Out for a Stroll in Bristol, England
Earlier this year I heard some rumblings about possibly going to England again for work. As it turns out, I ended up with a three week assignment there with one week in Bristol, and two weeks in London. I’d been London before several times but Bristol was definitely somewhere new.
Bristol is located about 90 minutes west of London. Like many places in England, the fastest way to get there was to hop on a train from good ole Paddington Station. Having just got off red eye flight an hour earlier, I chose to sleep until I hit the last stop which was my destination.
I got off the train, fired up Google Maps to see how far my hotel was from the train station and was pleasantly surprised to see it was only about a 7 minute walk away. I grabbed my luggage and made my way to the Hilton Garden Inn, checked in, had a little rest, then headed out to find where my client was. I always make a point of going directly to my client’s location the day/night before I am supposed to be there. It reduces a lot of the confusion about where I am going and prevents me from being late.
Within a matter of minute, I was crossing over the Temple Bridge and immediately noticed the view. I stood looking at the water and the view and dug out my phone and took a photo. During my evening excursion the following night, I’d continue to admire the view out over the water from various points around the city. But for now I am kept on trucking.
Shortly after the bridge I turned down a street towards my client and spotted St Phillip & St Jacob Church. When it comes to England, there is never a shortage of old, Gothic looking churches. Churches seem to seep out of every corner of England no matter what part you go to. Although I am not a religious man, every time I go by one of these I am always captivated by the intricacies of the stonework and the steeples. I find myself standing there staring at them and taking a handful of pictures knowing full well that a year from now I probably won’t remember the name of it or maybe even where it was, but just that it looked really cool.
Just around the corner I found my client and opted to head back to the hotel. I made a stop at Subway for my supper and then cut through a park just behind the hotel. I was done for the night.
During class the following day I asked my students if they had any suggestions of things to see in town. The mentioned a shopping district as well as a park nearby and that I should go check out the dock area. Normally after my first day of class I’m beat and don’t have enough energy to go anywhere. But I wanted to force myself to try and see some of the sights so when class was finished, I went back to the hotel, changed, and out I went.
My intention was to try and find some comfort food in the shopping district. Google said I should travel via Victoria St so I cut through the Temple Gardens park again but this time I paused in the park as I circled around. Temple Gardens sits beside Temple Church which is a shell of a 12th century church that survived a WWII bombing on a former Knights Templar site. When you walk around to the front of the building it was fenced off partially but what I found more fascinating was the fact that you could clearly see the church was actually slanted as the bottom part of the building was tilted. The photographs I took don’t really show it but it definitely had a skew to it. For the rest of the week, I made a point of coming through that same park back to my hotel just so I could see the church each time.
I made my way down Victoria St, crossing the Bristol Bridge and started to see what felt more familiar. If you spend enough time in England, you start to get used to seeing these long narrow streets, line by old buildings that have been there for who knows long. There’s no other way to describe it other than that it just “feels” English to me. For me, London sort of set the stage for what to expect in other parts of the country and every time I visit another part of England, I can see the similarities everywhere.
I eventually made it to Cabot Circus which despite it’s name didn’t have any clowns. I’ve seen the word “circus” used many times in parts of England to refer to a round area or “circle”. Oxford Circus, Piccadilly Circus, and here in Bristol it was Cabot Circus.
This spot was essentially an outdoor mall. Modern day shops were all to be seen for the entire area that I walked in. Despite the fact that it’s a shopping district in another country, it still suffers from the same thing that all “malls” have: an endless array of clothing stores. Sure, I saw the odd shop here and there but for the most part, it was all clothes. I did spot a movie theater as I got closer to one end of the district, but by far the greatest site for me was spotting a little burger joint out of the corner of my eye.
A couple of years ago I had a work trip to NYC and somehow stumbled upon a restaurant 5 Guys. I went in and discovered what I consider to be the best burgers and fries anywhere. I have seen these restaurants in several spots in the eastern United States and have been back several times. But I never expected to see them in Bristol, England of all places. I immediately darted over, walked inside and found myself in the same restaurant I had been in countless times in other cities. I found my comfort food I needed that night.
After inhaling my food, I was going to turn around and head back to the hotel as I was getting a bit tired, but then I opened up my geocaching app on my phone. There was a Wherigo geocache in the big park behind me. Wherigo caches are usually little mini-games you can play on your device which eventually lead you to a physical container to find. In this case, the Wherigo cache was actually a full tour of Castle Park which houses the ruins of St. Peter’s Church as well as several other cool memorial items in the area. I don’t do a lot of Wherigo caches mainly because I’m too lazy to bother. But I had the time and wanted to see the park, so I fired up the app on my phone and went exploring.
I spent probably close to an hour in the park and thoroughly enjoyed getting to see it all. I went from one end to another looking for answers to trivia questions on the app from stones, plaques, and monuments scattered throughout the park area. I was more focused on simply answering the questions in the app than paying much attention to the history and trivia itself but that didn’t take away the enjoyment of seeing everything around.
Again, after walking all around the park, I contemplated returning to my hotel but my curious nature won out and I opted to explore some more. All cards on the table, I knew that if I didn’t go explore a bit more that night, the odds would be pretty slim that I’d bother going anywhere the rest of the week. I set my sights on trying to find the Freemason Hall and anything else that might pop up along the way.
I came out of the west end of the park and followed Baldwin Street to the Broad Quay and took a couple of photos of the area including a theatre called the Hippodome. As I turned towards the water, I started to hear music so I followed it until I spotted a couple of street performers. At first I thought it was just your typical buskers, but when I read the signs on the post, it said “Free Glitter” and a young blonde woman and a large afro’d guy were dancing around and painting glitter on various strangers. I took a seat and watched for awhile and from what I could tell, it was really just a couple of hippies doing their best to spread love and happiness anyone around that wanted it. I smiled, took a photo and then headed up towards city hall.
Strolling uphill, I spotted yet another wicked church building and had to turn and check it out. This time it was the Bristol Cathedral which is just across from College Green and
the City Council. Despite the fact that a lot of these old churches and cathedrals look the same, they always fascinate me. I found myself yet again staring at it, taking photos and wondering about it’s history.
I started going up the hill towards the museum and art gallery but took a look at the time and decided I was getting tired and needed to call it a night. I turned back around, went back to see the hippies for a few minutes, then made a b-line for the hotel. The rest of that week my only excursions consisted of visiting the Tesco Express a few streets down for groceries and my return trip to the train station to head into London.
Traveler Tip: When taking the train in England, be aware that some of the train cars have reserved seats. Unless you buy a ticket with a reserved seat, you need to be in an unreserved car. E & F seem to be the most common cars for unreserved seats.
Having visited several other cities in England, I found Bristol to be pretty comparable to places like Liverpool, and Plymouth. Nice parks, nice people, usually a decent view of the local river. But all in all nothing that jumps out as a “must visit” place. For me, I’ll remember Bristol as a city where I did a really nice Wherigo cache in the city park along with watching free-spirited muses painting strangers faces with glitter. All in all, not a bad place to go.
Bristol Photos: Facebook Page Photo Album
Notable Geocaches: GC664QM