A day in Bristol, with some interesting finds Tuesday 13th May

My photos of Cheddar Gorge from our trip on Monday, finally downloaded, and here they are.

Reminded me of some kids I know!

We took the Western Railway to Bristol this morning. Nice clean trains, not noisy and a fast trip into Bristol.

Then we found the Hop on Bus and bought a combined ticket for the ferry as well.  The ferry took us up to the head of the lock where we had to walk to see the Clifton Suspension Bridge, which had been on our itinerary.

The Clifton Bridge in snow from our coffee house!

Bristol once was a shipbuilding town, but all that changed.  They have a new port and it takes cruise ships, as the river tides can be 30 feet, and they now have a series of locks.

Called Christmas Steps at the ferry terminal

   

Check out the houses on the hills

The locks

After the ferry ride we had to wait for 45 minutes for the bus to come around again, and it pelted down rain. We got onto the uncovered double decker bus, waited until the sun came out then went upstairs to sit on my rainjacket, with a blanket covering us, to continue with the tour.  We must be mad!

On the wet seats under a blanket ready to do the tour

It was very difficult to get photos but we managed a few. One thing that took my eye when we were reading the information was the name of the man responsible for so much development, building railways, tunnels, bridges Isambard Kingdom Brunel.  My research brain must never sleep, Kingdom I said to John that is the name of Elizabeth your 4th g.grandmother who married Thomas Mudge, and as people name their children after family names, I think you are related.   I managed to look up this Brunel on the internet, and surprise, surprise his mother Sophia and our great grandmother were sisters!  So that makes this clever man about our 4th cousin!  Amazing. For those who have never heard of him, google the name.  He and his father certainly carried out some amazing engineering feats.  

The methods he used to build the bridge were amazing

We drove around some areas with magnificent stately homes, and could see the port in the distance.

I tried to photograph all the chimneys, apparently these were poor houses in past times.

Bristol is quite large, and without going on the tour bus, we would never have had the time to try to work out what was what.  From our planned route, we have now picked up a day, and that allows us extra time to do Cardiff the same way tomorrow.

By the time we got back to Bradford on Avon the sky was very threatening, so we walked around to take our photos.  This morning we saw a lovely sight on the river, and this afternoon everyone was out having a look.

Just born 5 cygnets, mum and dad

This egg didn't hatch

Bradford on Avon is a beautiful town, very old, and historic.  In the early days, it was the one place where the river could be protected from invaders, as there was a bend in the river.  The bridge dates from 1300's.

 

Dates from 1502

The recent floods were up over the bridge ahead

We live in one of the rows up the hill

Last night we ate at a pub The Dandy Lion and had a lot of trouble getting a park, and the very narrow streets.  The area was the market place in the past, and would you believe it, is called The Shambles, and it lives up to its name!

When sewerage was installed the toilets were often built onto the back of the house and called an Outhouse!

The Swan Hotel, guards the swans on the Avon

We then followed the road to try to take some photos of The White Horses.  How did this happen? hundreds of years ago, some enterprising young man decided to remove the grass on the chalk hills, and in doing so created the outline of a horse.  The tradition was kept, all the grass was removed and in all there are 7 white horses around the countryside.  This one is near a large cement works, and probably the reason it is now infilled with concrete.  If you want to take a photo, don't go up to the parking lot above it cause you will never see it from the Ironage site, rather we eventually found a little street called Church Lane, where we managed to shoot some photos.

And then it rained, so we were rather lucky to get what we could.  We are having a 3 course meal with our hosts tonight, looks like I miss out on my nightly Pimms!