Weather was good: Mostly clear skys 7oC.
We woke late this morning, got a good and proper sleep. We got ready and headed out for some breakfast, we had to try the Tim Horton's here, just to say we did and see if they hold up to the same level of stanards as Timmy's at home. They do, no better no worse, same Timmy's. One thing to note, and we did not try this, they have burgers on the menu, both cheese burgers and chicken burgers.
After some breakfast we took a water taxi/bus to the water front.
Cardiff was a huge coal mining town back at the time of the industrial revolution. The coal here was the finest in the world as it burned cleaner and hotter than anywhere else at the time. Hotter coal meant faster ships so during the war it was really a valuable asset. When cheaper coal became available in Europe then when oil replaced coal the coal industry dried up and Cardiff lost their major industry. The waterfront stayed stagnant with few ships coming for transport of any kind.
In the 1980's the city started their revitalization of the waterfront they build shops, and restaurants, along with a new parliament for Wales and a centre for the arts. The Torchwood tower is also located here, this was the site chosen for the TV show with many scenes played out for both Torchwook and Doctor Who in front of the arts centre.
A treat for the day was a car show in front of the arts centre featuring a number of Ferrari's and a Lambo plus some vintage cars and a whole plie of Fiat 500's.
We grabbed some lunch from one of the restaurants on the water front then headed back to the city center to do a little more exploring. We took the water bus (aquabus) back to the city center. We stepped into a welsh shop to pick up some local souvenirs, they have something called love spoons here and Krista picked up a small one for a Christamas orniment. We then headed back to the welsh cake bakery in the market - this time I got a salted caramel, and the jam and cream varieties, these are just so so good. I might have to learn how to make these at home.
We then checked out the venu for the concert tonight, and I stopped into a Tesco Express to grab a couple of bags of Jelly Tots - the best gum drops ever. Krista dropped into a very large Boots (Local pharmacy - like a Lawtons or Shoppers Drug Mart) to see if she could find the makeup that Jessie wanted (No Luck).
We also stopped into a Primark, a large clothing store where the prices are really good. At this point we were only a few hours away from the concert so we headed back to the room to get ready.
The doors for the concert were opening at 6:30pm so we made our way over there around 6ish. There was already a queue. I was quite pleased to see that there were many grey haired people in the queue. So the brits really do know how to queue properly. They get in line, they don't try to get ahead of anyone and they have people managing the queue, making sure that driveways are not blocked, and people keep moving and are ready for security before entering the venu, all very much civilized.
The concert started at about 7:45 with an opening act, Lucy Spraggan. She was really quite good and got the crowd warmed up for the main show, this is someone I will have to check out on Spotify. Lucy played for about 45 minutes, James Blunt came on stage at about 9:00, it took some time to get the stage ready for him, they had to take down Lucy's bands equipment and finish his setup.
When James Blunt came on the crowd went wild, he started with a few of his new songs (the entire crowd stood at this point which sucked because Krista could not properly see the stage, and I had a hard time too, kids are taller now I think), but then moved on to some from older albums. He really knows how to manage a crowd, when he went to the piano he had everyone sit down, which was good because we could see him and the band.
He played 3 songs at the piano before moving back to the guitar, which then the crowd then stood for the rest of the concert. He is an expert at getiing the crowd involved in the concert. The venu held 5000 people, and it was at capacity. For most of the night he had the entire crowd singing with him, but he sings louder than the crowd so that was a good thing. At one point he had the crowd do the wave when he sang a particular line from the songs, and we did it over and over again, with such a small venu it was pretty impressive.
He went on for 90 minutes, then came on for one oncour where he played some of his favorites and ended the concert with 1973, his first hit.
After the concert we walked back to the hotel, we were not hungry the welsh cakes we had earlier was enough to hold us over until morning.
Tomorrow we head to London