Cardiff, Wales: A Visit to the Doctor’s

Catching a Fever

It was bound to happen sooner or later. When you put in as many miles as we have over the past six months, something is going to break down your defenses. For me, it happened in Cardiff, Wales.

We arrived in Cardiff on a sunny (!) afternoon. After walking around town for a bit, having a pint, and eating an over-priced, over-cooked meal, we went back to the room to see what there was to do in Cardiff.

“Castle?” I asked, reading from the Lonely Planet. “We’re going to Scotland. Isn’t that full of castles?” queried Pat. “Art and Natural History museum?” We were both a bit museumed out. “Walk around town? Have a picnic in a park?” Of course, and absolutely.  “Cardiff Bay? A boat ride? Hey, what’s this? The Dr. Who Experience?” I don’t think we had ever toured an exhibit dedicated to a television show, but Dr. Who broke down my defenses. I had to go. Pat never really watched Dr. Who and wasn’t much of a fan, but he agreed to humor me, so I made an appointment for us to see The Doctor.

Preparing for el Doctor

We were checked into a Marriott on precious few of the remaining Marriott Rewards points we had from our working years. The bed was comfortable and the Internet was speedy. The first evening was spent uploading photos to the cloud, catching up on the news, and looking at general social media nonsense. Chipotle-style burritos picked up from a shop a block away served as dinner. I know… Mexican food in Wales, right? They were actually quite tasty. Just what the doctor ordered.

 

Don’t Blink

Our first full day consisted of decent weather — surprisingly — so we did our usual walk-around-and-see-what-we-find tour. There was a beautiful, large park near the castle, and so, the picnic stop was decided. While we sat in the park eating our lunch and sipping on wine, we were entertained by a group of four men and one woman doing rugby drills. Wow! Some of the drills looked pretty tough. My favorite drill was one where one person was “it.” That person had to tag and freeze the other four. When someone was tagged, they had to freeze in place but they could be un-frozen if one of the other players crawled through their legs. They were like chickens running around with their heads cut off playing leapfrog. It looked like thirsty-business, so we sat there until the entire dosage of wine had been taken. Secondhand dehydration was a distinct possibility, and we couldn’t be too careful.

That night we opted for yet another Chipotle-style burrito. I must have been a little homesick because Mexican food sure hit the spot. We continued sending massive amounts of data in the form of photos up to Amazon Cloud from the super-comfortable Marriott bed.

Our appointment with The Doctor was early the next morning. We were in central Cardiff and the Dr. Who Experience was in Cardiff Bay ~2mi from the hotel. It was another nice day, so we took the pleasant walk. I tried explaining the whole Time Lord thing to Pat, but his eyes glazed. At “Tardis” I completely lost his attention. Well, it was nice of him to accompany me anyway.

Reluctant Heroes

We arrived at the unique structure that housed the Dr. Who Experience and queued up with the rest of the opening bell Whovians. On entering the exhibit and checking the current location of The Doctor on the special multi-dimensional radar, a space-time continuum rift occurred. The entire universe was in serious temporal trouble. Thankfully we had brave and smart people in our group. We needed crystals to set things straight, though.

One of the very bravest of our group risked life and limb to retrieve a crystal from a Dalek. A few of our group piloted the Tardis and should be commended as well even though they found every pothole in the flippin’ universe. Unfortunately, one man was lost to an inter-dimensional creature that looked a bit like an octopus. It clung to his head like boiled okra flung on a wall. It’s definitely not the way I’d want to go. But, we set things right in the end, and I’m sure it didn’t make the news because as far as you know, the space-time continuum never skipped a beat. We were heroes though… risked our lives for you… you’re welcome…. think nothing of it…

After saving all of humanity, we were free to view the rest of the exhibit. There were costumes of all of the Doctors, some of the assistants, and many creatures including a couple incarnations of Davros and his evil and deadly army of Daleks. All in all, it was a very well done experience.

 

 

All’s Well That Ends Well

We took the boat from Cardiff Bay back up to the city center. It was a relaxing and pretty ride much like Cardiff was a relaxing and pretty city. We had no expectations for Cardiff and were happily surprised by its offerings. My defenses were broken there, but it was nothing The Doctor couldn’t fix.

Hike Drink Live Laugh

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