Tag Archives: Wales Millennium Centre

Doctor Who, Fun stuff, New location

Bellini’s, Cardiff Bay – July 2015

Leave a comment
Slitheen at Cardiff Bay
Slitheen Stop this Stealing!

Croeso!

Today we’re in Cardiff just like the Ninth Doctor who visited Cardiff in Boom Town (2005). The Doctor was in Cardiff because there is an invisible rift running through the city and the TARDIS was soaking up the radiation from the rift to use as fuel. I was there for a different reason – the first day of my summer holiday in Wales!

Although the Doctor, Rose, Mickey and Captain Jack thought they could relax and have fun the Doctor soon discovered that Blon Fel Fotch Passameer-Day Slitheen was still posing as Margaret Blaine and had been elected Mayor of Cardiff! The Doctor and his companions knew they had to stop her plans for the Blaidd Drwg Project to save the planet….

Although it was my summer holiday it was a rainy and misty Sunday evening. I explored Cardiff Bay and saw where the Doctor parked his TARDIS that night– close to the Millennium Centre and above what would become the Torchwood Three Hub. I also passed Cadwaladers where the Doctor and co went to hang out until the Doctor saw Blon on the front of the paper! I hope to go there another time.

Cadwaladers - Doctor Who Boom Town
Cadwaladers where the Doctor went with his companions.

When Blon was caught she knew she would be executed if the Doctor returned her to Raxacoricofallapatorius so she asked for one last meal. She asked to go to

‘A little restaurant around the bay …it became quite a favourite of mine.’

And that is where we are going now – Bellini’s at Mermaid Quay in Cardiff Bay! I was hungry after my journey to Cardiff in my TARDIS and I wanted to go to the same restaurant the Doctor took Blon for a treat and where Blon asks the Doctor to spare her life.

Mermaid Quay - Doctor Who Boom Town
Welcome to Mermaid Quay
Bellini's - Doctor Who Boom Town
Do you recognise this restaurant?

I climbed the stairs to Bellini’s and asked to sit at the table where the Doctor and Blon had their meal. The Doctor ordered ‘steak and chips’ but I don’t eat meat so I ordered a Margherita Pizza from the adults menu with a lemonade to wash it down. The pizza was as good as the pizzas I ate in Italy. I could have eaten more than one as I am a Pizzaholic!

 

I was interrupted by a greedy Slitheen who kept trying to eat my dinner but I didn’t give any away. Perhaps Raxacoricofallapatorius had been invaded and the Slitheen had invaded Cardiff again?

Bellini's pudding - Doctor Who Boom Town
This is good and you know it!

For pudding I ordered a Coppa Gelato – chocolate flavour of course. It was yummy and tasted like heaven. I moved to sit by the window – the same window that exploded when the rift started opening. Blon had tricked the Doctor. Luckily that didn’t happen when I was there and I got to finish my pudding.

Although the Doctor went when it was dark, Bellini’s was light when I was there and as I ate pudding I enjoyed the changing view of Cardiff Bay – misty, rainy, sunny and misty again.

The staff in Bellini’s were very friendly. I told Mehmet about Project Indigo and he told me that he remembers the day of filming well – he was there as a waiter 10 years ago and you may see him serving in the episode! The dinner scene was filmed in January 2005 when Bellini’s was called Bistro 10 and Mehmet met Christopher Eccleston, the Ninth Doctor, and Annette Badland who played Blon. This was before New Doctor Who was aired on TV so no one knew how popular it would be again.

Mehmet at Bellini's
Meeting Mehmet who served the Doctor and Blon

I had a lovely evening at Bellini’s and would give my meal 10 out of 10. If you go you should definitely have the Coppa Gelato – but watch out for a greedy Slitheen.

Thanks for reading my first Ninth Doctor adventure – I hope you enjoyed it and will come back and join me very soon to read about more of my Doctor Who adventures in Wales this summer. My holiday was FANTASTIC!

Goodbye.

Slitheen at Cardiff Bay
Aaaagh – small Slitheen Invasion!
Advertisement
Doctor Who, New location

Canolfan Mileniwm Cymru / Wales Millennium Centre- February 2014

6 Comments

In these stones horizons sing

Helo a chroeso yn ôl!

That is hello and welcome back, in Welsh. I am speaking in Welsh because in this post we are travelling back in time a little way to Cardiff in February 2014. The location this time is Wales Millennium Centre or Canolfan Mileniwn Cymru in Welsh. This building is also known as The Armadillo. Above the main entrance are two poetic lines, written by Welsh poet Gwyneth Lewis. The Welsh version is

Creu Gwir fel gwydr o ffwrnais awen

which means “Creating truth like glass from the furnace of inspiration.”

The English is

In These Stones Horizons Sing.

I arrived via the entrance that was used for Vincent and the Doctor (2010). The Doctor, Amy and Vincent Van Gogh were filmed here rocking up to Vincent’s museum exhibition. The inside of the museum was filmed in another location which I will tell you about in another post.

The reception was the filming location for New Earth (2006) and was where the Tenth Doctor and Rose visited New New York Hospital which was run by the cat-nuns the Sisters of Plenitude. This episode was the first of the new episodes to be set on a distant planet (even though it is called new Earth) as all of the Ninth Doctor’s stories were set on or in the orbit of Earth! Luckily I didn’t bump into the cat-nuns as they were arrested by the New New York Police Department.

Next I walked down the stairs that the new Prime Minister Harold Saxon (aka The Master) stood on as he gave his famous speech:

This country has been sick, this country needs healing, this country needs medicine – in fact I’d go so far as to say that, what this country really needs, right now, is a Doctor!

Maybe people thought I was him, only younger! This scene was in the episode The Sound of Drums (2007) in which the Master plans some totally awful plans and the Tenth Doctor, Martha and Captain Jack have to stop him.

I explored all around the centre and visited an art exhibition of the National Eisteddfod Gold Medal winners which  included a mixture of jewellery, ceramics, installation, painting and photography. Finally I shot the breeze with a very chatty centre guide who was really friendly and told me lots of stories about when things have been filmed in the centre, and he said that the people of Cardiff are very proud that Doctor Who is filmed there and like to help and watch. He also said that the guides love to answer questions and not to be shy. I wish I could see them filming Doc Who.

To all my viewers from these different countries so far, thank you for looking – United Kingdom, United States, Sweden, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Ireland, Russian Federation, Egypt, India, France, Belgium, Portugal, South Africa, Japan and Spain! I’m quite surprised about all the different places that people have looked at this blog from. I wish I could be truly international and have a viewer from every country in the world, but not every planet because aliens might not understand my blog! If you are viewing from another planet please do not, I repeat do not, delete my blog. If you are viewing from another country please leave a comment to say hello and tell me where you are from – I would love to hear from you.

Ffarwel!