Saturday, July 12, 2014

Bristol, England


With this post, Folks, we're at the end of our England trip this past May, except that I'm dividing it into two separate posts.  YAY.  I bet you thought I'd never finish.

This all happened on a Saturday, the day before we flew back to the Netherlands.  And instead of driving, Chris and Lisl decided it best for us to go by train.

So, we left from Bath Spa and arrived in Bristol about 15 minutes later.  A no-brainer.
Straightaway from the train station we went to the St. Mary Redcliffe parish church (next post).

And then we walked to the harbor on the River Avon.

We could even see Cabot Tower from there (bottom-center).

 Don't forget the English narrowboats, of course.  I'm in love with them.

But the huge plus of the day was seeing the MATTHEW ship,
a replica of the sailing ship used by John Cabot in 1497 to sail from Bristol to North America.
In fact, today Lisl and Michael are actually sailing on her for a little tour.  How cool is that!

 There was so much to see down at the harbor.  Yup, we were short of eyes!

 After all that, we were so ready for a bacon buttie, something the English can never live down...
not as long as Astrid and I are in the picture.

 With tummies full, we started off again, on a mission...

...past all those colored houses, through the woods, to the bridge in the distance (top-center).

It's the Clifton Suspension Bridge from 1864, spanning the Avon gorge and River Avon.

Can you believe my little camera picked out this guy from 1100mm away!
He's crazy!  I don't think he had a clue what to do next.

Then it was tea time.  You know those English.  Ha!
I loved the wee family sitting right outside my window.

On our way past where the medieval church of St. Andrew was bombed during WWII,
but where the church graveyard still exists, is what's called the Birdcage Walk.

Then into the hub of the city past the Wills Memorial Building,
a landmark building of the University of Bristol, from 1915.

In that vicinity we saw a true Banksy painting and found out he was born in Bristol.
The Well-Hung Lover (top-center and right-bottom) is on Frogmore Street.

Impressions.  Impressions.  Impressions.

This is what we love about these walks.  Impressions.

How things are made!

The weathervanes were some of the most intricate and 3D-ish I've ever seen.

And the flowers all along the way....this year I couldn't get enough of them.

One last post remains of the England trip:  the St.Mary Redcliffe parish church.

14 comments:

  1. Wow! So much here! The colors are so electric and that Banksy painting is GREAT! Thanks always for sharing your adventures!

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    1. Thank YOU, Robin, fo always stopping by and commenting. That means a lot to me, you know. Finding a real Banksy was a huge treat, of course. :)

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  2. My I am exhausted...you are on the go, go, go to see it all in one day...I need to get back my traveling legs again...and what is a bacon buttie...I love bacon and it seems I would love this!

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    1. Whenever we visit our friends in England, Donna, we are almost all the time on the go, trying to cram in as much as possible. The thing is, they know what we love to see, and we hate to not see it all. But we have to keep going back, because we're just scratching the surface.

      A bacon buttie is made with Canadian bacon and is an English delicacy! HA! It's an entire meal that could just about last the entire day. HA!

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  3. It is amazing what we saw on the day in Bristol. The weather was with us. The food was good and company even better (grin) The weather vanes of the boat are something else. Somebody did a great job making them.
    Wonderful collages and a wonderful overview of that great day. Thank you as always. IHVJ.

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    1. It just gets better and better every year, deoesn't it, MLMA! We are so lucky!!! And I'm extra lucky to have YOU as my Partner in Crime. :)

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  4. I was just about to ask what a bacon buttie was, and here I see that Donna has asked too! Donna, we must be in the dark about some of the good things in life....Well, i am knocked out by the primary colors of the flatboats and all the houses in the area of the harbor. Such magnificent colors and what a day you had to be out there. I love this traveling via your eyes Ginnie.

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    1. When you live in Europe, Susie, as you already know, it's a sin to not travel from one country to another. Everything is so close by. Add the blogger friends that have become some of your dearest, and you have a magical combination. We go to visit them and they come to visit us. What a gift!

      And as I told Donna, a bacon buttie is made with Canadian bacon and is an English delicacy! HA! It's an entire meal that could just about last the entire day. HA!

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  5. the colorful houses by the harbour are such a delight to see.

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    1. I could have spent an entire post on those houses alone, Maria, if we had taken time to go visit them. But seeing them from afar was such a treat! Thank you.

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  6. Ah, chimney pots and weathervanes!!! Bet you didn’t know we live not far from Bristol, CT, also an old industrial town. Hmmm. Not quite so old.

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    1. No, I didn't know that, Ted. But now that I know John Cabot and his Matthew ship sailed to North America from Bristol, England, it makes sense there'd be a Bristol there where you live. WOW. The history we learn about from our travels. I love it.

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  7. Congratulation on having written about your trip in May and for showing such glorious pictures. I have not even started downloading my photos from our trip in May … and my blog was on pause for 2 months! It looks like you had great weather, at least in this post. I’ll come back to slowly look at all the others. We had rain pretty much all the time while in Paris, but almost got a sun burn in St Petersburg, Russia ! I had good intentions about talking about the trip but this is the 150th anniversary of the Civil War right here in our area – commemorations almost every week or more … and I don’t think I’ll be here for the next commemoration, the 200th anniversary … I love the variety of your pictures – all good too.

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    1. It always takes time to recount our trips, Vagaconde, so I totally know. I really work hard to stay on top of ours, so they don't go into a Black Hole somewhere. Thankfully I have only one more post to do from England and then I'll move on to other things we've been doing since May. It's already mid-July.

      I'll go check out your blog now!

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