9-15-2010

Wednesday I went to a farmer's market in St. Nicholas Square. Every week, people from the near by country side come and sell their fresh meats and cheese and other goods.

St. Nicholas Square is a bunch of markets and stalls, with some really unique stuff for sale.

I rode one of those hop-on hop-off bus tours of the city. The tour guide was a little hard to understand with the accent of the speaker, but it was still a lot of fun.

I mentioned earlier that Wallace and Grommit live here. The animation studio is here as well. This building is the studio where the cartoon is made, as well as Chicken Run.

If you look in the window, you can see Grommit.

This is a picture of the Clifton Suspension Bridge (in the distance) as well as the Avon Gorge. Back in the day, merchants would have to navigate the twisty river to get goods to Bristol.

This is a view to the north, I think. North west, maybe. You can see a big ship yard and the faint mountains in the distance is Wales.

This house was built by a rich wine merchant. He built the tower so he could watch for his ships coming up the Avon river.

This area is "The Downs" There are over 50 soccer fields here. The houses here are gorgeous. They were built by rich merchants. I totally want to live here.

One of the houses.

This is an academic hall that is now owned by the University of Bristol. I think it's now the music department. Charles Dickens gave lectures here.

This is the Hole in the Wall pub. Robert Lewis Stevenson, the guy who wrote Treasure Island stayed here and based the character of Long John Silver on the chef there.

Row homes in the city.

View of the city from the harbor area.

This is the Temple Meads Train Station. This is where Gavin takes the train to work everyday. It is the longest covered train station in the world.

The main entrance.

This is the leaning tower of Bristol. It was actually built leaning and when they were rebuilding the city after the WWII bombings, they wanted to tear it down because it was leaning. However, the citizens said not to because it had already been leaning for 500 years.

This is one of the student buildings for the University of Bristol. It was built in the 1970s and was voted the most ugly building in Bristol.

This is a square near the oldest original street in the city, Christmas Steps.

Gavin got to ride the bus on Friday, so some of the pictures are his. :)

9-14-2010

After Gavin's first day of work, I met him at the train station so we could go get some dinner together. We had asked some people where the best fish and chips were and they mentioned this little place near the Christmas Steps shopping area that we went to. They weren't the best, but it was an enjoyable dinner.

The next day, I went out wandering in Bristol. This is a street near Queen's Square.

Queen's Square.

A view of the harbour.

The giant mirrored ball in Millennium Square. You can see me taking the picture in it.

This is the Council House, which is the government center for the city.

The main entrance.

Each end of the building has a unicorn on top.

This is Bristol Cathedral. The Abbey here was built in the 1100's, but only ruins remain of that. The current Cathedral was built around the 1500's.

The ceiling. I wasn't really supposed to take pictures, but a sweet guide let me take a few to show my family. It reminded me a lot of the National Cathedral in DC.

I went to the Bristol Museum to get out of the rain. It was a lot of fun, but a little randomly put together.

They were doing an Egypt exhibit, where they had several different tombs on display.

This is a lure fish. Ugly thing, isn't he?

This was a sea monster that was pregnant. You can see the fetus by the big arrow at the bottom.

They had the first box plane in Bristol hanging in the main entrance.

This was a picture of Bristol drawn in 1717.

This was a Giant Irish Deer. It was about double my height. I wouldn't want to run into him in the wild.

Someone made a dinosaur of Bristol, including the suspension bridge.

Gypsy van.

This is china from China from the 1100s.

A bird of paradise.

A model of a dodo bird.

This is the Willis building at the University of Bristol. It was right next door to the museum.

Park Street. It's the "hip" shopping center in Bristol. Plus, there are a lot of clubs and bars here, although there are clubs and bars everywhere here. :)

A cute street right off of Park Street.

There is a street artist in Bristol named Bansky and his art is all over the city. This is one of his more famous pieces, minus the blue paint.

After meeting Gavin at the train station, we went to a pub for dinner. The fish and chips were much better this time.

Gavin's work is going well. We had a little mishap when one of his id cards got misplaced, but we found it. He might have left in it the computer at work... :)