Some of my friends studied in the southwestern part of England back in my uni days, but it wasn’t until recently did I finally venture out to visit the place (passing Bristol on the M5 to Cardiff doesn’t count as visiting). I wanted to do a Bristol+Bath break but ayah and I made Newport (yes, as in Casnewydd, Cymru) our base, as he wanted to re-visit Cardiff to get some stuff at the souvenir shop he missed last time. Besides, the family had a soft spot for the resort we stayed at in the summer of 2011, and visiting Bristol or Bath will be at most an hour in the car which is nothing in the greater scheme of things, really. Unfortunately, The Vale was fully booked for the time we were planning to stay and thanks to Tripadvisor, I got us a room at the Celtic Manor in Newport. Little did I realise until we arrived at the resort that it had three golf courses and it was the venue for the 2010 Ryder Cup. Suffice to say that both ayah and I were possibly the only two non-golfers there. The room was large enough for my liking and the beds were comfy. We ventured out to Oriental Garden down in Cardiff Bay for dinner simply because we loved it the last time, and that was one of the two places I know where I could park my car. I like things to be simple, folks. Heh.
Cardiff was the order of the following day and we did the touristy thing by getting on the open top bus. We didn’t go to the castle as we had already been. After getting the stuff ayah wanted (and more) we traipsed down the Castle Arcade next to the shop and had lunch at Restaurant Minuet. I found this gem of a place as recommended by my Lonely Planet book (thus far, these books haven’t failed me yet) and noted that its Tripadvisor ranking was #6 out of 500-odd eateries in the city. As described, the place appeared understated and thankfully we just missed the office lunch hour, hence the ease of getting a table. The dishes had names of composers or their works appended to them which I found interesting. I asked the waitress what the portions of the starters were like and she actually drew an imaginary plate in the air from which I deduced the size and confidently ordered two starters (deep fried mushrooms named after Bizet and the calamari), as we were pretty famished. We wanted to have fish (the J.S. Bach Lunch option comprised fillet of fish with tagliatelle and spinach in a tomato sauce) but they were out of pesce, so it was two orders of Spaghetti Lucullo (spaghetti with udang, sedikit pedas) then.
The starters arrived and they were massive. I wished the waitress had been a little bit more accurate in describing the plate size! Hahaha. Simple dishes these were, and the mushrooms deserve a mention. The golden breadcrumbs were crispy and weren’t sodden with oil. The paprika in the breadcrumbs added some zing which surprised me. We finished up both the starters and only then did we start worrying what size portion will our pasta dishes be. They were of a good size when they arrived, but only if we had only one starter to share. If I was fussy, I’d say the spaghetti was a tinge overcooked. Nothing extraordinary to say about the sauce but don’t get me wrong, it tasted good. They didn’t stinge on the prawns either. I finished mine, and, err.. helped ayah out with his. My verdict – I will definitely come back, this time to try the fish. Highly recommended! After lunch, we took a detour to Barry Island to soak in the quiet at the pebbled coast on The Knap before returning to the resort.
After some thought, I thought the following day will be a visit to Bath only. I have read that parking in Bath is atrociously difficult and we opted for the park & ride at the suburbs. For any of you wanting to visit this fine city, I would advise getting to the P&R a lil’ early as it was full (Bath has three P&R’s to choose from) when we got there. Thankfully, a feeder bus arrived which meant there’d be people getting to their cars. The bus ride to the city was only 10 minutes long. The P&R I chose meant that the last stop in the city was only a 3-minute walk from Bath Abbey, which was pretty much the main reason we came. The Roman Baths had a short queue and I was well surprised, with it being a gloriously sunny day. It was half eleven, though, and being there early possibly explained our pleasant visit throughout. Ayah getting his photos taken with Caesar on The Terrace without having to jostle with a busload of tourists was good enough for us. Not all of the structures were the actual Roman remnants but to see how this was built from the ground up just beggars belief. UNESCO did the right thing by awarding the whole city a World Heritage Centre.
Visiting the Baths meant a 15% discount at the Roman Baths Kitchen across the museum and we got a table al fresco after a 10-minute wait which was well worth it. Whilst enjoying a hearty fish ‘n’ chip meal (not bad lah) to music played by the street guitarists only a few metres away, we then saw tourists arriving en masse at the museum. Phew.
After lunch saw us doing the touristy things again with the souvenirs and open air bus ride (I didn’t want to rush ayah up and down the hilly city streets to see the sights). From a photography point of view, I had some nice shots, but I’d get some better ones if we had actually stayed there. The Royal Crescent, for one, looked great but it was a sunny afternoon and it was filled with people. I can imagine it a little quieter at dusk to get that orange glow on the bath stones for that obligatory post card shot!
After three nights, it was time to head back to South Yorkshire. Via a little village in Oxfordshire[1].
_______________________________________
[1] I is Malay.
