cardiff

Cardiff Bay Sunset with Jupiter and Venus

by

After several days of grey and gloom there was an amazing sunset in Cardiff Bay tonight – a gradual change from blue to black in the sky colour, but most amazing of all was that two planets were easily visible.

In the photo you can see Venus to the lower right (almost in the centre of the frame) and Jupiter above and to the left.  Venus is currently about 1.09AU (astronomical units) away – that’s about 101,321,918 miles!  Jupiter is about 5.66AU away – that’s about 526,130,324 miles!!

Click on the photo for a bigger view.

Read more

Cardiff Bay Sunset

by

The light was pretty amazing in Cardiff Bay today especially at sunset.  I wandered out in front of the Senydd and took a few shots of the sky and the setting sun.

The clouds had some pretty amazing shapes and the St David’s Hotel and the surrounding apartment blocks looked great in silhouette.

Read more

Welsh Medal Winners Welcome Home

by

Photo of Sean Nicole Cooke's cousin copyright Paul Thomas 2008Today was a great day for Wales in Cardiff Bay – the return of the Wales Olympic gold medal winners Nicole Cooke, Tom James and Geraint Thomas and silver medal winner David Davies.

I must admit that I have a bit of a soft spot for Nicole Cooke since she comes from close to where I live.  She’s from Wick in the Vale of Glamorgan.  The welcoming crowd in Cardiff Bay today seemed to agree – the biggest cheer was saved for Nicole though the organisers had arranged for her to be presented to the crowd last of all.

The photo at the top is of Nicole’s cousin Sean who came down to Cardiff to welcome her.

Read more

Signor Valentino’s Restaurant, Cardiff Bay

by

We had a great meal in Cardiff Bay last night in Signor Valentino. The restaurant is a very good Italian with great food and good Italian service from what appear to be native Italians. Though some of my colleagues had suspicions that some of the waiters originated from Splott 🙂

We were lucky to have an excellent evening with a clear, sunny view over the Bay. The restaurant had their big doors open and some of the tables were located out on the veranda. Even on our large table inside we had a great view of the Bay across to Penarth. You couldn’t fault it. One of my friends suggested that it reminded him of being in Monterey. Impressive!

Thoroughly recommended. Make sure you book – tel. no. 029 2048 2007

Demiro’s Restaurant in Cardiff Bay

by

View of Demiro's restaurant. Copyright, Paul Thomas 2008We had a very nice lunch in Cardiff Bay this week. The restaurant is called Demiro’s. It’s located in the Mermaid Quay complex just across the Oval Basin from the Millennium Centre. We normally grab lunch in Coffee Mania but decided to try somewhere new. I’m normally put off by the bigger restaurants in Cardiff Bay for lunch because of the price, but now most of them do cheaper lunchtime express menus. They’re obviously aimed at the office workers who work in the nearby Welsh Assembly and Atradius.

The food is a mixture of styles based around Mediterranean. We had a good sized meal each and drinks for £15 for two. Service was good without being too attentive.

Thoroughly recommended for lunch.

A Tranquil Cardiff Bay

by

Cardiff Bay in the morning
This has to be one of my favourite shots of Cardiff Bay. I took it in October 2007 at about 9 in the morning. The Bay is amazingly smooth and the reflections are great. The St David’s Hotel is in the background.

The wooden structures in the foreground are called dolphins and were used to moor ships against when the bay was a full operating port. The Bay is a great place especially when you get good weather like it was on this day.