That means "cheers" to you non-Welsh speakers.  Since we've been here, I've learned that "cheers" is kind of the "shalom" of the UK -- it works for goodbye, thank you, you're welcome, and probably some other phrases I haven't figured out yet.

So, when I last posted we were on the train from Edinburgh to Cardiff.  I have to say that I really enjoy train travel -- it's so much more laissez-faire than flying.  Nobody tells you "eat now!  watch movie now!  put your seat up now!  stay still now!  no laptop for you now!  put on your seat belt now!" Hell, there aren't even any seatbelts.  The trip from Edinburgh took us mostly down the west coast of the UK, through Carlisle and the Lake Country.  We switched at Birmingham for the service to Wales.

We arrived after dark, at about 5:30, and took a cab to the hotel.  We stayed at the Park Plaza, which is a very modern place on Greyfriars Road.  The decor was post-modern, with funky artwork and sculpture.  If you are looking for tweed and chintz, this is not the place!  It is, however, lovely and very comfortable.  I have a feeling that more hotels will be redoing their rooms to look like the ones here now that they no longer need huge armoires to hold tube TV's. 

As most of you know, part of my plan in Cardiff was to spot Torchwood and Doctor Who locations, and we found two on the same street as our hotel very readily.  Tiger Tiger was the bar where Owen got into the fight in Combat, and the Fat Cat Bar was where Tosh met Mary in Greeks Bearing Gifts.  Intrepid travelers that we are, we ventured out and found the Queen Street shopping area (where Tosh hears peoples' thoughts in GBG).  Even though it wasn't much after 6 on a Saturday night, most places (except restaurants) were closed, and we marveled to each other at how horrified American retailers would be. 

One place I really wanted to find was the bar where Jack and Gwen talk in Everything Changes, and tifah the eagle-eyed found the place, called the Buffalo Bar.  The lighting inside was much less bright than when they filmed, and there were no stools at the bar, but it was definitely the right place!  We had a pub dinner there.  We're still getting used to the concept, but for what you get, pub dinners are quite a bargain for us poor Americans and our crappy dollars.

After dinner, we walked around a bit more before going back to the hotel.  We watched a bit of local TV on the cool flat-screen and had an early night.  Tifah, poor thing, hasn't been sleeping well, and was up again quite early.  I was awake for about an hour in the middle of the night but eventually went back to sleep until tifah poked me at about 8:30.  It felt earlier, probably because the sky was just starting to lighten at that hour.

We had breakfast at the hotel and then made our way over to Cardiff Castle.  There were only a few other visitors -- it was drizzling lightly, which was to be a theme of the day, unfortunately (though we are fortunate it wasn't pouring!)   Cardiff Castle is an interesting place.  It's not really one castle, but a collection of buildings from different periods, built around a central green.  We took a tour of the "newest" building, the home where the Bute family actually lived until they gave the property to the people of Cardiff.  The Butes were interesting people, Scots owners of Welsh landholds, and after coal was discovered in the region they had LOTS and lots of money.  The decoration in some of the rooms was really amazing, ornate enough to rival Hearst Castle. 

On the tour, we met some girls travelling together, one of whom was from Liechtenstein.  She was a German speaker, but spoke excellent English.  She didn't think her country was much worth visiting, though.  Other people on our tour were from France, Japan and different parts of the UK.  Our guide was a native of Cardiff, but his accent sounded quite RP to my ears, not especially Welsh, which I admit was slightly disappointing!

After the tour we went over to the medieval keep and climbed to the top.  There are pictures!  They will be posted... later.

Before leaving, we walked through the museum of the Welsh (or Welch, using the old English spelling) regiments.  We went across the street and literally stumbled on one of the arcades on my location list -- this is the one that held Bilis's shop, which is really a cheese shop.  Then we did a little shopping!   

We'd hoped to take a water taxi down to the Bay, but unfortunately they don't run in the winter, so we settled for the city bus.  While waiting, I asked for directions and ended up speaking to two traffic surveyors from Penarth, who were quite friendly.  It was about a 15 minute ride, during which we passed the Altolusso building (which Jack stands on top of in EC).  The bus dropped us off right next to the Wales Millenium Centre, and I was practically bouncing at that point.  We walked as sedately as I could manage over to "Torchwood tower,"  where I posed for the obligatory pictures on the invisible lift/perception filter.   Because they've shot the plass from so many different angles on the show (and who wouldn't -- anywhere you point the camera, there's something interesting) I've had a hard time getting a real sense of what's where, so it was great to be there see for myself how everything was oriented.

Besides the tower, the most important location for me to find was Ianto's door, aka the surface entry to the Tourist Information Centre.  This took a bit of time, as, frankly, all the directions posted were rubbish.    The real directions:  from the plass, face the bay (with the Millenium Centre on your left) and walk toward Mermaid Quay, bearing right.  When you see the booth for the water taxi/sightseeing boats, go down the stairs to the lower boardwalk and turn right.  Straight ahead, you'll see Ianto's door.  It was covered by a gate when we were there, but the door is quite visible.  There are newspapers in the windows, including the one with Margaret Blaine (from DW's Boom Town) on the front page.  Turn around and you can see the x-shape on the left, covering the beams, and the chains on the right, both visible in the scene where Gwen walks toward the door with the pizza.  Also yaaaaaay! We found Ianto's door!  I was quite pleased.  (Also, the Hub is huge!  That's quite a ways from the tower to the door.)

Plenty of other location spotting to be done in Mermaid Quay.  Right above the lower boardwalk, on the first floor, you can see the sign for the Glee Club on the left of one of the side streets.  This is where Tosh and Gwen chase Carys in Day One.  A little farther out on the left, right over the water, is the Bosphorous, a Turkish restaurant where Jack, Rose, Mickey and the Doctor had lunch and tall tales in Boom Town. 

We were ready for lunch ourselves, and soup sounded promising, so we went to a Chinese restaurant, the Pearl of the Orient, which is another location -- where Owen and Diane have their first date in Out of Time.  I swear (and tifah will bear witness) that I did not ask, but we ended up sitting at Owen and Diane's very table.  And we had some good soup and appetizers.  Just the thing on a chilly, drizzly day.

We were hoping to take a boat tour, but had some time to spare, so we walked out of the Quay toward the Pierpoint Building, the Welsh Senedd (Assembly) and the Norweigan Church.  Unfortunately, upon coming back, the tour boat was nowhere to be found -- apparently they'd decided to call it a day early.  Truthfully, we wouldn't have seen much anyway, given the drizzle.  The drizzle was a bit wearing so we were happy to be going inside for awhile, over to the Red Dragon Centre and the Doctor Who Up Close exhibition. 

The exhibition was fun -- it was 5 pounds and featured a lot of costumes, including very recent ones from Voyage of the Damned.  There were also displays about each of the classic-series doctors and a bunch of Who monsters.  Quite fun.

It was still rainy and we were about done with the Bay, so we hopped a bus back to Queen Street, made a quick sundry stop at Boots, then walked back to our hotel.  We spent a nice hour down at the pool and hot tub, then relaxed in the room awhile before venturing out for dinner.  We decided to duck into the Fat Cat, and walking past the bar, who turned toward me but Kai Owen, who plays Gwen's boyfriend Rhys.  He was doing panto just down the street, and appeared to be with a group of cast and/or crew.  I sort of double-taked when I saw him, but did the LA cool thing and didn't bug him :)  Unfortunately, the Fat Cat stops serving food early, so we didn't stay, finding a sports bar type place down the street instead.  We each had a burger, chips and glass of wine for 5 pounds, quite a bargain.

We walked about a bit more after dinner, and then had a drink in the hotel bar.  We learned from our bartender that mojitos are currently the happening drink in the UK, and there are several variations of them.  We went up to our room around 10, and since tifah hadn't seen it, we watched Boom Town on my laptop, seeing all the places we'd seen that day.  Too bad we didn't have the same sunny weather. but a little rain wasn't enough to dampen my spirits.

I really enjoyed Cardiff -- not just for the locations, but for its impression as an up-and-coming city.  The people were uniformly friendly, and I've no doubt we could have spent another day or two.  Another time :)

As I write this, we're on the train heading to Bath.  It's tifah's turn for a day in fangirl heaven -- Jane Austen this time.

Hwyl fawr (goodbye) for now!