harrisandboyd: A very big weekend (including a castle visit)

We are just back home from a very big weekend. In summary: a castle (of course), a museum and two family pub meals (heaven).

On Friday afternoon, I abandoned the family and went to Cardiff with a work colleague named Reg. We went to watch Australia play Wales on Saturday afternoon. Reg, although from South Australia, is a rugby fan. He grew up in NSW.

We arrived in Cardiff, checked into the hotel and walked into the city for a pub dinner.

On Saturday morning we went to have a look at......Cardiff Castle.

After that we wandered around looking at the Christmas markets -- not that we were really interested in them. We had a Cornish pasty for lunch and then headed to the Millennium Stadium. Most of the game was pretty average. The last minute was incredibly exciting when Australia came from behind to score and win the game. It was the only time that the few hundred Australian supporters were louder than the 60,000 Welsh. Even with the stadium's roof closed it was very cold in the ground and after the match we walked back to the hotel to warm up. Back at the hotel, Reg left me to drive to London to catch a flight back to Australia. He has been away from his family for seven weeks.

Meanwhile, back in Weymouth the kids had been for haircuts, well one of them actually managed to get a haircut. The two youngest were turned away due to an outbreak of head lice. After lunch they went to see the lighting of the Weymouth Christmas tree.

On Sunday I caught a train to Bristol and Sarah and the kids (who were now treated for head lice) drove up to meet me. In Bristol we all went to At-Bristol, which is a kids-oriented science museum. They all really enjoyed it, Sarah loved the planetarium. Ben and Simon loved the animation exhibition with a set from Wallace and Grommit. Ella enjoyed an exhibit where you had to exercise and feed a human body simulation with the resulting other bodily functions.