Two Pints and a Half in Penarth

Another day in South Wales and another train ride to Cardiff, this time with a plan to make our way to Penarth on the western side of the bay.
Our options to get there included an irregular local train or a bus service, but we made the decision to tackle the walk on foot, with a route around the bay.

Making our way from Cardiff Central through Butetown, we found ourselves at the Roald Dahl Plass and the waterfront.

The top of the cliffs on the other side of the bay was our destination

The Cardiff Bay Trail is a stunner.  On a pleasant sunny Sunday morning it was busy with walkers, joggers and cyclists.  The final stretch to Penarth marina is on the Barage, the thin strip of land which creates a freshwater lake of Cardiff Bay instead of tidal mudflats, causing much controversy when it was constructed.

You can stick with the Bay Trail and make a 6-mile loop back to your starting point. 
Or you can declare you've done enough exercise for the day when you reach the half-way point at Penarth Marina and head to the pub.

It's uphill to the pub though.
As confirmed by the matter-of-fact street names...

First point of call for us was the Pilot...

The Pilot (67 Queens Road, Penarth, CF64 1DJ - web)
This caught us by surprise a little.  Located amidst hilly streets of terraced housing, we expected this to be a local haunt.  But we were wrong.
It's a hugely popular lunch spot, which I'd have known had I paid attention to the description in the Beer Guide.  The young girl behind the bar looked slightly horrified that we hadn't got a booking.  Another super-friendly staff member took over and directed us to a couple of tables in the front bar that weren't reserved, where we'd be fine to sit and have a drink.

Being a beer connoisseur, I pick my ales based on the clever choice of hops balanced with the finest malts.
Actually, that's all untrue - I just look for the Top Gun pump clip...

All the fuss about which tables were unreserved or not - we'd drunk up and were gone before most of the luncheon crowd arrived.  A decent beer in a nice enough pub, but I would have preferred to visit when food wasn't the main priority.

It was a straight-forward few minutes walk around the corner onto Glebe Street for another current Good Beer Guide entry.

The Golden Lion (69 Glebe Street, Penarth, CF64 1EF - web)
This is one of six pubs in a small chain which also includes Newport's Pen and Wig and Cardiff's Queens Vaults, both of which we'd find ourselves in later the same day.
This is more the back-street local that I was expecting the Pilot to be - locals propping up the bar, workmen arriving in paint-spattered overalls, footy on the TV, no nonsense.

As we were now thinking about getting lunch ourselves, we made our visit to the Golden Lion short and sweet.  There was a selection of three real ales from which I picked a reasonable half of Grey Trees 'Diggers Gold', served in a dubious glass primarily designed for fizzy lager...

Penarth has some hills to climb and it's a trek down to the seafront, but all three of the Beer Guide entries are close together in the side streets north of the town centre.
It was no more than five minutes from the Golden Lion to the Windsor, which worryingly advertised itself as a 'contemporary inn' on it's signage.

The Windsor (95 Windsor Road, Penarth, CF64 1JE - web)
I spent a brief moment wondering if this would be packed full with a Sunday lunchtime crowd.  Only to walk in and find it practically empty.

The pub stretches back a fair way from the corner entrance into various sections beyond, with typical modern pub furniture and arty local pictures adorning the walls.  Featuring more TV's dotted around than the local branch of Curry's, no-one was going to be too far from Spurs v Chelsea in the Women's Super League.  It's just a pity no-one had come out to watch it.

Five ales: Brakspear, Pedigree, Razorback, Eagle IPA and Directors - a solid national line-up that isn't going to entice the beer tickers.
I picked the Courage 'Directors', remembering a time when we used to find this in the 90's, think it was the bee's knees, and drink it all evening.  On good form here at the Windsor, it was actually a reasonable pint, washing down our lunchtime pizza.

We did take the time to stroll through the lovely hilly park, down to the promenade and the along the pier, before hopping aboard a local train to take us back to Cardiff.

Time for a couple more in the Welsh capital?  Of course there was...
Starting with the Queens Vaults, looking glorious in the sunshine...

...and on to Brew Monster on the boozy main drag...

 

Before we ended our afternoon in the Head of Steam drinking Vocation Black Forest Gateau stout.
All of which was really supposed to make up a post of it's own, but I've reached the deadline date for reporting on the Wales trip.

After a good nights sleep it was time to leave the Tiny Rebel beers and Welsh side of the Bristol Channel behind.  We'd visited a decent mixed bunch of new pubs, but were ready for a rest before tackling an overnighter in Northampton. 
Which is what I'll be waffling on about next on the blog.  

Cardiff Pub Explorations

In which we explore a little bit of Cardiff, just to the west of the centre, visiting a brewery, a proper pub, a micro and a craft cellar that's not in the cellar.

From the railway station we walked alongside the Millennium Stadium, crossed the river, then navigated the side-streets into the area that I guess is Pontcanna.
Along Kings Road, somewhere, was a brewery tap...

There's a brewery down there somewhere

Pipes Brewery (183a Kings Road, Cardiff, CF11 9DF - web)
This is a venue to tackle in good weather (as we were fortunate to have) with there being no indoor seating and little in the way of shelter.  As you head down the yard there are several small independent businesses serving food and coffee, with Pipes at the far end, the brewing equipment visible behind the bar counter.
Under the blue skies, with a hum of chatter and folk relaxing with their Bohemian Pilsners, it was all feeling very Continental.

Ahhh...sitting in the sun with my 6% red IPA - what could possibly go wrong?!

  

  

Pipes proved to be quite a winner for a laid-back sunny afternoon option. 
I had a superb Cauli-Power burger from the Lazy Leek vegan burger shack, which I somehow managed to eat without getting into too much of a mess.   
Full of food and boozy IPA, in the warm sunshine, I'd be in danger of dozing off if we didn't make a move.

So we made the decision: enough craft beer in plastic pots.  It was time for a proper pub....

The Romilly (69-71 Romilly Crescent, Cardiff, CF11 9NQ - web)

I'd had my fill of al fresco drinking at this point, electing not to join the majority of customers in the back garden.  Although this meant feeling a little lonely and side-lined from the action, with only a half dozen punters spread throughout the rooms inside.

Marston's have recently taken over the running of Brains pubs, so 'Pedigree' appeared on the handpumps alongside Brains 'Best' and 'Rev. James'.  A best bitter for me, taken to the front room with a view of the football on TV.

Someone came to check what was playing on the jukebox -'Tracsuit Gwyrdd' by Geraint Jarman apparently.  He must've liked it, as he returned with some coins and selected to play it again.
And again.
"Not again, it's been on three times now!" complained someone on the other side of the bar when the opening notes rang out for a third time in a row.

And that was our experience of the Romilly - an okay best bitter, Liverpool winning on the tele, Tracsuit Gwyrdd on repeat forever.
Time to set off and find another current Beer Guide entry in the vicinity.

St Canna's Ale House (42 Llandaf Road, Cardiff, CF11 9NJ - web)
I really liked the St Canna's - it bucked the micropub trend of converting unappealing modern retail units, instead being in the premises of an old traditional corner shop.

We received a warm and friendly welcome, with a good choice of ales and ciders to pick from.
I've managed to get a picture (yet again) with absolutely no-one in it, but there were actually a fair few folk in the back garden, plus the blokes who arrived and took it in turns to admire our table made of old wooden pallets.

The Ale House made for a fine visit, and wins extra points for one of the most bizarre pub toilets - a urinal hidden behind a curtain in a side room.  How do I lock the curtain?

As we left the Ale House and ambled down the street we came upon Crafty Devil's Cellar bar.

"Best beer in Cardiff" promised the chap drinking outside.
And if that hadn't sold it to me...
'Beard Friendly Pub of the Year' award winner - oh, go on then!

Crafty Devil (16 Llandaf Road, Cardiff, CF11 9NJ - web)

Here's the beer-list, names mostly music and rugby-themed...

Mrs PropUptheBar pondered the list for several minutes, then picked the 'Tutti Frutti' that she was always going to have.
I chose the 'Safe as Milk' coffee milk stout, pretending that I'm musically knowledgeable enough to 'get' Captain Beefheart.

The Cellar Bar is confusingly not in a cellar at all, consisting of the busy front bar and a second room to the rear dominated by the football being projected onto one wall.  Not being part of the locals gang up front, and not being fussed about the footy, we took our drinks out into the back yard.

And with that, it was time to catch the train back to our Newport base and pop into the Pen & Wig again to see if the Bass was back on.

I used to visit Cardiff fairly often, always sticking to the pubs and bars in the centre, so it had made for a nice change to stroll out this way and find a quartet of very different places.
Next up: we walk around the harbour to see what Penarth has to offer.