Caerdydd And Casnewydd
Jul. 15th, 2018 11:21 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lupestripeThis weekend saw us go on a whistlestop trip to Cardiff in order to complete the set of UK Brewdog bars. Calling in at Birmingham along the way, this meant that we have now visited all 36 bars since Easter, which is an incredible (if slightly foolhardy) achievement if you come to think of it. We have crossed the country from Ellon all the way to Southampton, from Cardiff to Norwich, and everywhere in between in our quest to fill up the Intergalactic Beer Visa. It has beeen great fun, only tempered by the frustration that had previous bar visits counted, we would now have claimed the final 'This Is 40' prize as we have already visited four international bars. Alas, this was before this scheme began, so they do not count, which is incredibly frustrating.
We were staying in Newport, having opted for the Ibis Budget hotel there on account of it being over £100 cheaper than any hotel in the centre of Cardiff. After calling off at Birmingham and having a rather pleasant chat with the Brummy serving lady in the bar, we grabbed some food from the Tesco Extra in the new station concourse before pushing on our way. We headed down the M50 and through Herefordshire, a place where I hadn't been before, and I must admit I enjoyed the rolling countryside in this part of the country. In the end, we made rather good time and arrived in Newport at 2:30pm, before the time we could check in. Consequently, we decided to check out the one major sight in the city - the Transporter Bridge. Coming from Middlesbrough, this was quite exciting for me as Newport and Middlesbrough have the only two working gondola bridges of this type in the UK. Indeed, there are only six working in the world, so it was a real pleasure to get up close to such an engineering marvel. Built in 1905, it's slightly older than the Middlesbrough one and is of slightly different design, being less chunky and more angular rather than triangular in shape. It's also grey rather than blue. We were given the option of walking up and over the bridge, but Wolfie declined on account of being scared of heights, so in the end we decided to just ride over the rather muddy river in the gondola itself. When we were on the other side, we grabbed a peak at the engine room and pully system used to operate the bridge while we had a walk around to see what little there was here. Indeed, it's very much like Port Clarence in Middlesbrough, with the bridge being built to encourage a local steel works to move to the area. This has now since gone, with the area having the same level of deprevation as Middlesbrough, which is sad to see. Still, the pleasant chap in the modest visitor centre did seem to put it down to walking around Newport 'not hearing English any more'. When I raised the prospect of hearing Welsh, I was disheartened to discover that was not what he meant. Aside from this though, he was quite nice to talk to, telling us about the history of the steelworks here and of the bridge itself. Meanwhile, we also chatted to a number of council employees who were stewarding on the bridge, with a youngish one telling us about his love for heavy metal and why Cardiff was the place to be.
After an hour spent here, we drove back to our hotel to check in, before walking the mile and a half to Newport railway station. England v Belgium was ongoing in the third/fourth-place playoff at the World Cup but we weren't overly interested in this and neither were England it would seem, as they lost 2-0. It was a disappointing result from a decent tournament overall, but it did leave the side with more questions unanswered. Anyway, Newport is very much a city which what it lacks in pavements, it makes up for in bridges, and navigating the busy duel carriageways heading into the city proved to be difficult. The same was the case getting to the railway station too, which seems to be partly under reconstruction. Still, we managed to get there eventually and soon enough we were on a train making the straightforward fifteen minute train journey to Wales's capital city. Upon arrival, we got out of the station and immediately noticed the sheer number of people hanging around the bars on the main street, with most of the shittier bars (including the ubiquitous Weatherspoons) being particularly busy. The atmosphere was pretty febrile and it was only 5:30pm, but fortunately the main craft beer street behind it was a fair bit quieter. We grabbed a pasty from Greggs en route and headed for Brewdog to get our 36th stamp, opting for a flight as there were a number of seats available. As we were ordering, Wolfie's friend Raven appeared, with whom we had arranged to meet. He is a Cardiff local who had agreed to show us around, although it was I who ended up informing him of some bars which had opened of which he didn't really know. Raven is one of Wolfie's motorfurs friends and I am pretty sure I had spoken to him at the odd convention, but this was the first time I had spoken to him in-depth. It was nice getting to know someone new, particularly as I feel my own friendship groups in Leeds are falling apart, and last night I was probably the happiest I have been in a long time. We ended up having a fair few drinks - six in Brewdog before moving on to the Tiny Rebel bar just down the road.
Tiny Rebel are a Newport-based brewery and one of the best in the UK right now. I had actually forgotten they were based here and had I known, I would have probably insisted staying a second night. Either way, we still had the opportunity to check out their Cardiff bar last night and their brewery taproom this morning before heading back north. The taproom is in a Newport industrial estate and is not too dissimilar to the Brewdog one in Ellon. They have a huge space for dining though and many of their beers on tap. As Wolfie was driving back, he didn't drink, but I did have a cheeky Chocolate Marshmallow Tuft at 10:30am, while we also bought five different bottles of beer from them that we had not yet tried. We would have loved to have stayed around and even done a brewery tour but alas we had to get back home for the World Cup Final, and as I say, Wolfie cannot drink. Still, being there and seeing all the brewing paraphenalia, not to mention their cute teddy bear mascot everywhere, was fantastic and we will have to come back. We had an equally good time last night in their Cardiff city bar, although we were amused by the fact they were in the middle of a Northern Monk tap takeover, with that brewery being based in Leeds. This was serendipitous for us though as they had the one remaining beer we had not had from their hop trilogy from about six months ago, Yeast, which we gladly consumed. We also got to try a number of Tiny Rebel beers fresh from the tap, not to mention some excellent food, which included poutine with the thickest gravy I had ever experienced. Oddly, this could not be added to a regular burger order so we had to get it as a side, which resulted in too much food, but still it was good. While we were here, I also got chatting to a barman who, upon hearing we were from Leeds, started talking about an Indian-themed bar with Bombay Witbier in my home city. This is Bundobust and upon hearing the name, memories came flooding back. I did tweet the guys about this and they replied - indeed it is amazing the universality and community nature of craft beer.
Our final stop was Beelzebub, one of the newest bars in Cardiff, having been opened just last month. It's the home of local brewery Crafty Devil, who had collaborated with Brewdog on the Collab Beer Festival last October. We were quite drunk by this stage, but still managed to sample two of their range, with me getting into a rather long conversation with one of the bartenders about Brewdog and their more corporate side. Interesting points were proposed despite our disagreement and being here was a nice way to end the evening. Indeed, all of the craft bars were about three-quarters full, with the staff acknowledging that this was quite rare, but it did make them pleasant places to be with small queues to be served. There was a church at the end of the road on which Beelzebub was, which we checked out, before we said goodbye to Raven and went our separate ways. We then got on the train back to Newport, which was the last one of the night and can only be described as the train from hell. There was no sitting room at all and everyone was standing, crammed in, singing and shouting in their usual drunken way. I've never been on such a rowdy or anti-social train and I was muttering death threats to myself under my breath such was their loud nature. We managed to survive though and left Newport station quickly, getting a taxi back to the hotel, where we crashed pretty soon after arriving.
It was a shame the trip was so whistlestop but we had to get back for the World Cup Final. I had hoped we would have quite a party, with friends around and a good bit of social, but most people bailed as the day wore on. I was incredibly disappointed by this, but I wasn't really surprised. At least Taneli came, bearing gifts of Diet Coke and cookies, while we shared a couple of Papa John's pizzas over what was probably the best World Cup Final in my lifetime. It was a very end-to-end match with two teams of excellent quality, although I do think the free kick leading up to France's first goal was not a free kick, neither was the penalty that gave France their second. As a result, Croatia can count themselves most unfortunate and they did give an excellent account of themselves. The usual anti-football crowd on Twitter weren't as vociferous and I must admit I am going to miss this tournament. The football has been very entertaining and the excitement intoxicating. England went further than expected, which added to the hype of course, while it was great to have an event which united what is a very divided country right now. Furthermore, I just love the drama of football and having friends around to watch it, with quite a few people dropping in to view the games with us. It was fantastic spending the Final with Taneli and I hope we can do the same in two years' time for the European Championships, wherever we happen to be.
We were staying in Newport, having opted for the Ibis Budget hotel there on account of it being over £100 cheaper than any hotel in the centre of Cardiff. After calling off at Birmingham and having a rather pleasant chat with the Brummy serving lady in the bar, we grabbed some food from the Tesco Extra in the new station concourse before pushing on our way. We headed down the M50 and through Herefordshire, a place where I hadn't been before, and I must admit I enjoyed the rolling countryside in this part of the country. In the end, we made rather good time and arrived in Newport at 2:30pm, before the time we could check in. Consequently, we decided to check out the one major sight in the city - the Transporter Bridge. Coming from Middlesbrough, this was quite exciting for me as Newport and Middlesbrough have the only two working gondola bridges of this type in the UK. Indeed, there are only six working in the world, so it was a real pleasure to get up close to such an engineering marvel. Built in 1905, it's slightly older than the Middlesbrough one and is of slightly different design, being less chunky and more angular rather than triangular in shape. It's also grey rather than blue. We were given the option of walking up and over the bridge, but Wolfie declined on account of being scared of heights, so in the end we decided to just ride over the rather muddy river in the gondola itself. When we were on the other side, we grabbed a peak at the engine room and pully system used to operate the bridge while we had a walk around to see what little there was here. Indeed, it's very much like Port Clarence in Middlesbrough, with the bridge being built to encourage a local steel works to move to the area. This has now since gone, with the area having the same level of deprevation as Middlesbrough, which is sad to see. Still, the pleasant chap in the modest visitor centre did seem to put it down to walking around Newport 'not hearing English any more'. When I raised the prospect of hearing Welsh, I was disheartened to discover that was not what he meant. Aside from this though, he was quite nice to talk to, telling us about the history of the steelworks here and of the bridge itself. Meanwhile, we also chatted to a number of council employees who were stewarding on the bridge, with a youngish one telling us about his love for heavy metal and why Cardiff was the place to be.
After an hour spent here, we drove back to our hotel to check in, before walking the mile and a half to Newport railway station. England v Belgium was ongoing in the third/fourth-place playoff at the World Cup but we weren't overly interested in this and neither were England it would seem, as they lost 2-0. It was a disappointing result from a decent tournament overall, but it did leave the side with more questions unanswered. Anyway, Newport is very much a city which what it lacks in pavements, it makes up for in bridges, and navigating the busy duel carriageways heading into the city proved to be difficult. The same was the case getting to the railway station too, which seems to be partly under reconstruction. Still, we managed to get there eventually and soon enough we were on a train making the straightforward fifteen minute train journey to Wales's capital city. Upon arrival, we got out of the station and immediately noticed the sheer number of people hanging around the bars on the main street, with most of the shittier bars (including the ubiquitous Weatherspoons) being particularly busy. The atmosphere was pretty febrile and it was only 5:30pm, but fortunately the main craft beer street behind it was a fair bit quieter. We grabbed a pasty from Greggs en route and headed for Brewdog to get our 36th stamp, opting for a flight as there were a number of seats available. As we were ordering, Wolfie's friend Raven appeared, with whom we had arranged to meet. He is a Cardiff local who had agreed to show us around, although it was I who ended up informing him of some bars which had opened of which he didn't really know. Raven is one of Wolfie's motorfurs friends and I am pretty sure I had spoken to him at the odd convention, but this was the first time I had spoken to him in-depth. It was nice getting to know someone new, particularly as I feel my own friendship groups in Leeds are falling apart, and last night I was probably the happiest I have been in a long time. We ended up having a fair few drinks - six in Brewdog before moving on to the Tiny Rebel bar just down the road.
Tiny Rebel are a Newport-based brewery and one of the best in the UK right now. I had actually forgotten they were based here and had I known, I would have probably insisted staying a second night. Either way, we still had the opportunity to check out their Cardiff bar last night and their brewery taproom this morning before heading back north. The taproom is in a Newport industrial estate and is not too dissimilar to the Brewdog one in Ellon. They have a huge space for dining though and many of their beers on tap. As Wolfie was driving back, he didn't drink, but I did have a cheeky Chocolate Marshmallow Tuft at 10:30am, while we also bought five different bottles of beer from them that we had not yet tried. We would have loved to have stayed around and even done a brewery tour but alas we had to get back home for the World Cup Final, and as I say, Wolfie cannot drink. Still, being there and seeing all the brewing paraphenalia, not to mention their cute teddy bear mascot everywhere, was fantastic and we will have to come back. We had an equally good time last night in their Cardiff city bar, although we were amused by the fact they were in the middle of a Northern Monk tap takeover, with that brewery being based in Leeds. This was serendipitous for us though as they had the one remaining beer we had not had from their hop trilogy from about six months ago, Yeast, which we gladly consumed. We also got to try a number of Tiny Rebel beers fresh from the tap, not to mention some excellent food, which included poutine with the thickest gravy I had ever experienced. Oddly, this could not be added to a regular burger order so we had to get it as a side, which resulted in too much food, but still it was good. While we were here, I also got chatting to a barman who, upon hearing we were from Leeds, started talking about an Indian-themed bar with Bombay Witbier in my home city. This is Bundobust and upon hearing the name, memories came flooding back. I did tweet the guys about this and they replied - indeed it is amazing the universality and community nature of craft beer.
Our final stop was Beelzebub, one of the newest bars in Cardiff, having been opened just last month. It's the home of local brewery Crafty Devil, who had collaborated with Brewdog on the Collab Beer Festival last October. We were quite drunk by this stage, but still managed to sample two of their range, with me getting into a rather long conversation with one of the bartenders about Brewdog and their more corporate side. Interesting points were proposed despite our disagreement and being here was a nice way to end the evening. Indeed, all of the craft bars were about three-quarters full, with the staff acknowledging that this was quite rare, but it did make them pleasant places to be with small queues to be served. There was a church at the end of the road on which Beelzebub was, which we checked out, before we said goodbye to Raven and went our separate ways. We then got on the train back to Newport, which was the last one of the night and can only be described as the train from hell. There was no sitting room at all and everyone was standing, crammed in, singing and shouting in their usual drunken way. I've never been on such a rowdy or anti-social train and I was muttering death threats to myself under my breath such was their loud nature. We managed to survive though and left Newport station quickly, getting a taxi back to the hotel, where we crashed pretty soon after arriving.
It was a shame the trip was so whistlestop but we had to get back for the World Cup Final. I had hoped we would have quite a party, with friends around and a good bit of social, but most people bailed as the day wore on. I was incredibly disappointed by this, but I wasn't really surprised. At least Taneli came, bearing gifts of Diet Coke and cookies, while we shared a couple of Papa John's pizzas over what was probably the best World Cup Final in my lifetime. It was a very end-to-end match with two teams of excellent quality, although I do think the free kick leading up to France's first goal was not a free kick, neither was the penalty that gave France their second. As a result, Croatia can count themselves most unfortunate and they did give an excellent account of themselves. The usual anti-football crowd on Twitter weren't as vociferous and I must admit I am going to miss this tournament. The football has been very entertaining and the excitement intoxicating. England went further than expected, which added to the hype of course, while it was great to have an event which united what is a very divided country right now. Furthermore, I just love the drama of football and having friends around to watch it, with quite a few people dropping in to view the games with us. It was fantastic spending the Final with Taneli and I hope we can do the same in two years' time for the European Championships, wherever we happen to be.
