Bristol: 26–29 Oct

This narrative covers our time in Bristol, where I played sightseer while Melody was at the Plone conference. More pictures are on the Bristol page.

26-Oct

Our first full day in Bristol began as we figured, with minimal sleep. Even though we were tired, our bodies hadn't fully adjusted to going a third of the way around the world. To top things off, the light in our bathroom had stopped working, so showers were pretty dark.

Since we had grabbed breakfast makings the night before, we could head out to find Melody's conference hotel (I went too so we could figure out a place to meet Thursday night for the conference dinner event). Before beginning the tourist thing, I went to the shop where we had dinner the night before, since they had free Wi-Fi.

The first thing I did was wander up to Brandon Hill to see the view from Cabot Tower. Unfortuantely, the tower was closed, but I did get to stroll around the grounds. I particularly enjoyed this serene pond with the trickling waterfalls.

Clifton Bridge

The Clifton Bridge look very grand crossing the River Avon, but until you look at the cars, you don't realize that it's relatively small (especially if you're used to other suspension bridges, such as the Golden Gate or Brooklyn Bridges). Walking across, the whole bridge somehow feels more intimate; you're very close to the cars (not much other than a thin, painted stripe separates the two directions) and you can see the whole suspension mechanism.

View of the Clifton Bridge from the Camera Obscura

Before actually going across the bridge, however, I went to Observatory Hill. I was a bit dismayed to see scaffolding and chain link fencing surrounding the observatory, but it was indeed open. I went in to take a look at the camera obscura, which gives a great view. I then went down below the observatory following a steep, twisting set of stairs and then a tunnel with low clearance, ending up at an outlook at the side of the cliff next to the bridge.

After leaving the bridge, I worked my way down a steep zig-zag path down to the River Avon and went down to walk along the floating harbor. Along the way, I got a good glimpse of the SS Great Britain and many of the ferries flitting across the harbor.

After lunch I went to the south side of the floating harbor to the SS Great Britain, a multi-powered passenger ship (both a steam engine and sails). You first walk below to the dry dock where you can walk all around the hull. After that you go through a museum, winding your way up to a gangway which takes you to the ship itself. You can view the weather (top) deck, the promenade deck which includes the dining hall, and below decks where you can see the cargo holds and engine room.

Because I ended up walking quite a bit, I decided to relax for the rest of the afternoon. Melody swooshed through the room, saying that her talk went well. She also said that a bunch of people were meeting up for dinner, and we all grabbed some pizza.

That night we found that our bathroom light was working (we had mentioned it to the front desk) but we were missing a bath towel and floor mat. It was already late, so we figured the towel was large enough we could each kind of use one half. We also had a spare bath mat on a shelf, so we were set.

27-Oct

The morning was a good opportunity to see what kind of shopping malls can be found in Bristol. I went to Mall Bristol, Quaker Friars, and Cabot Circus, which connect to make one large mall. Naturally there are a lot of the same stores (the Subway at Mall Bristol was the only place in the food court with a line). But I'm not used to seeing a store dedicated to hair extensions, or another which offered laser teeth whitening along and tanning (for the George Hamilton look). When I was done doing the mall thing, I went through Castle Park. The castle is but a shell, and is dedicated to those who died in the Blitzkrieg.

Shark at the Blue Reef Aquarium

I was curious to see what the Blue Reef Aquarium had to offer, and did find it interesting. One thing that struck me immediately is there's a path through the whole site, so you see things in a certain order, rather than other aquariums I've visited (namely Monterey Bay Aquarium and Long Beach's Aquarium of the Pacific) where there's a center hall with small loops for the exhibits.

You get to see a 3D IMAX movie when you pay for admission, so I saw the one about sharks. There were a lot of "ooh"s and "aah"s during the beginning when the movie had a lot of jellies coming right at your face.

While it may sound like I'm a sucker for free Wi-Fi...well, I guess I am. Back to the shop to upload some photos. It also ends up that there's free Wi-Fi on the way back to our room, so if I knew I only wanted to check something really quickly, I was able to do so with my phone.

Box for my Pieminister meat pie

For dinner, we went to the Plone conference party, catered by Pieminister. Of course the venue was very loud, so it was hard to hear anyone, but the pies were indeed tasty. They were served with mashed potatoes and gravy.

We were still at one bath towel, so I got another one from the desk. We were, however, short a bath mat. What would we find tomorrow?

28-Oct

I took the day off for the most part, but I did do a photo walk around Bristol's Floating Harbour. I had walked most of the path a couple days ago, but I went further west this time, past the SS Great Britain. One part has you walking through a functional shipyard, and you also walk over the locks which separate the harbour from the River Avon.

Wheeling suitcases down a grassy hill

I also diverted down to the Greville Smyth Park, which has both a huge expanse of lawn and several large playgrounds. While there I saw a bunch of young women all toting their wheeled suitcases. They were on the path, but to save themselves a bunch of stairs and other walking, they sashayed down the grassy hill. Of course, it was a bit slick, but they managed fine.

Later in the afternoon, Melody and I arranged our train tickets for the trip to Bath on the next day. As for the bath towel, we were back down to one, but we did have a bath mat. I went to get a second towel, and they also gave me another bath mat. Funny how the small things can amuse you when you're traveling.