Thursday 27th March: Train Trip to Bristol and City Tour

Today was another travel day heading to Bristol, where Evie was born and raised until age 7.  Kate and Dave's daughter Amber and her 3 year old grandson, Ben,  were just arriving all the way from Australia for a visit. They arrived shortly before we were set to leave so we chatted with her while Dave played with little Ben until it was time to head to the station.

We said our sad goodbye's and hauled our belongings to the correct platform for the 45 minute trip to Temple Meads in Bristol; it was a very smooth journey through lots more green and slightly rolling countryside, lots of sheep grazing and occasionally cattle and horses.

Cheltenham to Bristol

Winter in England this year has been the wettest in a century or so; part of the same weather pattern that gave California it's drought and ice storms in the Mid West and East Coast.  There were three big storms in a row just last month, causing significant flooding and destruction in, especially in the southwest of England. The groundwater/aquafer in some locations was so completely saturated that the earth itself was like a thin skin on top.  We saw TV images of people bouncing on grass as if it was a big water bed.  They are only now drying out properly; thankfully, the amount of rainfall since we've been here was been minor and of short duration.

We arrived in Bristol at Temple Meads station and took a taxi (blue here by city decree, rather than the almost universal black in London) for a very short ride to a Novatel Hotel near the center of town.

Fairly new hotel in downtown Bristol

We decided in order to reorganize ourselves and orient to Bristol, we would have a half day and a night at a hotel prior to visiting her relatives. We had a nice room there with a two twin beds put together to make a King, very nice bathroom with a tub and separate enclosed shower, microwave and even a fridge!

We took a walk up the street and crossed a main bridge over the river.  Some barges had been converted to restaurants along the quay there, quiet expensive but presently we stumbled upon an ancient pub where we found a great deal for lunch two lunches for 10 pounds, pay at the bar first.

View from main bridge over River Avon

The Smuggler's Bar, an ancient Public House in the heart of Bristol

We then looked at a tourist map we picked up in the tavern and discovered that the old Vic of Bristol was on the next block; a very famous theater and related to another one in London. We walked past it, took pictures and presently arrived at the main quay, recently renovated into shops and restaurants and a museum. The Bristol visitor center was there,so we stopped in, picked up some free literature and a small book on Bristol and sat outside on the quay taking in the people and the view of the central harbor; this is the site of where the old slavers were moored that carried their illicit cargoes to America.

The Old Vic of Bristol

Pretty pink restaurant on the same block

The Harbourside area with house boats moored.

Looking the other way from the same spot

Pero's Bridge, named for a favored local slave

View of harborside entrance

Bristol is England's 6th largest city; a major port and formerly the most important shipbuilding site. There was a Roman settlement here connected by road to nearby Bath (site of useful hot springs and, of course, Roman Baths).

Bristol was the starting point for many important voyages, including John Cabot's 1497 exploration of North America. The city is closely associated with the slave trade, as early as the 11th century but especially in the 18th where Bristol and Liverpool were the two main English ports for the "Triangular Trade" between England, Africa and North America.

"In the first stage of this trade manufactured goods were taken to West Africa and exchanged with the heads of tribes for Africans slaves; then in the second stage or middle passage, transported across the Atlantic in brutal conditions. The third leg of the triangle brought plantation goods such as sugar, tobacco, rum, rice and cotton back to England. During the height of the slave trade from 1698 to 1807 when slavery became illegal in England. More than 2,000 slaving voyages were made and many ships were fitted out at Bristol, carrying a conservatively estimated half a million people from Africa to the Americas where they were enslaved (courtesy Wikipedia entry)

Bristol is particularly associated with the noted Victorian engineer with a strange name: Isambard Kingdom Brunel.  He designed the Great Western Railway between Bristol and London Paddington, two pioneering Bristol-built ocean going steamships, the SS Great Western (1837),the SS Great Britain, the first iron-hulled propeller-driven steamship in the world (1843), and the Clifton suspension Bridge. Of course, you can't forget that it's the birthplace of Cary Grant!

Clifton suspension bridge, just upriver from downtown Bristol, designed by Brunel (web image)

 After a nice rest, we set about walking up a hill a couple of blocks to Bristol's cathedral. Right about then it started to rain so Evie popped out her tiny umbrella and we hustled into the haven of the cathedral.  This one isn't as old as some others and not quite as grand but still pretty ornate with special "fan" type ornaments supporting the roof.

Bristol Cathedral after the rain cleared

View from garden out back

A newly ordained chaplain chatted me up and told me he was the official greeter; he then told me his life story which includd a bought with brain cancer, throat cancer, then a heart attack, all before being ordained at age 62!  I was glad to get away to the toilet when someone Evie approached with a question and found it through a beautiful cloister and out into a nice garden.  By this time it had already stopped raining and was almost sunny and took the opportunity to take some nice photos, including one of a charming weeping cherry tree.

The central nave

Cloisters along the side

We walked a bit more and found a Spanish tapas restaurant, had a little bread and cheese along with the required tea for Evie, then went across the street to look at a wall mural by the famous British graffiti artist Banksy.

Street scene in downtown Bristol

Bristol is a hilly city like San Francisco

We walked all the way back to the hotel and had a little lie down.  I had wanted to go out for some live music which we had chanced to find across from the pub but it was a dubious group and it was bitterly cold out so instead we went downstairs to the hotel restaurant and had dinner before going to bed a little earlier than usual. Tomorrow Evie's cousins are coming to pick us up and take us to their house on the outskirts of town.

Bristol is an important port city, although it's several miles from the ocean and at the junction of several rivers, including the Severn which is quite wide and is a tidal estuary.   We had seen just a small part of the port a good deal of which was reconstructed after the closure of the ship yards in recent decades. It's now a commercial and tourist center.  Actually, it seems like most villages and towns in England have some major tourist attraction to them, whether a castle, palace, cathedral, birthplace or site of a historic battle.  Believe me there have been lots of battles over the centuries from Roman invasion before the end of the first century, the Galls, the Norman invasion of 1066, multiple wars of royal succession, another French invasion, two civil wars and heaven knows what else.  It's a small place with an extensive and deeply colorful and long history, so every place has been yet another important part of it.