A Trip to Bristol - St Mary Redcliffe, the Harbour & Park Street

I've been quite busy lately, working towards some deadlines. Sadly this has meant not only postponing some of my planned Nice Days Out (because they can wait & the deadlines can't) but also falling behind with blogging about the days out I have had! Ah well.

Right at the start of March I spent the weekend in Bristol. I studied English at Bristol University many moons ago, completely fell in love with the city during my 5 years living there and was very sad when I had to move away. I still miss it and don't get back to visit nearly as often as I'd like!

Booking train tickets in advance you never know what the lottery that is the British weather is going to give you, but when my train arrived on Saturday morning it was lovely and sunny. So I did what I usually do when it's unexpectedly sunny: abandoned my pre-made plans and went for a walk instead.

Walking from the station I happened to pass St. Mary Redcliffe so I went in for a quick look...

... which turned into quite a long visit, with much oohing and aaahing at how gorgeous the building is. It's a beautiful gothic church, like a mini cathedral, with a highly detailed interior and exterior and a stunning vaulted ceiling bedecked with gilded bosses.

It was interesting to read a bit about the history of the building (and to learn more from the friendly steward on duty) and just to enjoy the peaceful space and admire the incredible craftsmanship that went into constructing it.

 

Then I carried on my walk, strolling over the bridge...

 

.. and through smart Queen Square...

 

... to the floating harbour. I wandered around the harbourside for a while, looking at all the boats...

 

 

... (including the replica of The Matthew) and the industrial bits and pieces like the cranes and railway...

 

... then I decided that after all this walking about it was high time I had a cup of tea!

I had a cuppa and a tasty cake in the cafe at MShed which is a quite recently-opened "museum of Bristol", telling the story of the city and its people. I only had time for a quick look around one of the galleries here and was rather sad to miss the interesting-sounding behind-the-scenes tour that was running that day, but will definitely be back for a longer visit another time.  

 

This time round though I had an appointment to keep...

... so I walked along the waterfront....

... to Park Street...

 

... stopping for a quick look round the rather lovely Lord Mayor's Chapel, then walking up the hill (past a group of tourists having their photos taken next to the Banksy)...

... to the Bristol City Museum & Art Gallery. I had lunch and a lovely catch-up chat with an old Uni friend and his wife, then wandered round the galleries until closing time.

There's a huge mix of stuff to see, from Egyptian and Assyrian art to British ceramics, from dinosaur fossils to jewellery, from gemstones and minerals to Victorian paintings. The Museum was one of my very favourite haunts when I was a student (it was perfeclty situated for quick visits between and after lectures!) so it was great to revisit some much-beloved paintings, objects and exhibits.

Finally, I headed to the Victoria Rooms (which you may have glimpsed on the recent series of Sherlock) to meet my crafty chum Lisa who was kindly letting me kip on her sofa! for the night :)

I'll blog about the second part of my weekend sometime soon (deadlines permitting!).