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.