Cardiff Bay

[llywela13.livejournal.com]

Hasn't it gone cold again lately? Brrrr.

On Saturday, my little sister decided that she would like an outing to Cardiff Bay to celebrate her 14th birthday, so off we went. We managed to have a lovely time in spite of the cold, damp weather - but would much rather it had been sunny!

As we settled into the water bus for a trip across the Bay to the barrage, I was intrigued to see this chair being used as a link in the fence!


View across to the barrage, which connects the Queen Alexandra Dock and Penarth Head and was one of the largest civil engineering projects in Europe during the 1990s - it is essentially a giant dam across the mouth of the bay, which had previously formed part of the Bristol Channel, which has the second largest tidal range in the world. At low tide, this bay area would completely empty of water, leaving behind smelly, slimy mudflats. The construction of the barrage, however, transformed those mudflats into a permanent fresh water lake, and completely regenerated the entire dockland area.


A closer view - in this one you can clearly see the three huge sea locks, which grant access back and forth between the Bay and Bristol Channel


View of the Pierhead Building, Millennium Arts Centre and Senedd Building (home of Welsh Assembly Government) from the water - taken through the window of the boat, so you can see the rain on the glass. The odd angle is because the water was pretty choppy so the boat kept rocking!


I've posted views of this artwork before, but here it is again - not the best view, granted, but you can just about see all the different lines of paint lining up to form Three Ellipses For Three Locks, by Swiss artist Felice Varini.


Mouth of the river and the Cardiff Bay Yacht Club - there are around 50 yachts moored here. The area was also absolutely teeming with swift and swallows - as, indeed, was the entire lake - but they were just too small and fast to show up in any of the photos


View back across the Bay as the boat prepares to dock at the Barrage


Leaving the Barrage once more, the journey around the Bay takes us close to the working docklands, littered both with modern machinery and relics of the city's industrial past


View of the Norwegian Church Arts Centre from the water - the popular children's author Roald Dahl was baptised in this church


A slightly nicer view back toward the marina area, although not centred properly - that darn boat just kept on rocking! It really was a lousy day, weather-wise


This one is for byslantedlight - this is what that Torchwood wall looks like now! Madness!


Another relic of the city's industrial past


And a view across the Bay taken from land


And finally - a couple of very different views, as modelled by my sister in the Doctor Who exhibition!