County Hall Cafe

Starvin' Jacks, Portland Street

Espresso Bar

Costa, High Street Railway Station

The Old Swansea Marina Observatory

Snow Lodge

Verdis in the Rain

The weather was a bit rainy whilst at Verdi's this evening...

It was still nice and cosy inside though. The food there was, as ever, delicious, and the service was extraordinarily fast. And the views from the restaurant/ice-cream parlour, even in the rain are spectacular.

Verdis This Evening

View From A Townhill Chippy

Baskin Robbins

Looking for an ice-cream? Want a mega- range of flavours? Then Baskin Robbins, may well be for you. The only down side to the place is that space in the ice-cream parlour is limited and only provides enough room for a couple of tables if you wanted to eat inside. Still, the ice-cream is tasty and the staff in there are very friendly. The shop is located in the old Quadrant Gate pub on Nelson Street if you fancy giving the place a try.

Baskin Robbins provided an eclectic choice of ice-cream flavours and is
part of the world's largest chain of speciality ice-cream shops

Gershwins, Nelson Street

Forno

Gothic High Street

Espresso Bar, Swansea High Street

A Verdi's Raspberry Sundae

I had a delicious raspberry sundae down in Verdis this evening. An utterly divine experience. The place was packed with cusomers, but I still managed to snag a window table overlooking Swansea Bay. Highly, highly recommended.

An Evening's Stroll Along the Prom

We really are being spoiled by the weather in Swansea lately. Parking up at the seaside car park at the 360 (and noting the parking charge here has trebled since the turn of the month), I decided to head towards the marina for this evening's stroll.

Swansea Bay

I think the Pirate Ship Adventure Playground is a great addition to Swansea Bay. Unfortunately, I do have to advise caution here though as the place has been known to be visited by local drug-users in the evenings and they can leave all sorts of used paraphanalia behind. On one occasion, my young son nearly got stabbed by a needle sticking out of the sand here. Admittedly, this was a few years back, but I would still be careful and keep a vigilant eye out that the place is clean before using the playground.

The Swansea Bay Pirate Ship Playground

Looking back on the golden sunset over Swansea Bay, before heading down further to the marina:

Swansea Bay is the best place in Swansea to watch the evening sunsets

Sunsets also offer the best views of the City Council's County Hall:

The Pine trees outside Swansea County Hall

Swansea County Hall

Swansea's modernist County Hall Building

Graffiti on Swansea's Sea Steps, near County Hall

I love walking along these steps when the tide is in:

The Meridian Tower 'peeking' behind the Marriott Hotel and its 'Siren' Sculpture

The sun was still out (but only just) when I hit Swansea Marina and the Deli Dining restaurant was literally aglow when I passed it:

And then it was time to head back to the car along the now dusky sands of Swansea Bay.

Swansea Marina's Navigation Buoy sculpture

A Cuppa Coffee at the 360

The 360 Beach and Watersports Bar is rapidly becoming my favourite coffee haunt. The prices there are more than reasonable and the views over Swansea Bay always puts a smile on my face. Highly recommended.

A Cuppa Coffee at Swansea's 360

The 360 Beach and Watersports Bar

Given the timing of this blog post re the upcoming UK EU Referendum, I thought I would also add the following pic taking of the building. Look around Swansea and you will see these signs all over the place on specially built facilities in areas of deprivation. A firm and good reminder that We NEED to STAY IN EUROPE. Vote wisely, please:

360

An absolutely beautiful evening's sunshine drew me down to Swansea Bay again after work today and I parked up at the seaside carpark outside the 360 Bar. As you can see from the first picture here, the car park was a little flooded after the recent rain but there was still plenty of dry spaces to park up for an hour or so.

The partially flooded seafront car park at 260

Swansea Council's car parking tariff is curious to say the least. Why on earth do they charge 50p for one hours stay but more than double that price for two hours stay?

Luckily, their bizarre (and rather unfair) second hour's car park charges didn't apply to me today as it had only just turned 6pm and it is free parking after 7.

Before going down onto the beach for my evening's walk, I popped into the 360 for a quick Latte and was impressed by the quick service there and also their fresh and rather jaunty decor.

Having lived in Swansea for most of my life, I remember Swansea Bay during it infamous years, when it was regarded as little more than an open sewer by much of the city residents. Thankfully, those dark days are slipping from memory and today the beach is both clean and popular. It really is a great seeing the sands here enjoyed by so many people and I, too, as can be clearly seen by anyone flicking through the pages of my Swansea blog, am finding myself drawn here more and more regularly.

This evening, especially, Swansea Bay seemed to be celebrating the sunshine with a particularly sporting theme:

An evening's game of Volleyball

A run along Swansea Bay

I can see myself spending quite a lot of time down Swansea Bay this year.