Going Round In Circles

We had a family outing on Wednesday - only to a hospital appointment, though!
We arrived in good time to make sure we would be able to locate our department, and carefully checked the map board in the main foyer, which clearly said Dept X was upstairs, as did another sign by one of the lifts.

Up we walked, only to find no sign of Dept X anywhere, and especially not where the map said it was. As we walked past the lift (we were going to use the stairs down), I happened to notice a different sign saying Dept X was downstairs as part of department Z.  So, down we marched and made our way to the new destination, only to be told we had come to the wrong place!

Apparently we needed to walk through Department Z's long ground floor corridor to the stairs/lift at the end and go up to the next floor, where we would find the mythical Department X - which did not have an access door from the main upstairs corridor. Quite why the map in the foyer could not tell you just to go to Department Z, I will never know, but we made our appointment with ten minutes to spare so we could all catch our breath.

Name Dropping, Part Two

Lots of historical re-enactors in the costumes and uniforms

 of various periods of the Regiment's long and distinguished history

 were outside the Stadium where Her Majesty the Queen, 

as Commander-In-Chief of the Regiment,

 would shortly be inspecting her troops

Y Ddraig Coch - the Red Dragon,

 the national flag of Wales.

The parade enters the stadium.

Colonel Philip Napier, Colonel of the Regiment,

 with the  Lord Mayor of Cardiff.

The Queen inspecting her troops.

So much pageantry!

One of the Regimental Chaplains leading prayers 

and blessing the new Colours. 

The giant screens meant everyone could see what was happening, 

even though Her Majesty was far away.

                                                         

                                                      Chelsea Pensioners.

Name Dropping, Part One

I saw Her Majesty The Queen this week :-D

She was in The Big City to see the formal parading of the new Regimental Colours of the Royal Welsh Regiment and I was able to get a last minute ticket to watch the wonderful spectacle.

I walked past the Millennium Stadium, 

where the ceremony was to take place later on that morning. 

There were huge numbers of people gathered already.

                                      The clock tower of the beautiful Cardiff Castle.

I had my camera with the telephoto lens,

which was essential.

Lots of military were entering the Castle, where the Regiment was forming up

 for the parade through the streets to the Stadium.

Through the gate I could catch a glimpse of the 

Regimental Goat.

This is Lance-Corporal Shenkin III, 

and he really does hold the rank of Lance-Corporal.

 Any soldiers lower in rank must salute him, 

and he has access in theory at least -  to the Corporal's Mess.
Other Regimental Goats have in the past been demoted 

for behaviour unbecoming to their rank...

Lance-Corporal Shenkin III  and his dedicated Goat-Major 

leading the Royal Welsh Regiment

out through the Castle gates.

The Regimental musicians...

                                                             Presenting swords

This was how far back I was standing :-)

More than 500 troops were in the parade.

                                                           
                                                             Colour-Bearers

The Regiment has been given the Freedom of the City,

which allows them to march with weapons

and have bayonets fixed as you can see below.

More to follow!

Bath, Part Two.

The queue to enter the Roman Baths was huge, 

stretching around the building.

So we didn't bother.

Lots of street entertainers!

Quite a lot of scaffolding up for repair work on various buildings...

I love the architecture!

Even Roman soldier rubber ducks for your bathtub!

Bath's long history as a spa is reflected

 in the Royal Mineral Water Hospital building.

Everywhere you look, there are lovely buildings.

We paid a special visit to Sally Lunn's...

which is the oldest house in Bath

and is a fabulous tea-room!

It is very popular indeed, justifiably so.

In the basement is a great little museum

and a shop where you can buy luscious Bath Buns 

to take home to enjoy. 

Needless to say, we did :-)

We also found the best bookshop in the history of the universe, 

"Mr B's Emporium of Reading Delights", where we spent a considerable amount of time....

I have given it a blogpost of its very own over at The Garden Window blog.

On our way back to the train station, we found a super shop

called "Ora Et Labora", which sells items made by 

monasteries and convents in Britain and Europe.
They have a nice webstore!

                                     We bought some Caldey island Monastery chocolate

and I can certainly recommend the wonderful Lindisfarne Mead...

When we left the shop, I turned and looked back 

at the glimpse of Bath Abbey

And at this lovely, enormous tree!

It was a long but lovely day!

Bath, Part One.

DD3 went to Open Day at Bath Spa University on Saturday, and asked me to go with her. I'm always glad of an excuse to go to beautiful Bath, so off we went on the train on a glorious fine day, even if it was stupid o'clock in the morning.....

We had to change trains at Cardiff Central, 

where we laughed at this lift: 

"A Tardis fit for a Doctor", 

in Welsh and English

By Bath's train and bus stations was this 

great sitting area with deckchairs!

We caught the bus up to the University Campus, 

which was on a hillside in a very rural area.

But when you turn around...

you see some very modern University buildings!

We attended several talks on various degree subjects, 

but I was really surprised to see that all the chairs were like this, 

which seemed to me to be an accident waiting to happen... castors on all four legs!

This part of the campus was the home of the 

Bath School of Art in the 1800s - very lovely.

A view from the other side:

The parkland was serene and beautiful.

We caught the bus back into Bath, 

had some lunch and wandered around 

in the sunshine.It was incredibly busy,

 too busy to be able to stop and take decent photos.

This is the West front of Bath Abbey.

The North side of the Abbey.

And the South side, 

with a modern statue of the Resurrection 

by Laurence  Tindall.

The queue to enter the Roman Baths was huge.

Lots of street entertainers!

Quite a lot of scaffolding up for repair work on various buildings...

I love the architecture!

Even Roman soldier rubber ducks for your bathtub!

Bath's long history as a spa is reflected

 in the Royal Mineral Water Hospital building.

Everywhere you look, there are lovely buildings.

And lots of tourists enjoying the sights.