Friday 4th August
The drive from Cardiff to Bristol was only about 1 hour but we were glad it wasn’t raining. Our accommodation for the next 6 nights was in the suburb of Redlands which is just outside (a 30’ walk) of Bristol. I wasn’t able to find any suitable apartments in the city and this area, and surrounding Clifton, had been recommended. Clifton had been my first preference as it was purportedly a more trendy area and closer to the river but there weren’t any apartments that ticked enough of our criteria. I had sourced this apartment on AirBnB as it also had parking which was a huge bonus. The only downside being that it was set over 3 levels with a lot of stairs and that’s an issue with two large suitcases and a Dagwood Defy. There were external stairs to the front door, then stairs up to a kitchen, lounge and bathroom level with another flight of stairs up to the two bedrooms, each with en-suite bathroom. The rooms were all of a generous size and the living and bedroom areas were bright and with good air flow from lots of lovely large windows. The place could do with a bit of a deep clean though and some attention was needed with the outside appearance but it will be comfortable enough for our stay and we think, at this stage, it’s in a reasonable location.
We didn’t leave the apartment again until after 5 pm and walked four minutes down the road, just around the corner really, where we came upon a short stretch of road with a number of cafes, restaurants and a rather quaint little watering hole. The Good Measure wasn’t so much a pub but, rather, a converted end-of-terrace house and it was doing very brisk trade serving up a simple mix of a few craft / boutique beers and a few wines. That’s it, that’s all they served. This is one aspect of the UK that we’d love to have infiltrate back home. We didn’t stay there too long as we had a 6 pm booking for dinner just further along the road at Wilsons. For those of you at home the area is rather similar to our Glenayr Avenue. That’s the kind of ordinary suburban area we are talking about. The place we dined at, though, was a high end-style degustation restaurant that served up some of the finest food we have ever tasted. It was on par with the amazing degustation restaurant, Orana, that used to be down in Adelaide. The waitress told us that the chef has a mission to make fine food readily available to everyone on any budget which we thought was very noble and generous. This was the kind of restaurant that back home in Sydney you would be on a wait list for six months to get a table and it was a rather surreal experience as it was so unexpected. It was the most unassuming and unpretentious the little hole-in-the-wall restaurant serving up the most amazing food. Who would ever of thought of putting basil into their custard tart desert?
It was only around 7.30 pm by the time we left the restaurant so it was home for an early night, what a surprise, and a bit of Netflix.
Saturday 5th August
We have to give full points to the weather Gods for their consistency as we woke to another wet and overcast morning. We had thought this area might at least run to having some early-opening cafes but, no, 9 am seemed to be the earliest opening time which, for us, is quite an oxymoron! That’s equivalent to almost midday for us early risers!
We used the morning to do some washing, Brett please take note that this wasn’t attempted as soon as we arrived. Rain was forecast to last most of the day which upset our plans but we quickly adapted and decided to take the Hop On Hop Off bus so that we could at least get around and see some sights without getting too wet. There was a bus stop just a 10 minute walk up the road but we ended up waiting there for over an hour as the first Toot bus didn’t stop. Luckily for me there was a lot going on in this little corner of the world as the weekly Whiteladies Road Markets were on and the comings and goings provided some excellent people watching opportunity. The people and the cars here were definitely a step up in the world; the grunge clothing was much more stylish and I’d lost count of the number of Porches parked in driveways and around the streets. A Toot bus did eventually stop for us and we did two loops around the 14 stop circuit. I was surprised to see that there were so few stops and we were a little underwhelmed with what we saw in the city centre and near the Old Town Harbour front area. I’m not sure if the rubbish collectors were on strike but Bristol city was littered with filth. I had almost been tempted to choose an apartment in this city area and I was very thankful that some kind person, an a travel forum somewhere along the way, had advised me otherwise. We realized, after doing these two loops, that we were staying on the edge of the nicest area in Bristol and we were very thankful for that.
Our afternoon was spent back at the apartment and we didn’t venture out again until 5 pm when we headed back to the The Good Measure for Mark to have a beer and then on to a 5.30 pm booking for dinner at nearby Snobby’s. It was the only time we could get but the ‘inhumane hour’ suited us. They had mentioned it was like Italian tapas where dishes would come out as they were ready and they suggested we order 4 dishes. What they didn’t tell us is that all four would come at the same time. The food was tasty enough but, if you ever visit, I would order a couple of dishes then wait and order more or else you’ll be finished the evening in 30 minutes as we were. The early finish didn’t bother us though as we were keen to get back home to watch our current Netflix series: Liar.
Sunday 6th August
It was most pleasing to wake to sunshine so Mark made the most of this and went for a bike ride and I did some yoga. The forecast was for a mostly dry day so we thought we’d use this opportunity to take two self guided walking tours using Voice Map. The first was of Clifton, with a focus on architecture and the Clifton Suspension Bridge, and the second was of the Old City area.
The start of the Clifton walk was about 30 minutes away and we made a coffee stop for Mark along the way at Burra Cafe. It was an interesting walk through the neighborhood as we checked out the many beautiful Georgian homes and walked past the spectacular suspension bridge over the Avon Gorge but the photos below don’t really capture the depth of the gorge. We didn’t quite finish this tour as we wanted to use the Toot bus, our tickets were still valid today, as transport to get down to the Old City area so we finished up near a suitable Toot bus stop.
Our afternoon walk around the Old City was interesting and my query about why there wasn’t a Castle in Bristol was answered. Apparently there had been a Bristol Castle but it was destroyed by Oliver Cromwell and we saw the one small remaining section of wall along our walk. The main other thing that stood out for both of us along this afternoon walk though was the dirt and filth strewn throughout the city; bins overflowing and rubbish and cigarette butts littered the streets and it was really rather depressing. The City Council really need to enact a dedicated clean-up education program as this aspect of the city was most off-putting. It’s at this point I should add that this is one of the reasons we have decided to cut our stay in Bristol short by one day. There are more activities that we had planned for Bristol but we don’t really want to complete these now. We are going to head to Bath for the day and have an overnight there on Wednesday before our last night staying at Heathrow airport on Thursday night. We head to Paris, France very early on Friday morning before picking up a car and driving up to Lille.
We headed back to our apartment around 3 pm as we had either a late lunch or early dinner booking, take your pick, for 4.30 pm at a local pub, The Kensington Arms, that had come with rave reviews. It was a lovely early dinner and is a pub we’d recommend. It was another early night but we were a bit tired after our day walking 11 km and we had a full day planned tomorrow with a visit to the Cotswolds.
