The weather was completely different today, sweltering hot in Bristol though I have been assured that it rained at home until mid-day. I got to the train station in plenty of time unlike my last trip where I flew onto the train with seconds to spare and had to collect my pre-booked ticket from the the ticket office in Exeter. The only down side was that I couldn't find my MP4 player, the sole purpose of which is to provide me with audio books to listen to on long journeys, (Sam, I think I left it at your place). Instead I took a book and read the whole book during today's travelling.
Once I got to Bristol I took the bus to the Cathedral and treated myself to lunch in the little garden by the refectory. I had the hot dish of the day - vegetable curry, low fat and very healthy and the best chocolate brownie I've ever had, obviously home baked not just bought in. On the down side the coffee was horrible. It was nice to eat outside despite the flying ants that were around. The warm weather had probably brought them out.
The green outside the cathedral was the site of a 'play day' and was filling up with hundreds of kids ready to try out the activities that were being set up. They certainly had the right weather. I had a tourist map of the area and saw that instead of going up the main road I could walk through Brandon Park on my way up to the laser clinic. This was a small semi-wild park on a steep hill with its own tower at the top.
Once I puffed my way up the hill there were some magnificent views over Bristol and out to the hills beyond.
There were plenty of squirrels in the park which were pretty tame. Shortly after taking this picture I was walking along a path through some tree and from about 40ft away a squirrel saw me and ran straight down the path towards me. It was so fast that I couldn't focus the camera on it and after stopping briefly to check if I had any food it went on down the path up to a mum and her little girl who were thrilled to have the squirrel come right up to them.
Later by the clinic I took this picture of a blackbird. Looking at the yellow on its beak it is probably a juvenile rather than a female. Everything is fine with my eyes. My left eye still feels slightly gritty, just the feeling I used to get at the end of the day when I was wearing contact lenses, and although vision in both eyes is 20/20 the left is not as good as the right. This is apparently normal and should settle completely by my next appointment in a month's time.
I found this steep little street called The Christmas Steps which was 'stepped , done and finished in Septmber 1669', goodness knows what it must have been like before.
Once down in Broadmead , the pedestrianised shopping streets, I found a little gem - John Wesley's Chapel. I should have taken a wider shot as the archway sit between high street stores in a totally modern setting.
I had to have a look inside, downstairs there was the meeting room which is still used as a place of worship.
John Wesley preached to congregations in this very room from the higher of the 2 pulpits, the lower one was for bible readings. A balcony runs around 3 sides of the room. There are no windows in the walls of the chapel (for fear of stone throwers) but the room is lit by a central lantern roof light. You can go upstairs to a warren of little rooms where John Wesley stayed. They have been made into an informative museum with letters and note books written by John Wesley as well as books, furniture and clothing that he used. I got too engrossed in reading the information to take more photos which was a bit silly.
The green outside the cathedral was the site of a 'play day' and was filling up with hundreds of kids ready to try out the activities that were being set up. They certainly had the right weather. I had a tourist map of the area and saw that instead of going up the main road I could walk through Brandon Park on my way up to the laser clinic. This was a small semi-wild park on a steep hill with its own tower at the top.
Once I puffed my way up the hill there were some magnificent views over Bristol and out to the hills beyond.
There were plenty of squirrels in the park which were pretty tame. Shortly after taking this picture I was walking along a path through some tree and from about 40ft away a squirrel saw me and ran straight down the path towards me. It was so fast that I couldn't focus the camera on it and after stopping briefly to check if I had any food it went on down the path up to a mum and her little girl who were thrilled to have the squirrel come right up to them.Later by the clinic I took this picture of a blackbird. Looking at the yellow on its beak it is probably a juvenile rather than a female. Everything is fine with my eyes. My left eye still feels slightly gritty, just the feeling I used to get at the end of the day when I was wearing contact lenses, and although vision in both eyes is 20/20 the left is not as good as the right. This is apparently normal and should settle completely by my next appointment in a month's time.I had planned to go to the museum to see the Banksy exhibition but the queueing time was 2 1/2 - 3 hrs so I decided to give that a miss. Instead I strolled down to the main shopping area by a new route to look at some of Bristol's architecture.
I found this steep little street called The Christmas Steps which was 'stepped , done and finished in Septmber 1669', goodness knows what it must have been like before.
Once down in Broadmead , the pedestrianised shopping streets, I found a little gem - John Wesley's Chapel. I should have taken a wider shot as the archway sit between high street stores in a totally modern setting.
I had to have a look inside, downstairs there was the meeting room which is still used as a place of worship.
John Wesley preached to congregations in this very room from the higher of the 2 pulpits, the lower one was for bible readings. A balcony runs around 3 sides of the room. There are no windows in the walls of the chapel (for fear of stone throwers) but the room is lit by a central lantern roof light. You can go upstairs to a warren of little rooms where John Wesley stayed. They have been made into an informative museum with letters and note books written by John Wesley as well as books, furniture and clothing that he used. I got too engrossed in reading the information to take more photos which was a bit silly.After this peaceful interlude I checked out some of the shops but managed to avoid buying anything even in the lovely Indian emporium which specialises in cheap jewellery. Finally a bus back to the station, 2 trains home and I arrived just in time for a barbecue. After we did the washing up Romas re-kindled the barbecue coals and put some wood on (no gas fired gizmos for us, wood and charcoal only), and we toasted some marshmallows.
A view of Bristol from the train station showing the houses climbing up the hills.
A view of Bristol from the train station showing the houses climbing up the hills.
