Warning: Long post. Non-useful heart emojis and respect points for slogging through.
Bob and I had a great day exploring Bristol. We headed out after a lovely breakfast at the hotel that was included in the room rate. Our intent was to see the Art Museum building, the Clifton Suspension Bridge, the SS Great Britain, and the Cabot Tower. We ending up seeing a bit more and learning something about the history of Bristol in the process.
We found a number of cute finds on the way to the Art Museum, including a cafe that caught our eye and a combination almshouse and chapel (may be a first) founded by John Foster, the Mayor of Bristol in 1483.
The Art Museum was a lovely building and probably has some great exhibits, but we didn’t go in as we were trying to at least see as much as possible during the day.
One of the highlights of the day, there ended up being a few, was the Clifton Suspension Bridge which opened in 1864. There is a 1 pound toll required of all cars that cross, which supports the maintenance of the bridge. Pedestrians and bicyclists can cross for free. The views from the bridge were lovely, and we did pop into the Visitor’s Center where we learned about the interestingly named designer of the bridge, Isambard Kingdom Brunel. He also designed the SS Great Britain, the first propeller-driven iron ship, but sadly died before the ship had its maiden voyage and before the bridge was completed.
We saw signs for an observatory close to the bridge, so we stopped there for a great view of the bridge as well as the surrounding area.
We then headed down hill and across a bridge to Spike Island to get a photo of the SS Great Britain. We were prevented from an easy free photo op, as it is a museum and they have it placed it in amongst buildings so that you can’t really get a photo of it without paying the 20 pound entrance fee. Not being that much of an old boat fan, we passed on that, but then took note of a different type of boat that did interest us. We paid 9 pounds apiece for a 45 minute covered harbor cruise, which provided us with a great view of the harbor and kept us out of the rain for a bit. We also enjoyed our witty narrator. Oh, and we were the only riders at the 12:30 slot, so it was a private tour.
We then headed off to climb Cabot Tower in a lovely park back on “our” side of the Bristol Avon River (called Bristol Avon to distinguish it from other Avon Rivers). On the way we popped into the Bristol Cathedral and strolled around the small, but lovely gardens behind the church building.
The Cabot Tower was built to honor the discovery of Canada by John Cabot in 1497. Cabot sailed from Bristol hoping to find a shorter route to Asia, instead he “found” Newfoundland.
Finally, sometimes you just stumble onto some interesting facts as you explore. Three finds from today’s outing.
Peckish Travels 