The 54 is a rare bus indeed.  It runs just once a day and only on weekdays and only in one direction.  It starts its journey at 6.25 in Rumney, heads up to St Mellons and does a loop around there before hopping over to Pontprennau, down to Pentwyn and Llanedyrn, up through Cyncoed and then across to Heath Hospital, arriving at 7.40am.

I hopped on an empty bus in Rumney but as we did a circuit of St Mellons it was getting properly light and more people got.  All we had to do heading up to the A48 was stop to let off the odd passenger who had probably got on the 54 by mistake being only half awake. 

Going along the A48 Eastern Avenue was a treat.  Is this the only Cardiff Bus that goes on the Eastern Avenue I wonder?

We travelled down through the housing estates around Pentwyn I read my book about researching army ancestors, another hobby of mine which results in the Roath Virtual War Memorial. The trouble with picking up genealogy books in charity shops is they tend to be out of date as things move on quickly in genealogy research methods. 

A surprising number of passengers alighted in Birchgrove but I stayed on with the hospital staff and went the whole route.

I remember catching another early bus as part of this challenge and going to Heath Park when it was covered in frost.  Today the spring blossom was out. I was too early for the coffee kiosk to be open so wandered around a bit and ended up in the Wetherspoons pub, The Aneurin Bevan.  I joined the other men having their breakfast there.

I got a bit lost getting back to the Heath Hospital and ended up in among Heath Park West buildings which appears to be part of Cardiff University for healthcare training. I thought I was trapped but did eventually find a gate that led back to the hospital and from there walked back to Rumney to collect my car.

This is one of my regular buses but having said that I still saw parts of the route I had never seen before.  The No.52 even goes onto the Cardiff Met University campus at one stage, or twice actually if you ride the bus both ways as I did.  It is regularly served with an orange double decker – a bit like the chocolate bars.  I wonder if they still exist.

The bus was quiet today as both the schools and universities were on their Easter hols. I did the loop at the northern end, seeing roads I’d never been on before, and then got off in Cyncoed village and sought out the Green Door Bakery.  It’s small to say the least, just two tables inside, but luckily it was just about warm enough to sit outside and enjoy my cappuccino and Easter themed cake.

My book for the day was one I picked up in a local book exchange, C.P.Snow’s ‘Corridors of Power’. He claims to have been the first to use the phrase in an earlier book so felt justified using it as a title for this book. I was looking forward to reading it as I had enjoyed reading C.P.Snow when a lot younger.  His science background comes through in his writing.  Unfortunately I don’t think I’m going to get on with it.  The book is lengthy and dense print. Back to the book exchange it goes.

From Cyncoed I walked up Black Oak Road and accessed the reservoirs which are fast becoming a regular walk in this challenge.  The footpath around both reservoirs is now open making it into a longer stroll.

The No.50 has a similar route to the No.49 except that it goes clockwise around Llanrumney rather than anti-clockwise.  As were drove around Llanrumney the driver started making announcements that the bus would terminate at the ‘top shops’ rather than continue back to town.  I never did work out why.  I think there was some driver training going on.  Everybody on the bus seemed to understand the phrase ‘top shops’ and in the end it dawned on me that they were the sops on Countisbury Avenue, where I was heading anyway. That was lucky.

I chose to have my lunch in the lively Ford Café.   Their Spanish Omelette with a cup of tea hit the mark.

 
My book for the day was ‘Why We Get Sick’.  A good scientific read with lots of theories on different topics though not necessarily all taken from peer reviewed publications so some had to be approached with caution. It was a bit of a shock after reading the book to exit the cafe and find a car with a skeleton in the front seat.

I walked from there back down to Llanrumney Hall over the greenery and popped in to have a quick chat about some local history.  The No.50 I then caught luckily took me all the way back into town.     

That timetable planner at Cardiff Bus with the weird sense of humour has been at it again.  The No.44 bus goes to and from St Mellons over 300 times a week but on just two occasions it deviates from that route.  Those two occasions are early on a Sunday morning when it starts at the Eastern Leisure Centre in Llanrumney. In order to make sure I’d ridden the full No.44 route I therefore had to be up and out before dawn to ensure I was in with a chance of catching the 06.27 into town.

I waited nervously at the bus stop which had no mention of the No.44 on the sign.  When I popped my head around the corner, there in the distance I could see a No.44 waiting at the side of the road.  I scuttled back to the bus stop and sure enough, dead on time, it appeared around the corner.

As the sun slowly rose and we rode smoothly around St Mellons, Trowbridge and Rumney more passengers embarked probably heading into town for their jobs.  By the time we got there it was light. I had a walk around for half an hour, watching the streets being cleaned up from the Saturday night exuberances.

By now the Wetherspoon’s Prince of Wales pub was open so I went and had some tea and toast and a read of my book Why Can’t Elephants Jump?  This is a New Scientist publication, a collection of questions they publish which readers have a go at answering.  Fascinating stuff.  The Prince of Wales is also fascinating as it is an old theatre and then cinema which I never came in before it was a pub.  I’m only emphasising that because it used to be the X-rated movie house when I was young.

After a look around the pub I headed out to catch the No.44 back to St Mellons.  And no it doesn’t return to the Eastern Leisure Centre, not for another week and only then ‘out of service’.  By the time I got home it was my normal ‘getting up’ time and I still had the whole day ahead, and yes, I confess, I did have an afternoon nap.

I think I read somewhere that this is one route where Cardiff Bus do their very best to make sure the buses run on time as they risk loosing the franchise if not. I suspect therefore that the bus I caught may have been a rushed replacement for a late running predecessor held up because of a fire engine causing hold ups on Cowbridge Road. Then again I may be talking rhubarb.

I had a good plan for today.  I was going to visit the Saint Fagans Museum where lots of buildings from various parts of Wales have been moved, rebuilt and opened for the public to wander around.  There is a farmhouse, church, shops and as of last year a pub – The Vulcan which used to be in Adamsdown, Cardiff until the land was needed for redevelopment.

The plan was to buy my lunch – some bara caws (cheesy bread) from the bakery and take it to the Vulcan and have it with a nice pint of beer. There were just a couple of stumbling blocks to that plan: it was half-term and the queues outside the bakery were long and the Vulcan has a long list of things not allowed including taking in food, even food purchased from another museum outlet. Sigh.

Never mind. I headed for the Vulcan. I’ve mixed feelings about it I must say. Great its been saved and rebuilt.  Full marks for the period outfits the bar staff wear.  Wood shavings on the floor rather than sawdust?  It looks kind of weird. The beer is keg not cask and Glamorgan Ale not Brains but having moaned it wasn’t a bad pint today. I sat, supped my beer and dreamt of lunch. Most people just come in to have a look and wander back out again so you do feel like part of the museum display sat there on your own.

The majority of visitors to the Vulcan miss the best bit – the gents.  The giant urinals look like they have been moulded out of toffee.

My book for the day was Splinter the Silence by Val McDermid, a fine author with science background and ability to write good page-turning novels.

One of the most attractive building in the museum is Gwalia Stores which used to be in Ogmore Vale.  I was doing some genealogy research a few month back and discovered it was owned by William Llewellyn who was Dr David Owen’s material great-grandfather.  I popped in to Gwalia Stores and explained this to the young person there.  They’d never heard of him not even after I gave them hints like Foreign Secretary in Callaghan’s government and a founder member of the SDP.  That seals it for me – I’m not going to seek fame as it only lasts a blink of the eye.  Better to have another beer in the Vulcan and forget about all about it – but keep an eye on the time because the last No.32 back to town departs early afternoon.

This bus holds a World Record!  The No.30 is jointly run by Newport and Cardiff Bus.  The buses alternate throughout the day and I had to be careful to make sure I always caught a Cardiff Bus.  It wasn’t that challenging – one is bright orange and the other green, plus the timetable indicates who the operator is. The No.30 is the longest period of a jointly operated municipal bus service in the world and started operating 80 years ago.

I had a dash to a local bus stop and arrived just as the No.30 was pulling up. The bus goes along the A48 all the way to Newport.  It was quite a shock to the system to be travelling at speed on a Cardiff bus in the non-built-up stretches. I got off in Tredegar Park.  Now I must admit that I had been thinking I was going to Tredegar House but had got the two nearby locations mixed up.  Not to worry, Tredegar Park is another nice location. 

It has had a lot of money spent on it in recent years and is looking very smart I must say with good new tarmac paths. I had a brisk walk around the circumference and then had a coffee at Able Coffee. Two dog walkers arrived with their poodle in prams.  I was a bit confused why three drinks were delivered at their table until I realised one was for a poodle.  I think it may have preferred a scone and jam.

My book for the day was Dry by Augusten Burroughs, a memoir of a New York advertising agent as he battles with alcoholism. Amusing, yes, but not hilarious as described on the cover but then again humour doesn’t always travel well.  At one stage he is sent to a drying-out clinic in Minnesota and is describing arriving at the airport not having received any details of who was going to meet him there.  It very much reminded me of my experience in the early 1980s when I went to live in Minneapolis for a year. That was in the days before e-mail, phone or fax.  There was one telex machine on Swansea University campus and a telex would take about a week to be delivered across campus.  I’d received the job offer and accepted but never got the telex saying I was going to be met at the airport. The only advice I had ever got from friends was don’t make eye contact with anyone coming out of Arrivals at the airport otherwise they will take you home and mutilate you. I exited the airport and jumped into the nearest cab, which happened to be one of those stretch limo ones, and requested a cheap hotel near the University of Minnesota campus.  It was only the next day was I told that someone had been at the airport to meet me.  

The timing worked out well and it was to on time to catch the next Cardiff Bus No.30 into Newport, have a brief mooch around town and then hop back on the same bus which took me back to Cardiff, then a short wait again to hop back on to get the bus back to where I started the day which was all orange and no green! 

The No.29 bus heads out of Cardiff city centre following the same route as the No.28, through Roath etc, but then does a loop around Llanishen area instead of going up to Thornhill. 

I alighted near Llanishen church and headed straight into the Honeybee House Tearooms, on the off chance I may get a table in this popular venue.  I was lucky and got the last one on a busy Saturday morning. They don’t do their famous honey cake any longer but Sue’s Coffee and Walnut cake was a good substitute.

I thought of complaining about the weather to the lady who served me but had noticed that Derek Brockway, the weatherman, was sat nearby so didn’t just in case he took offence.  Instead I read some amusing anecdotes from Ricky Tomlinson’s Cheers My Arse!

Derek had evidently been on a Parkrun, as had many of those in the café, so inspired by their devotion to exercise I went for a walk around Llanishen Reservoir.  It was such a soggy day the path around the reservoir was virtually empty.

A walk back up to Llanishen village and then another No.29 took me back into town to complete another bus-book-beverage adventure, the next one of which takes me outside the city!