An unexpected day out

 Recognise these people? Yup, The Lord Admiral and Lady Bluefunnel. We had planned to go up to their eirie on the hill for dinner on Saturday and during a phone discussion about curry I said that we would get there around 6pm because I intended us to go out somewhere on Saturday even though I didn't know exactly where - yet.
"If you can be here by 8.30am on Saturday you can come with us" said Lady B and it was so.

We drove to Cardiff and had breakfast in Ramon's - excellent! We were too busy eating for me to take a picture of the food but trust me, it was really good.

From there we went to Llandaff Cathedral. The first visit for all of us. We spent a while in the David Chapel, which is dedicated to the Welch Regiment - and to all the variations of that name up to its present incarnation as (The slightly boringly named) The Royal Welsh.

I saw one of those signs that make you smile so that will be added to the album of signs very soon

The cathedral was nearly destroyed by a landmine falling in the churchyard in 1941 and during the restoration in the 1950s the architect decided that a huge concrete parabolic arch was needed to separate the choir and nave - my own personal jury is still out on this one - Jacob Epstein then made "The Majesticas" and this was put on the front of what was then the organ thingy. In 2010 a whole new organ was built, the first wholly British built organ in any cathedral for 50 years the organ thingy now holds gilded statues of Old Testament people - excellent time was had

Then we went to World of Boats. We saw this on the way. There is this huge building called The Doctor Who Experience. We nipped in so that some people could use the ... facilities and the TARDIS was outside, perched on a bit of stick and perilously dangling over the bay.

Then the battery died on the camera so no pictures of the Elena Marie Barbara or the venetian gondola or even Poco the friendly pooch in the cafe. That was also a really good visit and we will be watching the progress of the restoration of the Elena on her website.
It was nearly lunch time and we were nearly going to the Pumping House antiques centre but a diversion to Penarth was called for. A brisk walk along the refurbished pier and then a brief step into the Old Sweet Shop to buy a stick of rock so that Mr M can teach a colleague how to do the "back-off-holiday" thing in work and then fish and chips eaten in the car for lunch. Delicious.
The Pumping house was excellent and I found a hall-stand that I liked but by that time my feet didn't want to walk anymore so we went back to the eirie and talked through a lovely dinner then came home and fell into bed around 10pm