Cardiff Catchall: Roath Park, National Museum Cardiff + Time with Rachel!

I’m never quite sure what to do with random photos and stories from half-day adventures. So, today you’re getting a smorgasbord from our time so far in Cardiff.

We’d been in the area for less than 24 hours before Indy was itching to climb something. We Googled park options, found one that seemed to match his expectations, and headed off.

I was feeling ready for a nap and found a bench in the sun, laid down (using my coat as a pillow!) and enjoyed a quiet afternoon at the park. I didn’t actually sleep, but it did feel wonderfully restful. Since most local kids were in school, the park was largely deserted. Indy had a blast.

I think this apparatus was originally designed to hold a tire swing. Indy wasn’t deterred and it became yet another climbing challenge.

The next day, the kids and I navigated into the heart of the city. We popped our heads into Cardiff Castle. I didn’t have passes, so we didn’t stop for long (there wasn’t much to see without entry tickets), but we did make time for a fun photo op with Paddington. A few days earlier we’d taken a similar picture on a bench in Paddington Station in London!

The kids were delighted to see Tim Hortons—it’s a familiar sight back in Canada but Cardiff was the first place we spotted a Tim Hortons in Europe.

Cardiff is known for its historic Victorian and Edwardian shopping arcades. Aren’t these cafe chairs chic? It looks very Parisian.

There’s a Portuguese bakery directly across the street from Cardiff Castle. Of course we had to do market research and try some pasteis de nata.

I was really surprised by the National Museum of Cardiff. What a great (free!) museum. The biggest surprise was discovering they have a Vincent van Gogh on permanent display. John still hasn’t been able to see it yet (the museum closes fairly early each day), but it’s on our must-go-back list before leaving Cardiff!

I really like this Renoir: La Parisienne. Isn’t the blue colour of her dress beautiful?

Indy decided he’d imagine what life would be like with a bustle.

And I thought this was an interesting nod to the Renoir painting on the entry stairway.

We have a new inside family joke related to peacocks after an encounter with an aggressive peacock in Denmark where my sister-in-law had to defend our picnic using an umbrella.

That experience was still top of mind when we came across this painting of a peacock.

There was a fun interactive exhibit that demonstrated what happens when people touch marble; the side-by-side comparison of protected vs. accessible marble made the point!

We didn’t buy anything at the gift shop, but we did stop to take a picture with a very large tiger.

Our little astronauts.

The facial expression on this one cracks me up—I guess this is his best impression of being awestruck by outer space.

And, since this is a catchall, let’s abruptly switch gears to a picture of the kids foraging for berries together in Rachel’s garden.

And then let’s skip forward about a week to last Sunday. Belle was craving some alone time, so Indy, John and I headed off on a walk, planning to meet up with Belle and Rachel’s family later in the afternoon.

Indy spotted a little gnome and of course I immediately thought of Nicole and Michelle.

We happened by a quaint little church and took some time to wander around the exterior (St. Isan Church).

The little twig snaking its way up this headstone looked like a decoration… but it was just nature taking over.

Our ultimate destination was Roath Park. There’s a big artificial lake that’s full of birds and ducks.

A few minutes after we got there, Rachel and crew arrived.

Rachel, Belle and I walked with the twins. We didn’t break any speed records but it was adorable to stop every few minutes (or seconds, depending on the section of walk), and listen to their little words.

There’s so much to see when looking through younger eyes.

Boats!

Geese!

A branch on the ground that MUST be picked up and dragged through every little puddle so it gets WET.

Geese can be aggressive, so we made sure to stay close to the kiddos so we could make hasty retreats if needed.

Belle and Aubrey. Her overalls slayed me—too cute!

This is the Scott Memorial Lighthouse which commemorates Robert Scott’s famous Antarctic expedition. I didn’t realize it had sailed out of Cardiff.

Rachel joked that if all the kids were looking at the camera in this photo she would use it as her Christmas card photo this year. (And maybe photoshop in her husband?) Alas, we only got 1/4 kids looking.

I LOVE this picture that Rachel took. We were watching mallards walking along the edge of an artificial waterfall. I said: that duck is going to fall down if he’s not careful and then the duck toppled over the side of the waterfall.

It was hilarious and she caught me in the middle of my very genuine delight.

Belle and Clara.

We played at the playground at the base of the lake for a while (it was packed) and then split up. Belle went back with Rachel (and helped with bath time shenanigans), while Indy, John, and I headed toward the heart of Cardiff.

I’ve never seen Peaky Blinders, but I knew this mural was from that show as soon as I saw it!

I loved these colourful music murals in an underground passageway.

We stopped outside the National Museum of Cardiff. Unfortunately, it wasn’t open (I knew that, and had just wanted to navigate outside of it so John could get a sense of where it was and so I could get an exterior picture).

Here’s a statue of David Lloyd George. I’ll admit I’d never heard of him before coming to Cardiff, but he was the only Welsh person to become Prime Minister of Britain.

Here’s Cardiff City Hall Clock Tower.

The previous evening, John and I had tried to go out for sushi. We made our way to a popular local sushi place only to discover you needed a reservation. It was booked solid for the night. We ended up pivoting and going to an Indian restaurant which was fine, but we had been craving sushi.

On Sunday evening, while out with Indy, we looked up some options and settled on Volcano Express. It had a 4.9 rating and was great. My poke bowl was ENORMOUS and delicious. It ended up being a great value for the money. Indy and John each got one roll of sushi and said their selections were great, too.

Belle is a seasoned veteran of doing school pickup for Ezra and Lily (okay, she’d helped twice), so when Rachel asked if I was available to do school pickup on Monday, I made sure to bring Belle along.

When Lily came out, her teacher said she’d been mentioning our planned pickup every few minutes all day.

We spent a happy few hours at a nearby park. The kids were all FILTHY by the end of the afternoon, the sign of a good time.

For some inexplicable reason, there was a huge amount of dry pasta on the ground. (At least one bag of spaghetti and penne, if you were curious.) It became part of the play.

I gave the kids a few spins on this carousel, but was happy to sit down and let Indy do most of the hard work.

This was a particularly challenging tree pose!

Lily insisted on trying out Indy’s pit-vipers.

Later that day, after her kids were settled in bed (alas, my kids were most definitely NOT settled in bed), Rachel took me on a fantastic woods hike.

The trail reminded me of the Riverwalk in Columbia, South Carolina… which always reminds me of Narnia!

Let’s just say our pace was significantly faster on this hike than our stroll around the lake at Roath Park the day before.

We had great conversations the whole evening.

I took a picture of the sheep and then quasi-apologized for acting like a tourist.

We have lots of sheep in Canada, I said.

To which Rachel replied: Oh, but these are Welsh sheep.

Yes, Welsh sheep indeed!

We got some great views toward the Brecon Beacons, and if you know what to look for, you can even make out the outline of Caerphilly Castle (stay tuned for a full post about that!).

Okay. That’s enough for today!

Your turn:

• Would you pick sushi or Indian?
• Are you a fast walker or do you figure slow and steady wins the race?