So, a little break away from London where Heather and I decided to go west, spending some time in what turned out to be the interesting city of Bristol (I’d been there once, for about a day—I know this because I have a few photos taken then, but don’t really remember anything of the city from then). The start of the journey wasn’t the best, given the lack of trains from our home station but the Superloop actually proved a decent link to another station and from there it was a straight train to Paddington, and then onwards!

Saturday

One of the great things about arriving in Bristol is that one gets to experience the monument that is Temple Meads station, the great terminus of Brunel’s railway. It was less easy to appreciate internally due to works going on—at least I assume it’s not normally that chaotic and hard to navigate. The main glory is outside however, thought the famous great facade with it’s tall towers and clocks post-dates Brunel.

Having admired the station we headed, as is tradition, for the nearest pub. That proved to be The Sidings which was okay if a little shabby (though I note from that link they’ve had a little makeover since). Not stopping too long we headed in the general direction of the hotel, negotiating building works and closed roads and footpaths. That led us to the rather lovely Cornubia, with good beer and a nice little garden area. It sits peculiarly, surrounded by later buildings at a seeming strange angle to roads around it—a result of being pretty much the only building in the vicinity to survive World War II bombing.

From there it was a short hop to the hotel to get checked in and dump our bags, before heading back out into the Bristol evening. It was also a short hop from the hotel to what would prove to be probably our favourite hostelry in the city, The Left Handed Giant, a cool open venue with it’s own little brewery behind the bar (part of a larger craft brewery). It has excellent beer and cider, and a not bad view across to the water to the park opposite.

Much as we were enjoying the Giant however we were getting hungry, so made our way along the water to Kings Street, finding the King St. Brew House. That provided a very good burger, though expensive given the lack of fries! Filled, we headed for the hotel but couldn’t resist another call into the Cornubia around the corner before bed and sleep.

Sunday

We had plans for the next day so bounced up and about, heading round the floating harbour to the old warehouse that is these days M Shed. It’s a local museum much like those in most large cities. A wealth of local material and some more items that one can often find in such places. As such it was interesting to look around, but not overly compelling (I liked the balloons suspended in the central space though). It didn’t help that I felt a little unwell and had to have a bit of a sit down in the cafe.

We were so eager to visit the museum on that Sunday though simply because along the old tracks of the dockside a little steam tank engine was running up and down. So it was we eagerly bought a return ticket and hopped aboard one of the open carriages (more trucks to be honest) for a steamy and jerky ride down to the far end of the tracks, which was great fun. Having reached the far end it seemed not to visit probably the most famous inhabitant of Bristol’s docks, SS Great Britain

The ship sits in the dry dock constructed so it could be built, looming over everything around it. On each side is a further small museum, one dedicated to the ship itself and the other to its builder, Brunel. The first tells the history of the ship, built as a ground breaking propeller driven iron steam ship, which became a pure sailing ship hauling cargo before being damaged and abandoned. It sat, basically unloved, and eventually scuppered before finally being rescued in the 1970s and towed all the way back to its home.

Today it’s been restored and sits proudly in the dry dock. A glass plane sits at what would be water line, with a thin layer of water flowing over it. The glass serves two purposes, given the illusion of the ship as she would have appeared in water, as well as forming a ceiling to the space beneath, where the hull sits in a dehumidified space to protect the iron hull from further corrosion. It makes for a surreal experience to walk around beneath the glass (the humming machines and emptiness making more so than being beneath the Cutty Sark).

Up on the ship itself is impressive, particularly on a sunny day with the flags fluttering from tall masts (even as a steam ship Great Britain used sail—why waste fuel). Down below one gets the impression of the division of classes, opulent dining rooms which can leave you forgetting you’re on a ship, with generous private quarters off them giving way to tightly packed bunks which must have begun to resemble the slums left behind before reaching Australia.

The second museum tells the story of Brunel’s life. It’s most striking, and frankly disturbing feature, however is a giant model of his head looming over all (eventually one enters the head to watch a video of the “thoughts of Brunel”—it doesn’t seem worth it).

Disturbed by the giant head we exited via the shop and then sought out the train to take us back along to M Shed. There we had a bit more of a wander, and a browse of their gift shop, before deciding dinner time was approaching and hunting down the largest Lounge I’ve seen.

Following that I managed to find a pub showing the football before we finished the night in a place for Heather, The Apple being a specialist cider bar (still with decent beer) on a boat.

Unfortunately, on the way to bed and within sight of the hotel Heather tripped over. She hurt her leg, but we were quite fortunate it wasn’t worse, so we were glad to be close to that bed.

Monday

Sometimes I actually join Heather in her quest for breakfast (normally when it’s more brunch), which explains how we ended up at The Granary on Monday morning. It’s an interesting looking building, and the food was fine, though much more than either of us could actually manage. Our plan for the day was to start out at the Cathedral, which we climbed our way up to. That meant we got a good view of the rear of the interesting looking library and a chance to pass through the impressive Great Gatehouse.

The cathedral itself is no less impressive, an imposing structure unusual in that it’s aisles are as tall as the main choir. Inside that makes a wonderfully towering space, airy though perhaps reduces the separation between different areas. There are interesting features, including the earliest part, the medieval chapter house (billed as very fine but frankly in the shade of places like York Minster). There’s a nice cafe also, which we stopped off in while exploring. The churchyard is a bit hidden, but pretty. We took our time looking around before heading back outside to gaze at the curved council buildings which stand opposing the cathedral across the green.

From there we decided to head up hill—and it was some hill! Near the bottom we found our first Banksy, the humorous Well Hung Lover, which attracted a fair number of tourist photos other than our own. The hill itself is very steep, and by the time we reached the top we could well understand the queues for at the bus stop at the bottom. Keeps you fit though!

The top of the hill is dominated by The Wills Memorial, which towers like a church but is actually part of the university. Unfortunately you can only view the interior beyond the immediate entrance by guided tour, which is a shame as it did seem an interesting and impressive building. Also interesting was the random Gromit statue outside, from the original trail, Aardman being Bristol based of course.

Possibly less interesting was the The Wetherspoon across the road, but we called into anyway to plot our next move. That involved more hill climbing, reaching the high point over Bristol topped by the Cabot Tower. Heather didn’t feel up to the climb after her fall but I headed to the windy top, with some spectacular views over the city and beyond. It was fun picking out landmarks, including one we were planning to visit but had yet to see.

Coming back down the other side of the hill it was a shame that we were too early for The Bag Of Nails so we didn’t get to have a pint with the cats. Instead we headed back along to towards the library, which turned out to be in the middle of a fire alarm inspired evacuation. It did give a chance to see another Banksy, though one that was never that extravagant and has been badly affected by later building work. We’d walked quite a way up and down the hill by the time we found that, so were glad to find a pub on the far side of the green to have a rest.

It wasn’t the greatest pub, so we headed to King’s Street and the more historic, and wonderfully named Llandoger Trow, before thinking about dinner. That ended up being our first visit to a Cosy Club, which was okay, but probably not much of a step away from its cousin Lounges. There was a quick stop in to another Wetherspoon, the Commercial Rooms before we decided we actually just needed rest so headed to relax in the hotel for a while.

Tuesday

Tuesday saw us with a slightly further destination in mind, so after a wander looking at the scant remains of Bristol Castle in the park, and a stop to collect an Amazon parcel (I’d forgotten the charge for the camera batteries), we found ourselves having some version of breakfast in Boswells in the shopping centre. From there it was a short walk to pick up a bus (tap on and off) to the suburb of Clifton, and two landmarks.

First up was the pretty and interesting Observatory. It’s first life as an eighteenth century windmill is still evident in its form, but it really became known in the early nineteenth century when William West took it over, converting and extending it into an observatory which he opened to the public. The observatory was something of a success, and as part of the attraction West cut a tunnel down through the rock beneath to the natural St Vincent’s, or Giant’s, Cave, and built a camera obscura at the top of the round tower, both of which remain attractions today.

We started with a descent into the cave, an experience I found far from joyful. I’m sure thousands have made it before, but I don’t understand why there isn’t in the modern world better lighting (what there is is dim, red, and sparse—I got a phone torch out more than once), and it become increasing low so that I ended up descending the final staircase in an undignified bum bounce. Even at the bottom, the cave doesn’t really offer better views than the top of the cliff—hardly worth the climb down, and annoying climb back up.

The rest of the observatory is much more interesting. There’s a small museum telling the story of West’s attraction, and some of the instruments he had. The camera obscura at the top is a joy—we were the only two in the dark space so were able to swing the camera around freely, picking out the local landmarks. Back downstairs there’s a cafe in the rest of the ground floor space, which does a fine teacake.

The observatory hilltop also contains the remains of a hill fort, and fine views over Clifton’s other attraction, the great suspension bridge spanning the gorge. Often referred to as Brunel’s Clifton Suspension Bridge, it only half is of course. He saw the project started before it ground to a halt for basically the rest of his life, being completed as a sort of memorial to the memory of the great engineer. It’s great towers may lack the Egyptian flair originally envisioned but they still look magnificent, and the bridge is certainly spectacular in crossing the great deep chasm that the Avon has cut through.

We walked across the narrow footpath (one side closed due to works on the bridge) to take in the views and reach the small museum on the far side. That’s small but interesting, covering the initial construction, pause in building, and eventual completion of the bridge in accessible detail. It didn’t take long to look around, so we headed back over the suspension and down, past the remains of the lost funicular railway to the large terrace of the White Lion (until we were forced inside by rain anyway).

There was enough time to have a little wander around Clifton itself, with a stop in the Quadrant before hopping the bus back and stopping off at the hotel to plan dinner. We settled on Giuseppe’s, which proved to be an excellent choice, with a welcoming host and amazing sea bass, which sent us happily to bed.

Wednesday

Next morning we started off with a quick visit to a Cafe Nero before heading to try and visit the church on the wall.

Unfortunately there was no sign of it being open to explore inside, whatever the website promised, so we were restricted to admiring the exterior.

History taken in we headed for the the covered market, which (we thought) turned out to be a bit of a disappointment (and with quite a few empty stalls). With that realisation we headed back to the hotel before going to see a nearby ruin. Anther victim of the second world war bombing was raised large parts of Bristol, Temple Church is the shell of a fourteenth/fifteenth century church which replaced the Knights Templar’s original round church (the outline of which is now marked out in the ground—the Templars presence is what gives the area its name). Interestingly, while the tall square tower of the church is noticeably leaning this isn’t a consequence of the bombing—it began to lean whilst being built and close examination shows where the original builders straightened it out part way up!

It was on our way back to the hotel from that sight that we realised we’d actually missed half the market–so off we went to the indoor market, which turned out to be a much better experience with a variety of interesting stalls. Much happier we called into the Commercial Rooms again for lunch before heading for Primark (Heather needed a new suitcase as the wheel on the one we arrived with had broken). Taking the replacement suitcase back to the hotel gave a chance to hang around the Left Handed Giant again before making our way to the shopping centre, which quite dangerously has a Lego Store (of course we couldn’t resist).

We also couldn’t resist heading to the top of the centre for one of our favourite activities—crazy golf. Treetop Golf has two pretty good and enjoyable courses, with above average little side bits (the singing frogs in particular), so we had great fun playing. Getting hungry we took what turned out to be a longish walk to Kings Street in search of food, before heading finally for the hotel and bed.

Thursday

Sadly the time had almost come to leave. So we left the bags in the hotel’s care and headed on one last adventure. We’d seen the Bristol Packet tours on Sunday and Heather persuaded me it was worth going for a little jolly around the harbour. In the sun it was a pleasant enough way to spend the morning, our 45 minute tour seemingly over in no time as we past some of the sights we’d seen through the week.

That left us enough time to find a third Banksy, the well known Girl With A Pierced Eardrum, and wander back towards town along the now course of the Avon. The Hole In The Wall, which we’d kept passing, turned out to be slightly disappointing when we finally went in—not feeling anything like historic enough.

And then it was back to the hotel for bags, and onwards to the station. There one last delight awaited, catching sight of the departing Nunney Castle on a run to Kingswear, which pleased us greatly.

Our own run to Paddington was uneventful, though we arrived close enough to rush hour we went and sat in the Pub pub for quite a while before making it all the way home.

Photos