Paid collaboration with The Crimson Dragon Centre
The Cardiff Bay Gingerbread Path is a splendidly enjoyable – and free – family-friendly exercise going down over the festive season, with 9 gingerbread figures plus a sleigh to identify, and the prospect to win some superb prizes.
My two sons and I headed to the Bay on Saturday afternoon to see the sculptures for ourselves and to discover a number of the Cardiff Bay points of interest participating within the path.
Learn on to see how we obtained on, plus try my Reel on the Cardiff Mummy Says Instagram channel for a video snapshot of our day.
The Cardiff Bay Gingerbread Path
Should you’re heading to Cardiff Bay over the festive season then chances are high you’ll come head to head with one of many gingerbread characters who’ve at present made the Bay their house. There are 9 festive gingerbread characters to identify, in addition to a sleigh you’ll be able to really sit in, as a part of The Cardiff Bay Gingerbread Path. The free sculpture path opened on the finish of final week and runs till Sunday 8 January.
We started our gingerbread hunt at The Crimson Dragon Centre as a part of our position as blogger ambassadors for the Cardiff Bay leisure complicated.
It didn’t take us lengthy to search out the 2 sculptures right here and we have been additionally in a position to choose up the free path map displaying us the place the sculptures have been the remaining have been situated and which additionally has particulars of a particular prize giveaway operating as a part of the path. Every of the sculptures two letters on it – the inexperienced ones spell out a festive Welsh phrase and the pink ones an English one. Gather the ten letters, unscramble them and enter both by way of one of many particular publish bins, detailed within the path information, or on-line right here.
The prize is superb. Drawn at random from all right entries submitted by Sunday 8 January, one fortunate winner can be handled to: a day of leisure and eating actions and an in a single day keep for a household of 4 (two adults and two kids or one grownup and three kids). The prize contains an in a single day keep and breakfast at Future Inns Lodge, Cardiff Bay; a meal at The Hub Field in Mermaid Quay; a ship tour with Princess Katharine; tickets for Everyman Cinema; and two video games of bowling at Hollywood Bowl in The Crimson Dragon Centre.
Plus there are many spot prizes to be one from points of interest throughout the Bay. For an opportunity to win, publish your pictures on social media and tag #BayGingerbreadTrail
The Crimson Dragon Centre additionally has a few bonus gingerbread-themed issues to search out, together with two gingerbread individuals with faces minimize out so you’ll be able to pop your personal heads in to take a festive selfie, and the superb gingerbread home, which is again in Cadwaladers as soon as once more for the festive season.
As we have been visiting on the opening weekend, we had the bonus of participating in some free, and really tasty, gingerbread adorning in the principle lobby space
After devouring the candy treats, we headed to the Bay to search out the opposite sculptures. My boys liked sitting within the sleigh on Roald Dah Plass, simply outdoors Wales Millennium Centre.
It was then on to the Senedd Cymru constructing, the Welsh Parliament, the place we discovered our subsequent gingerbread character subsequent to a big Christmas tree, and had the prospect to make a gingerbread tree decorations, once more as a part of the launch weekend celebrations.
The café space upstairs within the Senedd is effectively price a go to – pretty and spacious and with an incredible play space too. You would possibly assume at eight and 11 my boys had left the times of Dulpo behind, however they’d nice enjoyable making varied creations on this map of Wales and we ended up chilling out right here for 45 minutes. (Don’t neglect in case you’re visiting the Senedd to permit time to undergo the airport-style safety on the entrance.)
Subsequent up, was Mermaid Quay. It was beginning to get darkish at this level, and the large light-up star in Tacoma Sq. seemed so stunning and festive. We quickly discovered the 2 gingerbread figures within the window of one of many items amongst all of the outlets, earlier than we continued our stroll round Mermaid Quay and on to Voco St David’s Cardiff resort.
Heading by the revolving doorways into the doorway lobby of the resort, you’ll discover two extra figures to identify, in addition to a complete miniature winter wonderland. The Coal Change was subsequent on our listing with a determine to identify within the superbly embellished lobby, after which our remaining cease of our hunt was at Giovanni’s within the Bay, reverse Wales Millennium Centre.
Amazingly, the path noticed us strolling 4 miles – a distance which stunned us all, as a result of it definitely didn’t really feel that far and since stopping off at completely different factors alongside the way in which additionally meant we weren’t strolling continuously.
You would simply mix the Gingerbread Path with different actions within the Bay – a stroll alongside the Barrage, a go to to Techniquest, a ship journey across the Bay, meals or drinks at one of many many eating places and cafes, a sport at Hollywood Bowl or, as in our case, a visit to the cinema on the Odeon the place we have been joined by the remaining two members of our household to observe Roald Dahl’s Matilda the Musical.
Roald Dahl’s Matilda the Musical at Odeon Cardiff Bay
Being huge followers of the stage present, and naturally the basic kids’s ebook, we had been so trying ahead to the musical movie model of Matilda and may verify it was each bit pretty much as good as we’d hoped it might be. t’s pretty devoted to the stage model, with the addition of a few new musical numbers, though we have been unhappy {that a} couple didn’t make the large display screen minimize. That mentioned, in case you’ve not seen the musical or learn the ebook, it doesn’t matter in any respect; this can be a story for all ages full of robust performances and a few nice musical numbers.
13 12 months outdated Aleisha Weir is splendidly solid as Matilda: bookish, baby genius, unassuming fairly than pretentious, however with a mischievous streak that basically comes into its personal when she discovers her powers of telekinesis. Bullied and belittled at house by her dad and mom (Andrea Riseborough and Stephen Graham), she seeks solace telling tales to the native librarian and devouring books manner past her years, till the authorities realise she’s not really being homeschooled as her dad and mom declare and he or she is distributed to the eery Crunchem Corridor. Emma Thompson, barely recognisable, is the notorious headmistress, the tyrannical Miss Trunchbull who terrorises her younger pupils in such methods as spinning them round by their pigtails, forcing them round a muddy assault course, and sending them off to the tortuous jail of the Chokey. In the meantime Lashana Lynch is the caring Miss Honey, who it quickly transpires has a deep previous of her personal which explains how she is equally terrorised by Miss Trunchbull. Matilda finally ends up saving Miss Honey as a lot as Miss Honey finally ends up saving Matilda.
The music, choreography, scenes of childhood revenge and rebel are all so effectively executed and the kid performers are all unimaginable all through. The perfect kids’s tales are at all times those through which there’s a little bit of hazard and through which the youngsters are finally triumpahant over the evil grown-ups and Matilda has this in bucket-loads. All of us completely liked and it’s definitely deserves to be cinematic hit this Christmas.
The Cardiff Bay Gingerbread Path runs till Sunday 8 January. All of the sculptures are free to view, and the path map can be free. Go to the web site for extra data.
Roald Dahl’s Matilda The Musical is at present displaying at Odeon Cardiff Bay. See the Odeon Cardiff web site for movie instances.
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