28/10/24 - Cardiff City Walk and (3/7ths) of the Good Beer Guide Pubs

Mediocre Meanderings

Imagine explaining the British Rail System to someone from overseas? After using several different websites, Trainline (booking fee applies) gets the ticket down by 50% to the hardly bargain price of £35. It does this by providing a fistful of (virtual) tickets with the exclamation that; 

"No need to change trains, just change tickets!". 

Welcome to the world of SplitTicketing. It's complex, utterly bizarre and the carriages don't have USB charging ports.

I disembark to a rainy plaza with the intention of completing a walk and discovering the city through a mixture of Adventure Lab Caching and the Good Beer Guide. The tone of the day is set by a shopping centre security guard trying to eject a street drinker with an XL Bully Dog. Much swearing. Much barking. Much finger pointing. Much pre-fight posturing. Better influencers than me ready their smartphones. I'm on the point of phoning the police when it fizzles out. The dog got bored and dragged its owner away.

The Walk - a tour of the castle, a section along the River Taff in Bute Park, the Principality Stadium and some very pretty squares around the museums.

The ALCs - finding the works of the sculpture Robert Thomas, who has seven works in the City. The castle. Other City Centre items of interest.

Anthony Bourdain always recommends the Market

The Castle from the Crossing

Peeking through one of the Gates

Alexandra Park, in the nice part of town.

Onto the 2025 Good Beer Guide Pubs - 7 Available, time enough for around half. And a poke my head through the door of one of the many 'Spoons.

First up Tiny Rebel. I am greeted by excellent music but Portishead can never be described as "feel good". I once put in on during a dinner party (remember them?) and the guests threatened to leave.

Mistimed, I am third at the bar behind a family with a myopic dad who wants to stare at every pump clip. For reasons that will be revealed, this is a technique I should have adopted. And a couple of Frenchies who are trying to determine the food situation. Getting nowhere, I head to the facilities to come back and find myself 3rd in the queue.

Ignoring the opportunity to show off with my accurate pronunciation of Cwych, I order an IPA that has, in the small print, the words "Hedgerow IPA". Add that to your NEIPA, WCIPA etc. There's probably a better description of the colour than "organgy-pink".

The Crisps were good.

Next door is the 'Spoons Gatekeeper. I think I pass four in the City, so presumably they take it turns to be in the guide. No time to stop, but a handy throughway and a "steal" of the Cask Marque QR Scan.

Standard Spoons - with added Witches Hats and Cobwebs

The Old Arcade is head and shoulders the best of the bunch found today. Maybe it was the £2.70 promotion of Brains SA that meant there was not a table free on a Monday lunch. The rumbustious landlord, who knew how to entertain a lunchtime crowd, refused to sell me a half as it was the more or less the same price for a pint. Although he did warn me I would end up like him, pointing to a punter in the corner who took the jibe with good grace.

A fine Rugby Pub, covered in memorabilia and a lovely quote running across whatever you call a skirting board just under the ceiling.

“To be born Welsh is to be born privileged, not with a silver spoon in your mouth, but music in your blood, and poetry in your soul.”

The Old Arcade

Rugby Pub

Time for one last visit before battling Cross Country. I should have trusted my instincts about Owain Glyndwr.  How to describe it? A 10am opener - of which the landlord of the Old Arcade had some strong opinions. A sports pub with many huge screens to see that Man Utd have joined the sack race. Again. A food place, where most people seemed to be eating fish-fingers, beans and chips. Having only bought a single sandwich with me, consumed long ago whilst lost in the indoor shopping centre, I was well-jell. 

Curved Bar, Nice location

It had a reasonably interesting beer line up but I was losing the will to live when the single bar person kept asking a 30ft bar with people all along "Who is next". This way riots start. It's your job as the barkeep to monitor this.

After my politeness waned (and it was my turn) I jumped in. Another point deducted for stuffing an exotic Pewin Ynfytyn into a London Pride glass.

4/5 for quality - 2/5 for presentation - 1/5 for service

A dash back to the station. More gentlemen of the street shenanigans, of which I will spare the details but merely comment on their amplitude of voice and inventiveness of profanity. 

Walk Details

Distance - 5 Miles

Geocaches - 20 Adventure Lab Caches

Walk Inspiration - Discover Britain - A Sporting Walk in Cardiff