The Ham Nomads

6 May 2014. <GB-WLS> Cardiff; Gowerton, Swan —

In spite of all forecasts, a fine day. Woke up in the Council Carpark, left before most of the commuters arrived. Went to a garage to get fuel, empty the toilet, refill our water tank, then on the the Park and Ride at the Cardiff City Stadium (the soccer stadium) — but first to the adjacent Retail Park to shop. Finally found a battery for the van's clock — it's a most unusual size!

Fishmonger at Market

Millennium Stadium

Cardiff Castle

Owl at Cardiff Castle

High Street, Cardiff

The bus (£3 for the two of us, return) dropped us right near the town centre, and we proceeded to do the Cardiff Centenary Walk, past most of the buildings of interest in the inner city, including the Market, churches, arcades, the Millennium Stadium (the home of Welsh Rugby), the Angel Hotel (where rugby fans stay), Cardiff Castle (into which we made a 2-hour detour), the civic centre at Cathays Park (including the City Hall, the Law Courts, the University of Wales, the Museum of Wales, and other "official" buildings).

We finished the walk, then went into the St David's Centre, a £700 million transformation of the city centre containing over 160 stores. It's strongly reminiscent of the Westfield complex in Shepherd's Bush, London — huge, many top-end stores, impressive. Susie bought herself a beautiful decorative notebook she's now going to use to index what we did and say on each day, to complement her journal.

Back at the Van at Cardiff City Stadium

As we were leaving to catch the bus back to he van it started showering, and we left Cardiff to the accompaniment of raindrops on the van — was the city sad to see us go?

The Commercial

Susie settled in van

Drove out just beyond Swansea to Gowerton, where the Commercial Hotel welcomes campervans. It puts us in a good position to go into Swansea (Dylan Thomas territory — and which has useful Park and Rides) and also to explore the Mumbles (a beach area) and the Gower (a peninsula we suspect will be much like the Bellarine Peninsula in Victoria, where the Hams used to holiday at Point Lonsdale).

Distance driven — today, 54 miles ( 87 km ); to date, 695 miles ( 1,119 km )