2015 - Day Out 08: Cardiff

Date: Saturday 05 September 2015

Yet another coach trip is undertaken, today we visit South Wales and the glorious Capital City of Wales, Cardiff.

It is the third trip on our month long coach excursions and today it is the turn of Greenline Coaches and a visit to Wales. I make my way to Norton to get some supplies for the coach before meeting with Mr UKBuses where he has provided transport and has got his dad out of bed to drop us off to the pick up point. Arrival in Stourbridge and we get chance to jump out of the car and only have a few steps to get to our destination and there are quite a few people joining us on the trip from Stourbridge. The coach arrives just after 09:00am and we are the last but one pick up point so we do not have to do a tour of the Black Country first. With everyone aboard, we take our seats, this time right at the front of the coach, so we do have the drivers view and we make our way to the last pick up point.

We don't have far to go as we pull up outside The Foley Arms in Pedmore to pick up our last two passengers and once they are sorted, our coach driver off the day gives his safety information speech. Rita has given our coach driver Norris the day off (see Coronation Street post), sorry Mike, who tells us where we will be stopping along the way and roughly what time we will be arriving in Cardiff. With the safety information passed on, I tell Mr UKBuses to belt up and we are safely on our way. We pass through Hagley and Bell End to make our way onto the M5. We are on the coach for just under an hour where we arrive at our pit stop, Strensham Services. After some "fresh air" is had, we make our way indoors and decide to visit McDonald's as they are still serving breakfast, there is a queue so we take our place and as Mr UKBuses waits to be served, I sneak into the next queue where I get served virtually straight away. A few minutes wait and I have my bacon roll, Mr UKBuses is still waiting to be served let alone get his food. Whilst he is waiting, I find a table and start tucking in. I may have been laughing at Mr UKBuses having to wait, but instead of brown sauce which I asked for, tomato ketchup has been applied to my bacon roll. I finish off my food just as Mr UKBuses arrives and starts eating his.

With our breakfasts finished, Mr UKBuses pops into W H Smiths to get a drink and also some Pick-And-Mix (£3+ worth of sweets) and then we make our way back to the coach having some "fresh air" along the way, once boarded, we have a banksman to guide us out of the parking space and we make our way back onto the motorway, we entered via the M5, but we are leaving on the M50 which takes us about twenty miles before we come off the motorway at Ross-On-Wye, with our coach driver Mike informing us that Noele Gordon used to live here, which starts everybody on the coach humming the theme to "Crossroads". We then make our way through Monmouth and as we approach Newport, we go back onto the M4 Motorway for a short time before arriving in Cardiff at approximately 11.45am. We are dropped off just opposite the entrance to Cardiff Castle, see picture above left, which is good as I know this part of Cardiff  seeing as it is just down the road from the hotel I stop in when down this way on works business. We are told that we are being picked up opposite at 05.30pm so we just have over five hours to spend in Cardiff.

On the way down here, we find out that there is a bus strike on and also that a International Rugby match is taking place in Cardiff. This is emphasised as we make our way round to the main pedestrianised High Street, where there are a lot of people trying to sell Wales scarves. As we make our way further down the High Street and onto St Mary Street, we here a lot of shouting ahead and we think it maybe the Rugby supporters starting to kick off. As we get nearer, we realise that there is a demonstration taking place by the striking Cardiff Bus staff. As they pass, we make our way into Brewery Quarter and Mr UKBuses starts to moan as he can't see a pub, that is until we get to the corner and find a J D Wetherspoons. With the Rugby taking place, there are bouncers on the door, but Mr UKBuses is allowed in and we enter J D Wetherspoons "The Prince Of Wales". Mr UKBuses conveniently goes to find a table leaving me at the bar to get the round in. He finds a table reserved for "Diners Only" and after getting served I grab the pints without realising that they were flimsy plastic glasses and nearly spill half of the contents. I make my way to the table and inform Mr UKBuses that there is about a 45 minute wait for food so we decide to skip the food and we drink up as quick as we can.

We leave in search of food, but take a few minutes to take a few photographs of buses that are running before making our way down to Cardiff Central Railway Station, where another JD Wetherspoons, "The Great Western" is situated. We make our way in and see that the drinks are being served in the same flimsy glasses so we decide not to stay here. We are getting hungry and we have a walk through the main City Centre and close to the Castle we find yet another J D Wetherspoons (There are five in Cardiff), "The Central Bar", which is quieter than the previous two and also looks like proper glasses are being used. We decide that this is the place where food is going to be taken and we head to the bar upstairs. Its Mr UKBuses round and whilst I find a table he goes to the bar and orders a pint of "Doombar" each. He comes back with two pints in what looks like a proper glass, but they are in fact durable plastic glasses, looks can look deceptive, but at least they don't spill half the contents when picked up. Time for food and I opted for the Chicken Burger and Mr UKBuses makes me faint as he didn't go for the usual BBQ Chicken Melt, without the melt, he opted for the Chicken Burger, probably as he got a free pint in a plastic glass!!

Dinner over and we make our way back through the City, we decide to go on the open top tour bus, which costs £12 each, see picture above right, as we board the driver says that they will only be doing half a tour with upcoming road closures but still wanted the full price, we politely decline and carry on through Cardiff going past the now busier Millennium Stadium (capacity is 74,500 people) to Cardiff Central Railway Station. We spot a train that we need to catch and only have a few minutes before it departs so we hurry to the ticket hall and purchase a return ticket and make our way to Platform 7. Our train arrives and we board and after four minutes we alight at the next station, Ninian Park. We have a slow walk round the corner where we are greeted by another sporting ground, Cardiff City Football Ground, and by the looks of shuttle buses operating and a full car park, it looks like a game will be played here today. Situated right in front of the football ground is Cardiff Buses depot so a few photographs are taken here and situated right opposite is a huge covered garage, which is also home to Cardiff Bus so a few more photographs are taken, see picture below left, We don't go too far as the striking drivers are picketing a bit further down the road, so after photographs are taken, we make our way back to Ninian Park Railway Station where we only have a few minutes to wait for a train which takes us back to Cardiff Central, where we alight and staff are on hand to guide us to the exit.

After leaving the railway station, we go in search of a public house to have a rest. There are a couple that I have visited before on earlier visits to Cardiff but they are both situated opposite the Millennium Stadium and upon entering and also looking through the windows, they are packed to the rafters and serving in plastic glasses (the flimsy kind) only, so we head further towards the Castle. To have a rest we go to the Holiday Inn Hotel situated opposite the Castle grounds and we sample a beverage from the hotel bar. People must have had the same idea as the bar seems to be a bit busy on this visit, but at least we can rest our legs and sup out of a proper glass!! After watching the end of the England Rugby match on BBC (not being played in Cardiff), we finish our drinks and make our way back up towards "The Central Bar", where we spot a McDonald's and decide to grab some food before having to get our coach back. Before we get there though I ask a couple of policemen what time the road is reopening and we are told it will be closed until 08.00pm. Our coach has no way of getting to the pickup point so I decide to get in touch with Greenline, but after a couple of attempts I have to leave a voice mail hoping that someone may pick it up before the coach is due. We enter McDonald's and I do the same trick and get served before Mr UKBuses. Our orders are taken and after paying ten pence more than what is advertised in the window, we are told to go to a collection point. So we wait there and our receipt number is called out and food is collected. I take my Argos, sorry McDonald's purchase and we dine alfresco and choose a table outside.

After our food is eaten, we have a bit of time to kill before our coach picks us up, so we head to a public house opposite the pick up point and a couple of our fellow coach passengers stop us to ask about being picked up, we just tell them to go to where they said we would be picked up. We enter the Dempsey's Bar and have a last drink in Cardiff and Mr UKBuses asks the question "Where's Makepeace?"  making reference to a bygone television programme. We drink outside of the pub keeping an eye out for fellow passengers and hopefully our driver. We finish our drinks and cross the road and join our fellow passengers, which by now is half of the coach. Our pickup time has passed and we are still none the wiser and about 05.45pm, a fellow passenger comes round the corner and tells us to follow him and on the way I have some "fresh air" and when we round the corner we can see our coach parked up. We board and as we take our seats we can see an irate passenger complaining and before we leave, Mike apologises (even though it was 100 per cent not his fault) and Mr UKBuses belts up and we make our way out of Cardiff towards the M4.

We make our way back along the route we came, via the M4 to Newport and then main roads to Monmouth before getting back onto the Motorway, The M50, and stopping for a short break at Strensham Services again. As we make our way back to the coach, I spot the McDonald's advert by the coach and cotton on that this is the same services that we stopped at on the way back from Weymouth last week. With everybody back on board, Mike makes his way back onto the M5 and its only an hour before we leave the Motorway and make our way back through Hagley, dropping off our first two passengers at Pedmore opposite The Foley Arms and then onto our stop in Stourbridge. We say a quick goodbye to driver Mike and find out he is driving us again next week and make our way towards Stourbridge Interchange where hopefully we may just make our National Express West Midlands Service 276. As we get near, our service 276 bus pulls away, but Mr UKBuses uses his power and hails the bus down and luckily the driver lets us board. We get to Norton and its time to say goodbye to Mr UKBuses and I carry onto Wollaston where a quick nightcap or two is had at Graham's Place and The Unicorn.

Despite the road closures, bus strikes and plastic glasses, a good day was had, thanks to our coach driver Mike and also Mr UKBuses for the company on the day. Speaking of Mr UKBuses he has a bald spot:

Bald Spot 1: The Bald Spot is enjoying the view of Cardiff Castle.

Bald Spot 2: The Bald Spot at the overfill depot of Cardiff Bus.

Bald Spot 3: The Bald Spot outside the main Cardiff Bus Depot.