Friday 28th March: Trip to Bristol and Evie's Cousin's Home

Evie talked with cousins John and Phyllis last night from the hotel, and they told us to come hungry this morning, so we made coffee in the room and waited for their son Andrew to collect us which he did promptly at 10:30 in his fairly new Citroen, one of the many car makes that you almost never see in the States.  He took us on a scenic route drive through Bristol although it poured with rain and the skies were grey and depressing I felt though Evie, being from England and preferring it to sunshine, was overjoyed!! We passed under the famous suspension bridge, and I could see why they needed it.  The Avon river carved a steep gorge here as it approaches the sea and the bridge itself is some 275 feet above high water mark (it's a tidal basin, and the water level changes dramatically with each tide).

The bridge had a tortured construction history.  Construction began in 1831, but politics and economic turmoils stopped work several times until it was finally finished in 1864, 111 years after a bridge at the site was first planned. Because of its height it has become an infamous suicide bridge, like the Golden Gate bridge. My favorite story from reading about it is as follows:

   "In 1885, a 22-year-old woman named Sarah Henley survived a fall from the bridge
    when her billowing skirts acted as a parachute; she subsequently lived into her eighties."

The Clifton Suspension Bridge in a web image I wish I had shot!  Gives a little sense of the height

It took about a half hour to get to their delightful house on the outskirts of Bristol, such a nice home, very spacious and on a quiet street called a Close This one has THREE bathrooms, and spacious ones at that, one with a nice walk-in shower.  John and Phyllis are very sweet,  both in early 80's but quite fit, and their son Andrew, who is in his early 50's still lives with them and has a great career in IT; he does all the cooking and every meal is a gourmet occasion!  All three were very nice, and shortly after arrival, covered the dining table with plates full of cold cuts, cheeses and breads for our lunch.

We had intentions of doing something today, like visiting the nearby town of Bath, but the weather continued to rain so we spent the day talking with them and I took a little nap later in the afternoon. We were in Andrew's room, and I looked at his CD collection: I have a lot of what he had, although I noticed a fairly complete GENESIS collection.  I also discovered that he had several books by Arthur C Clark; 2001, 2010, which I had already read but there was another that I had never been aware of, 2064, and then yet another, 3001.  I sat down and started reading 2064; you may remember the first one, made into a great movie, about the monolith discovered on the moon, and the subsequent trip to Jupiter? This one was about the follow up voyage to Jupiter's moon Europa, so I spent awhile reading that.

Andrew cooked a beautiful dinner of Salmon with lots of baked veggies and a great apple pie with hot custard on top for dessert.  He made so much of the custard that there was plenty left over so I suggested putting it in the fridge so I could have it cold the next day. That was a new one on them since it's always eaten HOT here.

Andrew gave up his bed for us; it was a normal full sized bed with a wooden frame and it turned out was difficult to accommodate both of our lengthy selves so I wound up on the futon that he uses for a couch.

John had a Heating & Air business for 50 or so years  and Phyllis worked as the bookkeeper and office administrator I think until they retired comfortably many years ago.  The have a stunning back yard (referred to as a garden); it looks park-like and an actual gravel driveway for the car so they are not forced to  park on the street like most people have to in England.  Their neighbor across the street has a new Aston Martin!

The back garden from Andrew's bedroom window

John and Phyllis' house named "Haystacks" on the outskirts of Bristol