Day Trip To Cardiff!

My Best Buddy and I, decided to have a day trip to Cardiff last weekend as our Hubby’s had booked a track day in their Little Yellow Lotus.

Now my Best Friend is Welsh and the rest of her family still reside in Wales, so we planned to meet her Son, her Mom, her Granddaughter and her daughter in law, in the City Centre and spend the day Christmas Shopping.

We arrived bright & early at the station to catch the 8.30am train. We found our pre booked seats and settled ourselves down for the two-hour journey. It was at this point that we realised, it was Match Day! Great! Wales were playing Australia in Cardiff on the day that we had decided to do a spot of Christmas Shopping. Visions of Drunken, Rowdy Rugby fans, enter my head.  I quickly reason with myself, they will be at the match pretty much all day and hopefully, will have gone home by the time we board our 5.45pm train back to Birmingham.

The train is very tightly packed, presumably due to the hordes of excitable Rugby fans that have boarded the usually peaceful saturday morning train. We made several stops along the way picking up more people to pack out the already full Carriages. There were a few heated exchanges from passengers with reserved seats that found Rugby fans parked firmly with no intentions of moving! Thank goodness we got on nice and early, I can tell you now, I wouldn’t be giving up my seat for anybody! I really don’t care how big they are, I DO NOT do standing up on a train!!!

Finally, we arrive. First on the scene is my BFF’s Son. The usual hugs and kisses follow! Next we walk to meet her Mom. She is sitting on the bench in her bright red coat so we see her from quite a way off. I’d forgotten how tiny she is! It is not often that I feel tall, but today I feel rather huge!  This is actually pretty cool as I am not even 5’2! HaHa! Did I mention that we are about the same height and her son is only about 5’3?    … Well, now you know!

After a few small purchases, we finally meet my BFF’s Granddaughter and her Mom. again, both tiny, Yippee, I am sure I am getting taller!

So let the serious business of Christmas Shopping begin! Before long we were exhausted and starving so a visit to Maccy D’s ensues! Oh my goodness, I don’t think I have ever felt quite so like a sardine in a tin in my entire life as I did right then. After squeezing our way through the crowd with our food and clambering up the jam packed stairs, we finally found a space and sat down to eat our much needed shopping fuel before hitting the shops again for one last spree.

As our day was coming to an end and we said our goodbye’s, the City Centre was suddenly flooded with lots of ‘not very happy’ Rugby fans, streaming out of every bar and walkway in sight. Oh and guess what…

… they were all heading for the train station at the same time as us. Not Yippee! Not Yippee at all!!!

We were directed to one of the many queue’s for Midlands’ trains and it soon became apparent that our train was FULL! “Full?” we ask, “what do you mean, the train is full!?!”  We have tickets with reserved seats, how can it possibly be full? Our language and demeanour soon changed from calm, civilised, half soaked British Christmas shoppers, to, irate, loud and if I am honest, utterly rude disgruntled ‘waiting for a train in the freezing cold whilst needing the loo.’ Christmas shoppers!

Finally, they announced that they were providing us with an extra train! Yes Yippee!!!

We literally ran for the platform and took our place just behind the line whilst waiting with bated breath for the train to appear. We climbed on board and catapulted ourselves onto the seats. at least my feet could start to thaw!

We were shortly joined by a rather rowdy bunch of Brummy Rugby fans! This was a whole new adventure, but I wont bore you with the details of that now. That is a story for another day!

As our train draws into New Street Station, we both rise slowly to our feet. We  were ready to drop and incredibly hungry! We jump straight in a taxi to the Indian Restaurant that our hubby’s are patiently waiting in. A glass of wine, some yummy food then home to snuggle on the settee!

All in all, my day trip to Cardiff had been a really lovely (if a little exhausting) day… X