Back to Bristol in the rain...

On Friday we packed up and went back to Mark & Paula’s.  Nick had suggested a different public transport route back that avoided the city centre and saved us a few pounds.  When we arrived at Mark’s place, Callum & Caitlin were there preparing for their flight back to NZ.  Callum is Paula’s cousin and who we bought the car from.  They seemed to be pretty much sorted as they headed off to the airport.  Because the weather was such rubbish, we decided to get on the road not long after lunch and get to Bristol.  With the meetings on Thursday, unfortunately we weren’t able to get back to Bristol before Tony & Ingrid went to Germany for 2 weeks.  We made it safely to Bristol, although it was a long trip as traffic on a Friday afternoon anywhere around this country seems to be fraught. 

As it was late, we thought that we’d grab dinner at pub that is just around the corner from Tony & Ingrid’s.  The local pubs in England can be quite weird.  On entering this pub, there was a group of a dozen or so guys who had obviously come from work.  That is normal enough.  However, on asking whether we could get some dinner we were informed that we probably could if we could find a table that wasn’t set.  The landlady had set tables for those that had booked.  It really seemed that anyone who was not a local wasn’t really that welcome.  We ate and left – the food was ok though.  We wouldn’t go back there again.

Swans snoozing on the canal

Saturday got off to a slow start as when we woke we turned on the computer and listened to the Radio Sport commentary from NZ on the All Blacks v Ireland rugby test.  Having the ABs carry on from last year was a good start to the day, and having Wellington lad Julian Savea score a hat-trick on debut made it even better.  We then headed into town to go for a wander around the harbour area.  We had found a walk that looked nice in one of Tony & Ingrid’s books.  The walk was very enjoyable and made great use of the sunshine that we haven’t seen for a while.  We popped into a bar on the waterfront that was showing the women’s final from the French Open.  Watching Sharapova take the title was a pleasant way to break up our wanderings.  We had been watching the tennis with Nick & Fleur and it was good to get to see the first final.

Where Kate would eat in Bristol

Sunday was back to rainy drizzle and so we just hung around home.  We ventured out at about 2pm to go to one of the local pubs (and not the one from Friday night) to watch the Men’s tennis final.  That was quite enjoyable, with the staff and locals being a lot friendlier at this establishment.  The final got rained out though, which was probably quite good as Siobhan seemed to be getting quite restless, and I’d probably had enough beers for the afternoon anyway.  When we got home, Siobhan made a yummy red onion and feta tart for dinner.

We decided that Monday was going to be another quiet day too, as it was still raining.  We went into town for midday so that we could see the end of the Nadal v Djokovic match.  As I had wanted to see Federer win, I wasn’t really sure who I wanted to win.  In the end, it was pretty satisfying watching Nadal take a record seventh title.  You get the feeling that Djokovic will do the slam at some stage in his career – he is such a tenacious player.  After that we wandered around again.  We decided to go to the movies – the only thing that really grabbed our attention was The Angel’s Share.  It wasn’t on until 5.40pm so we got some lunch and went exploring in the rain.   

We found the St Mary Redcliffe church. Given that Bristol already has a cathedral, it is certainly blessed having both of these structures. St Mary’s was just as beautiful, if perhaps not quite as grand. Some of it dates back to Norman times – it was amazing.

We still had some time to kill so we grabbed a newspaper and took shelter from the rain – you guessed it – in a pub.  It started out as a very pleasant and quiet pursuit, but the pub started to fill up and get more raucous.  The reason for this was England’s first match in Euro 2012.  And it was against France, who seem to be the old foe, like NZ v Australia.  Some people asked if they could join us at our table, and it was cool to find out that one of them had just returned from 8 months in Wellington.  He had played cricket for the University club on Kelburn park.  Small world alright.  We had to leave part way through the first half which resulted in plenty of jostling for our seats.  We made it safely out of the pub though and off to the movies.  The film was quite enjoyable – set in Scotland so while it is in English, there are still bits that you can’t understand what they’re saying.  A good story and a warm place away from the rain.