We parked in St David's parking (which to Ken's disgust ended up being $40 despite his research telling him it would be $18) and walked a pleasant 45 min to the Doctor Who Experience early in the day. We passed many sculptures along the harbour front, but this one in particular caught our eye. From one angle it has the appearance of a wrecked boat, and from another it is that of a face resting on the sea bed: a memorial to lives lost in the merchant marine.
Walking along Tardis Way toward the DWE. This closes in September due to the lease being up and the owner wanted to develop it into residential area. The experience began with a "narrative" where we were all enrolled as companions and taken along to help the Doctor find some crystals to fix stuff and save the world. Benedict and Oliver were the only children in our group and so when the crystals were located at various parts of the story, they got to retrieve them. Benedict got to reach deep inside a Dalek to take out a crystal, and Oliver had to take one from the hand of a Weeping Angel! What fun! The experience was constructed of sets and props from Dr Who episodes - very cool indeed. After exiting the experience we wandered around the Gallifrey Museum, looking at the TARDIS in its various versions, the monsters, and the costumes from the Doctors and their companions, as well as the different Tardis consoles.
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| Oh Oli, you so funny! |
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| Classic 70s/80s console |
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| First TARDIS (right) and third TARDIS (left; Tom Baker years) |
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| Love K-9 |
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| David Tennant's Tardis console |
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| Controlling a Dalek |
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| Staring at the Face of Boe |
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| Cybermen! |
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| Cybermen |
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| The Brain of Morbius. I remember this looking pretty naff at the time of originally seeing the episode. The costume was no better. |
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| The Doctors' outfits (8-11, plus the War Doctor) |
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| The Doctors' outfits (1-6) |
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| Dalek evolution |
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| Happy face! |
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| Protecting the world from the Weeping Angels |
After that heady experience we needed to bring things down a notch, so we took in some lunch at Wagamama before heading out for a 3 hour bike ride around Cardiff.
I really like Cardiff as a city. It is clean, it is cutting edge in its development efforts to reinvigorate the place and breathe new life into it. It has lots and lots of green space, and people tend to ride bikes everywhere. Our guide was a fellow named Paul who is from Belgium, but moved to Wales upon marrying his Welsh wife 27 years ago. He was very knowledgeable about the city's history and took us along an easy ride through the city. Of note, we were able to visit the coal exchange building, which was in a state of disrepair until interest and money came along in the last few years and turned it into a boutique hotel. Once finished, it will be a gorgeous space. We stood on the trading floor, now a banquet hall, and were able to see the love and care in the restoration.
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| The Coal Exchange building - now a hotel |
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| Cardiff City planners turned the tidal flats of the Taff river into a lake, which is now home to many places to dine and play. |
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| Plenty of kids ignoring the do not swim signs - it was the hottest day in Wales since 1973 |
We ended our day with a trip to a board games store for Ken ... thankfully they had free wifi and cold beer for sale so I was ok to wait for him! Below is my "grin" upon entering the store :) Ken did purchase a board game titled Sheriff of Nottingham.
