After a good night's sleep and an excellent breakfast, including Glamorgan sausages for Chris, we set off back to the River Taff, this time to follow the path southwards, passing the Millennium Stadium and Brains Brewery on the way.  


 

 



We knew we were almost at the bay when we caught sight of the front of the Wales Millennium Centre, with the copper coloured front catching the light. It is a Welsh performing arts centre dedicated to music and dance and we will be visiting it tomorrow. Looking towards the bay, the area is dominated by a huge tower sparking in the sunshine, a 70ft high metallic water sculpture, constantly bathed in flowing water. 



This stands at the head of a bowl shaped amphitheatre, surrounded with several metallic towers (under which the headquarters of Torchwood is hidden) that is Roald Dahl Plass, named after the famous author born here. There are several Norwegian connections in the bay as in the 1860s, many Norwegian sailors came here, employed by the Norwegian Merchant Navy when the West Bute Dock was part of a busy coal port. Others followed and settled, including Dahl's parents, and the word Plass means Place in Norwegian as a tribute. In fact a church was shipped from Norway and erected here for the community and Dahl was baptised there, named after Roald Amundsen, the famous Norwegian explorer who beat Scott to discover the Antarctic. Today it is an arts centre and cafe, serving excellent Welsh rarebit. Nearby stands the Scott Antarctic Memorial representing Scott and his men trapped in the snow during this fatal expedition which had set sail from Cardiff.

 

Two other buildings need a mention. Pierhead stands in prime position on the Bay, once the headquarters of the Buck Dock Company and now a museum of the docks and Welsh devolution.

 



Next door is The Senedd, designed by Richard Rogers, which opened in 2006 and houses the Welsh Assembly. It is made mainly from Welsh materials and the curved red cedar roof is meant to represent the waves in the Bay and reminded us of a similar ceiling in a museum in Auckland. The wind cowl on the top of the roof rotates, drawing all the hot air out of the debating chamber!

 



Continuing round the bay we caught our first glimpse of the real existence of you know Who ... and then continued over the barrage and on to Penarth, where we checked out the marina and caught a train back to Cardiff.

 


Walking back through Cardiff centre, we took a detour down several of the lovely Edwardian shopping arcades filled with little independent shops. We remembered similar arcades in Paris when we made our 2012 anniversary trip.


 
Dinner was at Toni's Amici, a family run Italian just down the road. We walked in and were the only guests, but didn't let that spoil our evening! I had mussels in a tomato and garlic sauce followed by wild boar pappardelle and Chris had bruschetta and cannellonic, sharing an amaretto sponge desert to finish ... needless to say reminding us of our many trips to Italy!