V & A overload

Tuna

Thursday 27 June 2019

It was a Victoria and Albert day. First stop was Kensington Palace. We hadn’t ‘done’ a palace this trip yet, so we guess we should squeeze one in. They had exhibitions on George II and Caroline, Queen Victoria (from childhood, to marriage to Albert, through to throughout her 63 year reign). Quite interesting. However, it got busier and the morning went on and the last exhibit was bonkers. Full of people, each one pushing their way through and standing directly in front of the information boards.

We were done after about 2 hours so departed and went and found lunch in a nice quiet Indian place.

Our initial plan for the afternoon was to do a walking tour of the east end but our feet and knees were getting sore. So, we decided to go to the Victoria and Albert Museum, the idea being there would be benches to sit on. We had to wander through Hyde Park to get there. The place was full of people sunning themselves.  However, most of the ladies were in their underwear and soaking up the sun.

The V&A collection is quite big and spanning a large range. The part we walked through had jewellery, huge cast of things (like the statue of David), metal work, silver works, renaissance paintings, … 

Our feet were tired so we decided to head home. We stopped off and got a few bottles of vino for dinner and then decided to catch the E3 bus up the street, rather than walk 15 mins. It sounded good, but didn’t go to plan. The bus was stopped and waiting for a change in driver. However, there were a couple of really grumpy old people on the bus who didn’t like waiting, so got off the bus and then argued with the driver telling him to keep driving. They weren’t happy when he said no, so they kept yelling at him. For some reason that didn’t make him start the bus and drive on. It was also end of the school day, so the bus was full of feral kids being really loud. Eventually we got underway, but it would have been quicker to walk.

A sensational dinner of sea bass and a few vinos.

Going home tomorrow, not looking forward to the flights.

Slightly off beat London

The Albatross

Wednesday 26 June 2019

After a bit of a sleep in after a late-night last night, Johnny, Tuna and I caught the tube out to the National Archives in Kew, where they are doing a cold war exhibit. It was quite good, but I was hoping for some more papers about spies, covert operations and government secrets, however there were only a few of these.

After lunch Johnny had to depart due to a previous rendezvous, so Tuna and I headed into London centre, to see the very quirky Sir John Soane’s Museum. It basically lots of old bit and pieces he collected over the years, such as old bits of statues, models of temples, bits of cornice, paintings and even a sarcophagus, all arranged seemingly a bit randomly in a bizarre warren of a self-designed house, with weird views, windows and angles. Unfortunately you aren’t allowed to take photos but there is lots online.

Next we strolled down over the Themes and went and had a look at the graffiti tunnel under Waterloo Station, which was pretty decent.

Sore feet eventually won out, and we departed back to Johnny and Bridget’s to plan tomorrow. We failed to do this, however, we did have a lovely meal at one of the local pubs.

Damp drive, pink cab and a pub crawl

Tuna

Tuesday 25 June 2019

Today was a driving day, Cardiff to London. It started with rain, so we got wet packing the car. The M4 crosses the River Severn about half an hour out of Cardiff on the Prince of Wales Bridge. Big bridge and rather cool. (I’ve just read that the bridge used to be called the Second Severn Crossing and was a toll road. It recently became toll free and its name was changed to the Prince of Wales Bridge in recognition of the man turning 70 and being prince for 50 years.)

We drove in rain for a couple of hours and then tried to get some lunch in Reading. We read online that there was tapestry worth having a look at in Reading and it was coincided with lunchtime. However, as we came off the M4 the traffic stopped. After 15 mins (and 500m) we worked out that roadworks on the main road in had caused the stoppage. We chose to abandon the visit to Reading and had a chicken burger in Burger King. Honestly it was the best of all the choices.

Into London, one false turn (my fault) and we dropped off the car. Now we just had to find a cab to get us to Johnny and Bridget’s. Luckily one was coming down the road and it stopped. It was pink, not sure why, but it was completely pink. Anyway, it got us to where we needed to go.

Dumped our stuff (quite messily) in our beautifully newly painted room and made the place look shabby. It was decided it would be a good idea to wander down the road for a refreshing pint. So, off The Albatross, Johnny and I toddled and found that the pint was refreshing and delicious. There ensured a pub crawl around the neighbourhood to a few (five) of the favourite local pubs. Eventually it was time to stagger home, dinner had to be cooked and the hardworking Bridget was due to arrive. We may have drunk a few more bottles of wine and some whisky and gone to bed at midnight.

Cardiff – the next bit

The Albatross

Monday 24 June 2019

As I’m a bit of an idiot, I forgot that many museums don’t open on Mondays, so the supposedly excellent Cardiff museum will go unexplored. Instead we fortified ourselves with a fish finger butty and tackled Cardiff Castle instead (hopefully the last for a little while). It was a castle, most of it hadn’t fallen down. It’s party trick was that the Marquis of Bute glammed the place up in the late 1800’s and employed William Burges to turn it into this sort of Medieval leisure palace. Think Kryal Castle, but with a lot more money behind it. They’d obviously had a big event there yesterday which they were packing up, so it was a tad hard to walk around and a tad noisy.

They had used the passageway in the walls as air raid shelters in WWII, and there was a section left to give you a feel for what it was like.

Off for a late lunch at a place we’d researched. A fabulous 3 course elegant Italian meal. We waddled out a couple of hours later and had a wander through the market and picked up supplies for dinner, which might be quite late tonight.

Cardiff

Tuna

Sunday 23 June 2019

You don’t really want to stay in Milford Haven, there is nothing there. Following on from last night’s experience where over half of the beers on tap were out and that they didn’t have any cold bottles of their white wine which was their advertised special, this morning we couldn’t get an espresso as the coffee machine is broken!! Flabbergasted.

We had planned a nice gentle drive down the A40, A48 and M4 to Cardiff, with a quick stop in Swansea to have a look at the old copper factory. It looked interesting on their website. However, when we got there all the information panels had been vandalised in some way, everything was covered in 1.5m high weeds and half the stuff was behind a locked gate. Their website advertised that you could do a leisurely stroll around and read about the history as you go. We left after 5mins.

Today has been very overcast, wet and drizzly. A bit like Melbourne only warmer. After asking politely, we were allowed to check into our apartment at 1pm (rather than 3pm). This meant we could park the car, unpack and then stroll out to lunch. Our apartment is half way between the city and the waterfront We headed off to the waterfront and to have a nice lunch.

A nice lunch was had, sitting inside, out of the rain, looking over the bay.

A quick visit to Ianto’s Shrine ….

Next stop was the Senedd building which is home to the National Assembly for Wales (the devolved parliament for Wales). The building is stunning.

Although it is essentially parliament house for Wales, it is open to the public every day and entry is free. You have to go through a security check but you are greeted by four very happy and chirpy bullet-proof vest wearing security guards. Once inside another very happy and chirpy person greets you and tell you a bit of history of the building. But he was happy to answer all types of questions, even one on Brexit. The main chamber is circular so there are no sides. In the middle on the floor is huge circular piece of art, Heart of Wales, which represents the Welsh population and in the middle is the Senedd.

The idea behind the design of the Senedd building was to make it accessible to the public and for parament to be transparent. I would say they have achieved this not only through the design of the building but also the lovely friendly people that work there.

We wandered back through Roald Dahl Plass, named after the Cardiff born writer, to check out the Torchwood entrance and the amazing looking Wales Millennium Centre.

The Welsh are lovely people and all the ones we’ve met so far have just been so cheerful and nice, even when you have to tell your landlady that there seems to be water leaking through the en-suite ceiling light.