Cardiff comes to standstill to welcome home heroes

Wales players riding on an open-top bus acknowledge the crowd during their homecoming in Cardiff City centre, Wales.

The Welsh capital of Cardiff came to a standstill as Wales' national team returned home to a rapturous welcome by an estimated 200,000 people after its historic run to the European Championship semifinals in France.
After hundreds of supporters greeted the team at Cardiff Airport - renamed Cardiff Bale Airport for the day in honor of Wales star Gareth Bale - an open-top bus carrying Chris Coleman's squad weaved its way through the streets of Cardiff for an hour.
Players and supporters then re-enacted the viking "Huh" chant made famous at Euro 2016 by Iceland, the other feel-good story of the tournament.
"All those years of going abroad and hearing people say, 'Wales, where's that? Is it part of England?" Welsh First Minister Carwyn Jones said. "Well, that's gone out of the window. In five weeks, they've really shown where Wales is and that we are a country in ourselves."
Competing in only its second major tournament, and first since the 1958 World Cup, Wales topped its group ahead of England and beat highly fancied Belgium en route to the last four. Portugal beat Wales 2-0 on Wednesday.
The parade ended at Cardiff City Stadium, where Welsh band Manic Street Preachers performed on stage before players and staff were presented to the crowd. One player was missing, however, as midfielder Joe Ledley had earlier boarded a private plane in France to marry his fiancee Ruby May in Ibiza this weekend.
Wales' bus was emblazoned on the side with the words 'Diolch (Thank you). Together We Are Stronger'.
"This is what it's all about, this is why the players work so hard to represent their country," Coleman said. "They knew there was a nation waiting for them."
However, the squad - minus midfielder Joe Ledley, who had the weightier matter of his wedding this weekend - were taken aback at the massive turnout.
The bus was emblazoned with the phrase "Diolch (Thank you). Together We Are Stronger."
The Welsh squad - who had already been feted for reaching the Principality's first major finals since the 1958 World Cup - had earlier landed at the Cardiff Bale Airport, named in the Real Madrid forward's honour for the day.
The stadium was packed to the brim with 30,000 fans who also had the bonus of Welsh band Manic Street Preachers, who wrote and sang the official Wales Euro 2016 anthem.
Wales will become the top-ranked home nation on the back of their success at the Euros. They are seemingly set to climb into the top six less than five years after being down in 117th position.
Bale, who eventually had to give second best to Real Madrid team-mate Cristiano Ronaldo and his Portugal side in the semifinals, said the fans had been like an extra man.
"To get a welcome like this was incredible. It shows how amazing our fans are," said the 26-year-old, who scored three goals in the finals.
"The support we've had has given us that extra confidence to move on to the next level. Everything we've achieved we could haven't done it without everyone here.
"We fought hard to qualify, all through the games we kept progressing and getting better as a team.
"We knew what we were capable of after getting to France, we said we didn't want to make the numbers up."
Bale couldn't resist a final dig at England, whose come from behind win over the Welsh in the group stage was a false dawn for them as they went out in the last 16 to unheralded Iceland 2-1.
"We wanted to give it a real go - and we got ahead of the English!" said Bale.
They started the competition as big outsiders, but ended up winning a group which contained England, Slovakia and Russia.
Wales then beat Northern Ireland and Belgium, second in the FIFA world rankings, in the knock-out stages before losing to Portugal.