Traveling

Heading to bed soon to get another good night’s sleep in our very comfortable budget hotel, the Royal, in Cardiff Centre. The front entrance to this hotel intrigues me. In the picture below you’ll see a set of stairs leading up; you can take those stairs, and the three sets like them, to the second floor. To the American way of thinking that’s the third floor, since Europeans start with 0 (zero) meaning the ground floor.

Or you can walk down the curving stairs on the left to an elevator which will take you from 0 to 2. (Whatever’s on the first floor – second floor to us – doesn’t seem accessible by stair or lift).

Once on the second floor one walks a bit to the check-in desk and then is directed to a different elevator that serves the guest rooms.

Off the lift Malette and I walk through the door pictured below. Then we walk through the second door pictured below. Then we access our room. There are no other guest rooms through that first door. We seem to be in a special hideaway that’s cool and quiet -- and a lovely room that’s larger than I expected, with twin beds that are perfectly comfortable. Wi-Fi’s a bit spotty but of what hotel is that not true?

 Door #1

Door #2

Door #3

In the morning we’ll walk to Cardiff Central to get on a train to Southampton. Three hours later we should be boarding QM2 for what I hope will be eight days of relaxation and Cunard’s legendary impeccable service.

Cardiff has been a delight. The bay area, where so many exteriors for Torchwood were shot, was great fun to visit and the performance of Billy Elliot we saw at the Millennium Centre was brilliant. This afternoon we heard the Royal Welsh College Symphony Orchestra perform two works by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov: Procession of the Nobles and the beloved Scheherezade. It was thoroughly enjoyable, and a great bargain at £7.

As we did during our 10 hours in Dublin, we walked A LOT here in Cardiff. I look forward to relaxing, avoiding stairs and pampering my knees and the rest of my sixty-seven-year-old body.

A couple bonus pictures: (thank the gods for English translations!)