Or
Hello and welcome to Wales.
In Cardiff is the Doctor Who exhibition at the Red Dragon Centre in Cardiff Bay. The missus, Junior and our lass are all Doctor Who fans, although our lass only likes it if it is not too scarey. Me? It's not my cup of tea, but each to their own.
Paddington to Cardiff is just over 145 miles and about 2 hours away, so we decided to have a day out on Bank Holiday Monday. Catching the 08:45, we travelled down with the kids making every effort to crack the code on the TV screens on the backs of the chairs. They never managed to 'hack' them anyway. Arriving in Cardiff at 10:45 we were able to nip across platforms to get onto the 10:15 service to Coryton which stops at Cardiff Queen Street. Changing again we caught the shuttle to Cardiff Bay. It wasn't very well sign posted to the Red Dragon centre, but we eventually found out way in and located the exhibition. The Family ticket was £20.00 for the four of us. In side it is a maze of costumes, replicas of the baddies, and a host of other bits and pieces. Having said that it only took us a matter of 20 minutes to walk round, to we backtracked and did it all again to make sure that we never missed anything. The Dalek exhibit was amazing and it was nice to see Kylie Minogues French Maid's outfir there complete with fishnets. (we interrupt this blog to give the author a cold shower). www.doctorwhoexhibition.com/cardiff.html
Having worked through a large number of photos in there we headed out. To be honest, there is very little in the Red Dragon Centre other than the exhibition, and could be a bit of a white elephant.
We walked further down and ended up by the Wales Millennium Centre, which is very impressive, opposite to this is a large waterfall/fountain that is featured in Torchwood. (allegedly Torchwood is an anagram of Doctor Who). It is in front of this fountain that is the entrance to Torchwood. Of course a little posing was done and it was to the waters edge next. Now a little warning. We looked for somewhere to eat here, but the costs were pretty high, and if I was going to spend a lot of money on food I would want to eat at the Hard Rock Cafe. We thought about a snack and then hit the HRC later, but even the snacks were priced over the top.
Back at Cardiff Bay station, we caught the train up to Queen Street and then on to Central. The HRC is not far from the station so we made a B-line for it and managed to get a table immediately. Of course the kids love eating here, they always have since it the chance to spend Mum and Dad's money. Ribs were ordered and the faces of the two young Thalers were covered in BBQ sauce! A pin was obtained (as it is a new location) and will be added in due course to the collection.
We then decided to walk up to Cardiff Castle with the intention of going in and having a nice walk round it. NOT A CHANCE! Firstly there was no Family ticket, 2which forces you to buy two adults and two children tickets. At £10.50 per adult and £7.95 a child this is extremely extortionate to pay. Having since looked at their website I do find it amusing that they consider themselves a "A family friendly visit" place. Maybe it should be added 'If you happen to be a Premiership football player'
http://www.cardiffcastle.com/content.asp?nav=4%2C14&parent_directory_id=1 Still it looked ok from the outside, and at £36.90 it can stay as a nice outside view.
The St. David's centre is where nearly all the shops are so we had a nice browse round there before heading back towards the station for the 16:25 back to Paddington.
All in all it was a good day out for all.
