Bristol

We arrived safely in London this morning... we scored upgrades to business class, which made an enormous difference in how much and how well we slept, and therefore how jetlagged we are now. So that was very nice.

On arrival we took the Heathrow Express to Paddington Station, where we were to catch our train to Bristol. Everything went so much more smoothly than we'd feared (Heathrow can be a mess), and we ended up with over an hour to kill at Paddington. Fortunately it was lunch time.

We went to a Fuller's Pub in the station, where we each had a pint (ESB for Eric, and a blonde called "Discovery" for me) and a sandwich (we shared two: cheddar with chutney, and sausage with pickled cabbage). It was all quite good. I confess I've been afraid of English food — people complain about it so much — but this was just good, basic pub food.

We got on the train for Bristol, and rolled all the way across southern England. From what I saw, the countryside was beautiful, but we were both asleep most of the time. (One reason we decided to go directly to Bristol after London was so we'd have a train trip where we could sleep.)

Bristol is a nice town. It has a good vibe. I like visiting cities that feel like people live there. Bristol is not touristy, but there are people everywhere. Much of it is new, since a lot was flattened in the war, but the new architecture is pretty nice, and there's enough old architecture to maintain interest.

It's also quite hilly. One of the things we did was to climb up to Cabot's Tower, which is in a park atop the tallest hill, overlooking all of Bristol. When we got to the top I couldn't believe we'd climbed so far up — it hadn't seemed like that much. The tower itself was closed for renovations, but you can see plenty from the park.

For dinner we went to the Hole in the Wall, which is a pub off Queen's Square, in the old city and near the harbor and which is reputed to be the model for the "Spyglass Inn" (or something?) in Robert Louis Stevenson' Treasure Island. That's not why we went, though; we went because I'd heard the food was good. It's a creative take on traditional pub food. The inside is homey — mismatched furniture, etc. The food was good. We started with a chicken liver patê served with toast and rowanberry and apple jelly, which was very good. Then I had a pork, apple, and wild boar sausage with caramelized onion mashed potatoes (basically a fancy bangers-and-mash), and Eric had the pot pie of the day, which was beef and vegetable. These weren't as good as the appetizer, but they were still good. The beer selection was not as good a this place — mostly mass-market beers. I had a Stella Artois and Eric had a bitter called something like Timothy Thompson's.

Now we are back in our hotel, and ready for bed.

Incidentally, I don't expect to post every day like this. We didn't bring the laptop. However, this hotel, surprisingly, comes with a computer in the room (The City Inn Bristol — nice place!), and so I'm taking advantage of it.

Tomorrow: Cardiff!

Labels: england, journal, united kingdom

posted by Tony at 9:50 PM