Cardiff Bay - Old and New

Flew to Cardiff from Edinburgh this morning to attend meetings at the Senedd (National Assembly for Wales). Luckily for me it was a beautiful day in Cardiff with clear blue skies and bright sunshine.

As I arrived early for the meetings I took the opportunity to walk round to the small, white painted, wooden Norwegian church which sits on the bay. It is a lovely building and I took some shots of it but decided against using them as my blip for today.

It was on the walk back that I stopped and took this picture. It shows the Senedd building on the right as you look at the picture. The Pierhead building on the left and the top of the the Wales Millennium Centre.

The Senedd was designed by Richard Rogers and opened in 2006. It contains the debating chamber and committee rooms of the National Assembly for Wales as well as a cafe and a visitor's shop.

The Pierhead building is a Grade 1 listed building and was opened in 1897 and was designed by William Frame. It is now part of the National Assembly who use it as an exhibition space.

Although you can't see much of the Wales Millennium Centre in this blip it is one of my favourite buildings. It is home to Welsh National Opera, the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, the National Dance Company Wales, Literature Wales, the Welsh language youth. movement and the Arts Council of Wales.

The Cardiff Bay is an enormous regeneration project and is Europe's largest waterfront development. It has shops, restaurants, bars and housing in addition to the area around the National Assembly.