The summer holidays is usually the time of year where the weather is at it's peak. Last year (2023), May and June felt like this. That is until July came. The weather since July had felt pretty much like Autumn, with there being a mix of showers and heavy rain, with occasional sunny spells. After the trip I undertook in August 2022 to Edinburgh in Scotland, it seemed like this summer I would not go anywhere else at all. Along came September and the weather started to improve, so on Sunday the 3rd of September 2023, I did a day trip returning to the city of Cardiff in Wales.
The journey began at 5:50am, the roads feeling deserted as I walked to the station. At Goodmayes station I boarded an Elizabeth Line service - this was the second train of the day (arriving at 6:15am, the first train was at 6:00am) heading to London Liverpool Street. I had to change at Stratford as the Elizabeth Line service terminated on the upper National Rail platforms at Liverpool Street. On weekends, the Elizabeth Line services towards Paddington start a bit later than on weekdays - after around 7:30am, on weekdays it's from 5am onwards. The Central Line train approached the platform on a service towards West Ruislip, this journey was pretty much standing into Central London. I am certainly glad there's another quicker way to get there now that's for sure... I alighted at Oxford Circus to change for a Victoria Line and alighted at Victoria, this journey had less passengers onboard though, it was only two stops. Finally, I walked from Victoria (exiting the station) to Victoria Coach Station, this being a 5 minute walk.
It was around 7:10am when I made it to the Coach station, in total 22 coach bays are situated here, although the seating areas inside were not really enough considering the usage. Typically, the coach I was supposed to get was in a bay further down, so I made my way there. I booked my trip with National Express, a large coach operator that operates a range of long-distance services to other cities and towns in the UK. My coach to Cardiff was supposed to leave at 7:30am, however there was no sign of the coach at all. On the screen as the time came nearer it showed the service as "delayed". This didn't seem promising, as later one of the staff members came to us and said that the coach to Cardiff was cancelled. As a result, we were told to join another National Express service going towards Swansea - at 8:30am. The reason for this was due to the 10K run that happened to be taking place in Cardiff, I couldn't help but feel like I wasted time on getting up early, the main concern however being whether this service will go ahead as well or suffer the same fate. At long last, the coach finally showed up after waiting for almost an hour.
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| Was informed by staff to move to Gate 6 and board another coach service, heading to Swansea but stopping at Cardiff. |
While the coach was being prepared for service, passengers commented on how the communication in regards to the service being cancelled was communicated really late, which I certainly agreed on as I bet none of us, expected to be joining another National Express service but here we are! Felt glad to be sitting on a coach, rather than in the departure boards waiting area that's for sure. At 8:30am we departed the coach station, the driver onboard announcing that there will be one additional stop to be made on route (this stop being Newport), due to the cancellation of the Cardiff service.
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| About to hop on the coach numbered route 507, onboard the 08:30 service that was heading to Swansea. |
The coach we would be riding on is a 22 plate Caetano Levante 3, an upgraded version to the original Levante model. These coaches seem to be a recent purchase by National Express to replace their older buses. They come equipped with USB ports to charge your device, given the distance we covered it certainly is useful. After leaving London, we were on the M4 and honestly the motorway is as straight as an arrow. 4 hours of open fields and a view of the countryside, it felt picturesque at times I guess, the best bit of the trip being on the Prince of Wales Bridge. Passing underneath is the River Severn and honestly it's quite a view. The swans managed to enjoy themselves in the water, though I couldn't really say the same for myself, having been sat in the same position for a long period of time. The legroom felt tight and didn't really have much room to stretch out, the seats almost made me want to sleep - they are comfortable but after a while it does get to you!
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| View of the River Severn from the Prince of Wales Bridge. |
Not long afterwards we entered the city of Newport, our first stop in Wales and on our journey. The station from this stop is a bit of walk, so good luck if you are trying to navigate with luggage. I could recognise the shopping centre and the bus station from my last trip, as we made a loop around the city centre. There seemed to be electric buses present in the bus station, but not much else otherwise.
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| Newport Bus Station, looks a bit different in terms of buses compared to when I last took the photo in 2018. |
Leaving Newport behind, we were on the last stretch to Cardiff still a couple of miles away - but not hundreds, thankfully. I was taking in the views on the approach, needless to say there was traffic upon arrival. Finally after 3 hours of travelling we arrived at 11:46am, on approach to midday.
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| Alighting our coach at Cardiff, Sophia Gardens. This coach continued onwards to Swansea - a couple more hours away. |
I felt relieved that I could finally stretch my legs after enduring a long ride, so I made my way to the city centre. I sat down on a bench enjoying the meal deal lunch that was purchased the day before, making the most of the hot weather. After some time, I wandered off to the museum since I didn't visit it on my prior visits and yeah - I mean it wasn't that bad of a visit but, I am not that person who would stay for hours exploring every single floor. If you are around the area and you want to visit then it's called National Museum Cardiff.
The heat got even more worse during the day, so I was around the city centre capturing some of the bus services that operate around Cardiff.
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Cardiff Bus 412 (CE71 YDH) on route 44 towards the City Centre.
Bus model seen in this photo: Yutong E12 (Electric bus) |
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Cardiff Bus 116 (CE63 NYO) on route 27 towards Thornhill via Birchgrove.
Bus model seen in this photo: Mercedes Benz Citaro (Diesel bus) |
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Cardiff Bus 114 (CE63 NYM) on route 21 towards Pantwmawr via Birchgrove and back to the City Centre.
Bus model seen in this photo: Mercedes Benz Citaro (Diesel bus) |
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Cardiff Bus 412, (CE71 YDH) seen a bit further up on stand awaiting departure on route 44 towards St Mellons.
Bus model seen in this photo: Yutong E12 (Electric bus) |
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Cardiff Bus 111 (CE63 NZS) seen in Cardiff City Centre.
Bus model seen in this photo: Mercedes Benz Citaro (Diesel bus) |
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Cardiff Bus 742 (CN59 CKX) on route 28 towards the City Centre.
Bus model seen in this photo: Scania Omnicity (Diesel bus) |
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Cardiff Bus 428 (CE71 YXN) on route 49 towards Lianrumney.
Bus model seen in this photo: Yutong E12 (Electric bus) |
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Cardiff Bus 137 (CN17 FZY) on route 58 towards the City Centre.
Bus model seen in this photo: Mercedes Benz Citaro (Diesel bus)
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It seems that Cardiff Bus has decided to take on some electric buses and replace their older fleet, since my last visit. After that, I took a visit inside their shopping centres to see what was on offer and to kill some time too. I ended up getting up a meal deal at Tesco Extra for the journey ahead.
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| Around Cardiff Library, in Cardiff City Centre. |
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| Near Sophia Gardens Coach Station in Cardiff, about to board the coach back towards London. |
The time has now come to an end, which I was sort of grateful for as the heatwave was getting to me. When I arrived at the coach station there were three coaches, now this felt confusing as one of them would be ours heading back to London, although it wasn't shown. As it turned out, I would be getting the coach on the far right despite the one left saying London, anyways I can't complain really at least the delay was not an issue.
The coach departed Cardiff on time at 5:00pm, as the long journey back to London began. While we were on the motorway cruising along nicely, the driver suddenly did an emergency stop. The driver pulled over to the side of the motorway and came to the back of the bus, it felt like someone was smoking or vaping, I couldn't really tell but the smell was not pleasant to say the least. There were three people and none of them told the driver, that said they did cause quite a racket onboard the journey. Apart from that the rest of the journey was nothing too concerning to worry about.
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| The sunset at around 7:36pm along the M4 motorway. |
As it got darker, we entered London Victoria at 8:40pm, a journey taking almost 4 hours since we departed Cardiff at 5:00pm.
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Arriving at London Victoria after the long 4 hour journey from Cardiff.
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It seemed to be a mixed bag for National Express on this day, with the marathon affecting majority of the coach services in the morning, although it didn't seem to be as bad coming back. Thankfully the weather was good during this time and felt great to visit Cardiff again after a while. Bit of a late summer's break day out I suppose.
Thanks for reading and happy riding!
If you are interested, I did a blog on my previous visits to Cardiff in 2016 and 2018 - both are combined together. The link is below:
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