Firetop

I spent much of the past weekend staying with friends in Cardiff. A trip had been on the agenda for some time, so it was time to pull off the M4 at junction 29 instead of going straight past Cardiff to some other area of Wales. Got up early on Saturday (well early for me is anything before 11am as I’m usually hung over). I nearly fainted because it wasn’t raining outside (all my other Wales trips have featured A LOT of rain). Had a lovely traditional English breakfast at an Italian cafe around the corner and then headed off through the park for a tour of Cardiff’s Millennium Stadium.

The Millennium Stadium is situated beside the River Taff, a long wooden walkway cantilevers out over the water- so it’s much like walking on a sea pier as you approach the main gates. As we found out after twenty minutes of walking around the edge of the stadium, tours are accessible by road from the city center side of the stadium. The stadium was much like any other you might visit, a bit like the Nou Camp in Barcelona meets Upton Park in West Ham (so sort of half good). Couldn’t quite work out if the long pointy structures on the corners of the stadium’s outer structure were for practical purposes or just aesthetics.

What was interesting on the guided tour was that the grass is removed a few times each year for concerts etc. (Madonna’s stage was being prepared on the concrete). There are thousands of large boxes of soil, each weighing one ton, which interlink to form the base for the pitch we’ve all seen on television. The turf is laid on top of these boxes and our guide informed us that it comes all the way from Holland. ‘Why Holland?’ asked a member of the tour group… ‘because they make the best grass’ came the obvious reply. At £100,000 a time to replace the turf after the summer’s rock concerts it’s not a cheap way to run a stadium. Would have liked to have a tour when the grass was down and the roof was open.

I quite liked the small plastic roof that had to be put in over the VIP seats after the stadium was completed. Apparently, people in the tier of seats above the cushy VIP area, thought it was fun to pour drinks over their balcony to soak those below or rain down chips on the Queen.

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