On this wonderful treat of a trip I was a guest of Mercure Hotels UK and stayed at their lovely central Bristol hotel, the Mercure Bristol Grand.
Day two got off to an excellent start with a buffet breakfast. I can never resist a cooked breakfast but I have had so many incredibly sad cooked breakfasts in hotels over the years (cold beans, rubbery eggs, unripe tomatoes, ugh, so depressing). This was, however, the total opposite of a sad breakfast... a happy breakfast, I guess? Whatever. I would pretty much recommend this hotel based on this breakfast alone, it was well lush.
I also had tea and orange juice and fresh fruit and a really scrummy little pastry... and felt a little bit like I might burst from too much breakfast, but in a good way.
After breakfast, I checked out of my room and met up with the other bloggers on the trip ready for our tour of the city. The tour was led by Dan and Nina from Bristol-based blog Lifestyle District who had the difficult task of picking just a few Bristol highlights to share with us.
Regular readers will know that I used to live in Bristol (about 15 years ago) and now live just down the coast, popping to the city as often as possible on my days off... but there are huge chunks of the city I've not been to in what feels like forever, so I was really looking forward to seeing where Dan and Nina would take us.
We started at St Nicholas Market, just round the corner from the hotel. Even though we were all still full from breakfast, the gorgeous smells of the food stalls had our mouths watering!
Next we headed to Bristol's harbour...
... popping into M Shed (the museum of Bristol's history) to visit the viewing gallery on the top floor, where you get some fantastic views of the harbour, the city skyline and the harbourside cranes.
We passed Colston Hall where a special mural was being painted to celebrate the venue's 150th birthday. We all took photos of the graffiti artist, he took some photos of us in return, then we walked on up the road...
... down the famous Christmas Steps and on to the wonderfully decorated Nelson Street, where you'll find creative hub The Island based in a former police station.
... to see the obligatory Banksy (you can't come to Bristol and not see a Banksy, it's practically the law) and to pose for a group photo.
Then it was time to return to the hotel for Afternoon Tea - and lots of Instagram-ing, of course!
There was so much delicious cake! Scones and sandwiches too, of course (scones and cucumber sandwiches are an essential part of a fancy Afternoon Tea) but oh my goodness, the cake was so good.
I'm sure it will not remotely surprise you to learn that I ate a LOT of cake. As the event began winding down and people started bidding their farewells, I decided I'd better leave asap before I ate even more cake (theoretically I don't really believe in the concept of "too much" cake, but there really is only so much sugar I can eat before I begin vibrating like an oversized hummingbird) and headed homewards.
Huge thanks to the team at the Grand for the invite and hospitality, and to the guys at Lifestyle District for the tour!
Disclosure: as mentioned above, I was a guest of Mercure Hotels UK and received a free night at Mercure Bristol Grand and free meals during my stay, but this is not a sponsored post - I'm sure there are some lucky bloggers who get paid to blog about staying in lovely hotels but I am (sadly) not one of them. (A girl can dream though, right???)
Some of my favourite spots in Bristol and hat lovely weather! Saw your hotel was close to the beautiful tile-faced Everards Printing Works too!
ReplyDeleteThis all looks rather wonderful, especially the harbour and cakes. x
ReplyDeleteBristol is fascinating, so many lovely spots! That breakfast really looks ample, i think I could have it for dinner and feel full :) So glad for your great trip, did you make new friends there?
ReplyDeleteOh, all these beautiful pictures of Bristol and your hotel... Ever since I was learning English one of my biggest dreams is to spend a holiday in England. It must be so beautiful, it is nearly impossible for me to decide where to go in this incredible country. Everytime I read your travel posts I think 'Yeah, that's it!". Unfortunately two weeks are not enough to see all these places...
ReplyDeleteSue - ooh, yes, I love that building! So fabulous :)
ReplyDeleteKay - THE CAKE WAS SO GOOD, OMG.
bairozan - yes, it was lovely to connect with some new-to-me bloggers, and it's been really fun seeing what everyone has written on their blogs about our trip!
Katrin - thank you so much for this comment, it's lovely to hear you're enjoying my travel posts even if they are making your holiday planning more complicated xxx England is a VERY lovely place, I am sure I will never get to visit all the beautiful places here that I want to, and I live here!!