buddha --- had reportedly not been happy about the traffic jam but was in his usual joyful mood once they arrived, so all was well in Wales.