Shaun Tanner Life in the Principality Tour 09

I managed to get a bit of "down time" last week and subsequently took off for the week planning to go to a few different spots in Wales. Shot down on the Tuesday morning and had pretty good journey down to Cardiff where I planned on stopping for a few nights . We had an excellent deal at the Novotel in Atlantic wharf and I would reccomend the hotel . Spent the afterbnoon shopping and walking through Bute gardens .. v pleasant!!

Caroline in Bute Park ... Millenium Stadium behind...

Wandering through Bute Park

For the evening we went back into the city and I showed Caroline the nice parts of the city that we normally visit on the lads cultural tours or (weaselfests !!) .. First pub we went into was a little strange in that the barstaff consisted of two rather petite but nicely made up young men ... serving in a bar that consisted entirely of men ...(and caroline who at this point was oblivious) with a balding DJ wearing a kilt and playing the Communards . After a little while two of the men .. both of whom were wearing brightly coloured shirts started a little dance so we decided to move on ... We went to Kiwis ... (the nightclub that time forgot!!) and down into the yard before having really nice italian meal at Gios restaurant ... A v pleasant night which ended with me discovering the dream shop for my cultural mate .."The Lightening Boy "

On second day in Cardiff we went down to the Bay area on the waterbus which was a pleasant trip . The Bay area being the home of Dr Who and Torchwood aroused my curiousity for all of about 4 minutes before I realised that daleks are not actually real ..(are they ??) Did have a v pleasant day...

Me and a miner .... Cardiff Bay

The following day we checked out and drove on down to St Davids ... Britains smallest city as we hoped to go out on one of the fast boats and go whale and dolphin spotting .. sadly the sea was too rough and all trips were off . Nice little jaunt around St davids then drove back to Tenby for the evening before returning to our accomodation in Pembroke ... If anyone reading this is looking for excellent B&B in this area "Tregenna" is fantastic ... very nice night and a cracking breakfast before heading back to Tenby to try and get the elusive fast boat trip ...

Caroline at Tenby

The sea was still a bit choppy but we managed to get out on the "Seal safari " The boat was a rib type vessel and was pretty quick .... this mixed with quite a rough sea made for a trip I thoroughly enjoyed but not all customers did and i experienced tears and vomit from some of my shipmates but Caroline told me off when I tried to get pictures of these emotional scenes !!

Caroline ... (Fun police!! .... not realising I took a sneaky one !!)

The blob on the ledge on the left is a grey seal ... the trip itself was fantastic !!

From Tenby we went back to my place in Talgarth and stayed the night there ... The brecon Beacons national park is truly fantstic .. Out down the Tower in the evening .. took my mother too and had a great night there before going back to the legendary "Ell 'Otel" for nightcaps .... A pleasant trip back yesterday and sadly tomorrow it is back to work .... A thoroughly good time tho !!