A mighty fine weekend in Bristol

We received a lovely welcome again from Tony & Ingrid on arriving in Bristol late Thursday afternoon.  It has been so hot here.  Into the mid-twenties each day from Thursday to Sunday.  We could carry on about how it has been just about too warm here, but no one would appreciate that.

On Friday Tony & Ingrid left for their trip to North Wales and we set off with a few errands to run.  We needed to get new front tyres for the car, and also to do some grocery shopping.  Both of these missions were accomplished pretty successfully, although it was amazing how the whole afternoon evaporated in the process.

On Saturday, Tony & Ingrid had recommended that we visit Leigh Woods.  It is another National Trust site and sounded like a nice change.  Having googled it and found that it would take only an hour or so to walk there, we packed a picnic lunch and hit the roads.  It was a nice walk, with the majority of it spent wandering through the downs.  For those unfamiliar, these are vast park like spaces with a few trees and then wide open spaces.  For a country with a population like it has it is incredible that these spaces have been preserved as such.  In New Zealand you get the feeling that somehow a developer would have wangled their way into acquiring these and they would be covered in townhouses.

Anyway, because we are slightly directionally challenged, we stumbled upon the Clifton Observatory.  As with most things we seem to have done, this was a stroke of luck.  From beside it we had a wonderful view of the Clifton suspension bridge, and it also had a camera obscura and a tunnel leading to the St Vincent cave.  The camera obscura projects a view of the surrounding countryside onto a big bowl shaped thingy inside a dark room.  It says that it works best on a sunny day and so we experienced it at its best.  It is right at the top of the observatory and so it was incredibly hot in the little room.  The views were quite cool.  A lesser person would have kept the focus on all of the young women sunbathing on the surrounding lawns, but luckily Siobhan is not that person.

After that excitement, we proceeded downstairs and then further downstairs until we were heading down into the cave.  If England was like NZ and prone to earthquakes we might not have been so keen to go down into the cave.  It was steep and the space was a bit small – you had to crouch down to get through it.  Anyway, once we reached the bottom we had a great view of the Avon gorge and the Clifton suspension bridge.  It was designed by Isambard Brunel.  For those of you following the blogs (and paying attention), you may recognise this name as the guy who also designed the SS Great Britain that we visited last time we were in Bristol.  Mr Brunel not only had a knack for designing things, he also had a knack for tricking people into making them.

The bridge is pretty cool.  It is a toll bridge for cars, but pedestrians can wander across for free.  So we did. 

The Clifton Observatory and the St Vincent cave (bottom left)

Once across, it was only a short walk until we were in Leigh Woods.  These woods are very picturesque.  They are very different to NZ woods as in NZ we would have a lot more undergrowth.  More ferns and manuka etc.  Over here the big trees tend to shade out everything below with the only things having much chance of surviving being the bluebells, blackberry and nettles.  Once again though, we were hardly out of the city at all and there is a lovely wooded area that you can stroll around for an hour or more.   

We stopped and had our picnic lunch and then having explored Leigh Woods headed home.  By the time we made it back to Saturday Cottage, we had been out walking for over 5 hours.  While thought that we had done pretty well, we both realised that we are a long way from the fitness that we will need to do the Wainwright’s coast to coast in England or the Santiago de Compostela in Spain.  Still, I’m sure that if we really wanted to do those things we’d have to start by getting out of bed before 9am.  Baby steps.

Throughout the course of Saturday, Siobhan had been texting Troy, a family friend from NZ.  Troy works as head chef at The Bear, a pub in Bath.  He suggested that we go over there on Sunday for lunch as he would be cooking.  He posted pictures of Yorkshire puddings and new season’s carrots on Facebook that sealed the deal.  We headed over to Bath on Sunday morning and went exploring.  It was surprising how much of it felt familiar from the one day that we had spent in Bath in 2006 for Siobhan’s Grandmother’s 100^th birthday.  We wandered around the shops and picked up a brochure for the spa baths for when we will return.  But we’ll make it a weekday as opposed to weekend, and we’ll also choose a day where it is not in the mid to high twenties.

We were supposed to be at The Bear for lunch at 2.30pm, and so we decided to go for a walk along the canals.  This was slightly cooler temperature-wise, and majorly cooler in terms of watching the narrow boats navigate the various locks on the canals.  According to the people on the boats opening and closing the locks, there are six locks leading into Bristol and it takes about 2 hours to get through them all.  But that is if everything goes smoothly.  It was utterly fascinating, and we now have more confidence that we could manage all of that when and if we get to Siobhan’s parents’ narrow boat, Foxglove, which is somewhere in the Norfolk Broads.

Anyway, we made it to The Bear.  Troy cooked us a superb lunch.  We ate too much.  But it was a roast dinner and it was really yummy.  We think that you’re allowed to eat too much then.  After lunch, Troy finished his shift and so we had a couple of beers with him before heading back to Bristol.  All in all, a mighty fine weekend in Bristol.

Tasting notes:

At Tony & Ingrid's I have had a Hole Hearted from the Oakleaf Brewery in Gosport.  It was a nice ale. Nothing too sophisticated, just good solid ale goodness.  But with a definite hop flavour - some of the real ales have been lacking the flavour of this one.  I also had a Batch 9 black lager.  It didn't taste like a lager to me.  It was a lot thicker than some of the porters I have had on this trip.  It was full of malty goodness.  I liked it.  This beer is contract brewed for Batch Brew by the Oakleaf Brewery.  I also had a Black As Yer ‘At by the good people at Glastonbury brewery.  This was a nice stout with good texture and flavour.  Of course, I’d be lying if I didn’t also admit to having had a Meantime Chocolate Porter.  Mmmmm…chocolately goodness.  This is one beer I won’t tire of easily.

With Troy I had to try the local Bath real ales.  My favourite was the Gem ale from Bath Ales.  It was quite hoppy, but also quite malty.  The other one I tried was the original Butcombe Bitter from Butcombe ales.  Not so impressed with this. More of that real ale with no point of difference to me.