Whales...I mean Wales!

Yesterday was a very super long day. It was the daytrip to Wales and started bright and early at 7:30am. We had to leave the flat that early in order to make it to the bus stop by 7:55 where we met our lovely bus driver for the day, Antonio. We boarded the bus and were on our way...sort of. See we had about 5 stops to pick up other people so we really didn't leave London until about 9:30am. Then about an hour into our 3 hour long bus ride, we had to stop at a service station for for 45 minutes so the driver could get a nice little break. 

Finally, around 12:30, we picked up our tour guide for the day and entered Wales. We drove into the capital of Wales called Cardiff and got about an hour long bus tour through the town. Here's a few pictuers from the window of the bus...

Wales!

Milenium Stadium-they were having some huge rugby tourney

Pretty little park

Then, we were able to finally get off the bus (by this time we had been sitting for about 5 hours!) and go grab some lunch. Monica, Kirsten, and I were buddies for the day again so we obviously got lunch at this place called the Gelato Cafe...no surprise there :) We ordered the best Gelato milkshakes ever...well actually this was my first ever gelato milkshake but it sure set the bar high. I got Cookies and Creme flavor...orgasmic is how we described them...hehe. I also ordered a nice little ham and cheese baguette...delicious as well.

Gelato Cafe 

Kirsten and her milkshake

Cookies and Creme gelato milky

Me and my lunch

So then after lunch we had about 20 minutes to explore Cardiff. We walked past the Cardiff Castle and through some shops and then it was time to get back on the bus and head to Caerphilly Castle. (Sorry I don't have many pictures from Cardiff but it was rather hard to get good shots from the bus window).


It took about 15 minutes to reach Caerphilly Castle and we learned that it was one of the largest fortresses in Europe.  Our guide said nobody lived in the castle though and it was used more for military purposes. It was really beautiful and we got to explore the grounds for about 40 minutes. Here are a few pictures from Caerphilly!

Caerphilly Castle

The water looked like glass

The entrance and our little tour guide Allen

Inside the castle walls

View from the castle tower

Another view from the castle tower...I like how you can see the moat

I hate to sound like a Debbie Downer, but overall I was pretty disappointed with this trip. We spent more time on the bus than actually getting to explore the city and it was just a very odd day all around. I personally would have liked to been able to explore more of Cardiff instead of just sitting on the bus all day. I am still glad I went though because I at least got to see Wales. And that milkshake made up for everything :)

Now today it is pretty rainy and gloomy so who knows what the day will bring...all I know is I cannot stop eating the trail mix my mum sent me for Valentine's Day...:)

Well that's all for now!

Cheers,

Little Londoner :)