Urbanism in Birmingham, Aberystwyth, and Cardiff! (My first time in the UK, Part 1)

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After my Netherlands trip I decided I need to have more international travel in my life so I hopped on a plane to the UK I was there visiting friends doing some family history and honestly mostly just riding trains lots and lots of trains in this video we’ll be visiting

Reading Birmingham aist withth and Cardiff the next video will include Manchester Edinburgh coatbridge and London so make sure you’re subscribed I’m doing this trip entirely carfree so I’ll be going by foot and Transit this will end up taking me to the most walkable places where we can talk

Urbanism I’m Alex I Love Trains And this is a channel all about visiting interesting places and talking about some urbanism along the way to get to the UK I took the max yellow from my place to the 300 bus all the way to the Calgary International Airport after

Flying across the world of course with a window seat we arrived a bit early and circled around above the clouds for a bit after deboarding the plane I followed a crowd down an escalator and under the tarmac which was pretty cool then I followed the wayf finding to the

Elizabeth line went down more escalators and hung out on the station platform I had to get off at Hazen Harlington then off again at Maiden head Maiden head was fun for watching trains go by and still on the Elizabeth line I eventually made it to reading I planned for a bit of a

Time buffer here so I could walk around town so what did I see in Reading well I like this map full of the bus routes and this wide walkable Street was fantastic and that’s about all I was able to see in Reading because I had to catch my

Next train this train was a cross country train which will take me to Birmingham and the train uh I don’t know man not the nicest one I took on this trip but it is still better than flying or driving even though Birmingham was a change over I wanted to see a little bit

More there so I planned for 2 hours and wow they’re really doing the walkable Street thing here walkable streets aren’t just quieter less smelly and more spacious for people but they also just let you enjoy things like shops architecture and some good food so I wandered I watched trams and I checked

Out the architecture too Birmingham was definitely somewhere I’d like to return to there’s a lot of construction going on enhancing public squares streets and plazas so maybe in a couple years I’ll do a dedicated trip just to see what’s going on but this was a beautiful city

And maybe next time I’ll try their take on the California Burrito or maybe Tim Horton’s but alas we’re off I was now on my way to aist withth Wales remember I left Calgary in the evening arrived in London nearing noon and then traveled on for many more hours on the train I

Chatted with a couple of people who thought it was funny how much I liked the British trains they might not be the Envy of the world but hey this calgarian is very jealous I arrived in aist withth greeted by my friends Grace and Chloe who were kind enough to host me while I

Was visiting in the morning I took off to do some exploring first this bike parking very nice pretty plants are always nice and so is interesting architecture saw a little brutalism on the University grounds and a great view with some very cute sheep and then there was this incredible Library I spent a

Long time in the National Library of Wales which is a lot more than just a library I found art exhibits a very interesting section about Welsh media and some very knowledgeable staff who taught me a bit about Welsh culture something I especially loved was that they had these stools that could be

Carried around and moved to where people would like to sit enhancing the accessibility of the institution but maybe my favorite thing were these headphones slip them on and they’ll play the audio from whichever part of the exhibit you’re looking at this might be on par or maybe even above windows in

Museum as my favorite museum things walking down the streets here I wonder what people at home are so worried about with density these streets are still quiet Pleasant and beautiful these three-story duplexes honestly don’t feel that much more dense than the single family homes in Calgary the lack of

Front car garages definitely helps as well adding Greenery and character to the area now down to the beach I don’t like telling another place what to do but a fully pedestrianized Waterfront would be incredible here for lunch I got my first fish and chips in the UK right

Here on the beach I got to say these birds have great taste in food too something else I loved about aist withth was this cool milk vending machine first you get a bottle then you fill it with chocolate milk or regular milk I guess if you’re like that they also had eggs

Here and this has nothing to do with anything but this person had a meme in their front window that made me laugh so thank you since there’s a steam train to be ridden I had to ride it interestingly this is when we learned there was a

Rally car event going on the next day so as we boarded the steam train we got to see some pretty cool cars and now for the train ride I don’t think I’ve ever seen a more beautiful Valley so I’m just going to let some footage roll please

Enjoy at the end of the train ride was this waterfall since this is a tourist destination there are many ecological concerns which are managed by this fairgate I thought this was a pretty simple solution unfortunately I pack light so I decided not to get one of these souvenirs but I really deeply

Honestly regret it these trains are pretty cool well in the UK I wanted to make the most of every day going to sleep I wondered where else I ought to explore at 3:00 a.m. I woke up and booked a ticket for a 640 departure to Cardiff Wales here let me read this part

From my journal the bus gave me quite a lovely tour of the small towns that dot the coast connected by narrow winding roads a gentleman on board educated me on Welsh life he was also quite curious about Canada he told me how frustrating it was to learn English because it has

So many silent letters Welsh on the other hand has one pronounce every letter it was about a 2-hour bus ride for another 2 hours I took the train from Karan to Cardiff Central the train was quite busy I’d later learned there was a big Motocross event now listen

Guys I loved Cardiff like like properly loved it the color scheme of the buses amazing the walkable streets amazing the people amazing let me read from my journal again my intention had been to visit the Welsh national museum first so I plugged it into Google Maps and started walking somewhere along the way

I missed a turn and wound up closer to the Cardiff Museum I figured I’d go there first instead and boy am I glad I did upon entering the museum I was greeted by two staff members we chatted for a bit before I went off to see the

Museum when I’d finished my brief tour the museum wasn’t very big I returned and continued my conversation with them about how lovely I found their city of course being me I brought up the walkability and pedestrianization of the area they were quite happy to hear it and mentioned there had been significant

Opposition but that it’s been great for the city building beautiful spaces walkable cities where people can wander and explore and discover new people and places these are all choices we make in the basement of the Cardiff Museum they had posters about the choices the city made and one that I personally loved was

This one about the Hook Road in this instance 1500 homes were going to be destroyed for the personal car that’s the homes of 5,000 people just gone in service of the least efficient mode of urban travel in 1973 the city council finally voted against the plan these are

Choices in my hometown Calgary Canada we faced a similar Choice around the same time that Cardiff made this choice to not go forward with the Hook Road calary called our plan the downtown penetrator which who comes up with this this sounds like something an evil villain would come up with this downtown penetrator

Would have destroyed our Riverfront and I’m glad that we didn’t go forward with this I would far rather this along our River than this on the advice of my new friends at the cff Museum I made my way to the market grabbed a Welsh cake Delicious By the way and then ventured

Onward to Cardiff Castle I really liked that part of the castle grounds were just open to the public While others were sectioned off for a paid Museum experience something I’ve talked about a bit already is the accessibility in museum and here’s another way that could be done having cards featuring a variety

Of languages allows visitors from all over the world to learn the local history as a side note I want a library like this looking back toward downtown Cardiff it was cool to see how cities change over the years a castle with the oldest Parts dating back to the 12th

Century with buildings built between then and now cities grow and change new buildings new people and new stories and it all makes a place that much more interesting on my way to the Welsh national museum I saw a wedding crowds for the sporting events and some incredible architecture my main reason

For coming to this Museum was the BBC exhibit particularly the Doctor Who stuff and did you know the BBC launched a TV show for Deaf children in 1955 I thought that was pretty awesome the rest of the museum was also worth the visit notably there were fewer

Stolen goods here than at the British Museum and maybe no stolen goods at all honestly I I didn’t check after a quick walk around the University campus I started walking back downtown and you know I think this road could use a dedicated bike lane looking for lunch I wandered through this beautiful Park

Took a detour through some arcades and found myself at this busy mall but I’m not going to eat at Shake Shack don’t worry it’s overrated and we all know the best milkshakes are at around the Ben back home anyways after checking back in with my friends at the Cardiff Museum

They recommended I wander on down to the Bay I saw a train and said hi to the good folks of the 501st and obviously paid my respects at yanto Shrine before returning to the train I took in the variety of architecture featured here wandering along the river Taft I took

Note of the variety of housing in the area the people enjoying the water and traveling using a variety of modes I noted a road earlier that could benefit from a separate cycling Lane but I also think it should be noted when that isn’t necessary quiet streets like this can

Host cycling on the road thanks to traffic calming note how close the trees are to the road The Continuous sidewalks or raised crosswalks the narrow road with a textured strip down the center and even the street parking contributes to the traffic calming after some strike related delays we were on our way back

To abist withth the train ride was eventful I was gently harassed by some very drunk Welsh women but at least they respect the boundaries I set sadly I do think I sat in some white wine which definitely ruined my pants but hey Cardiff was amazing by far my favorite

City I’ve ever visited and I will definitely be back and I will be back here next week when we visit Manchester coatbridge Edinburgh and London