Lots of photos & info of Bristol & Bath on this blog everyone.

Departing Dublin … With just a tiny sleep I’m up at 3.20am (no brekky at my beloved Mosso buffet located on the ground floor of The Travelodge PLUS Hotel) to walk over the River Liffey in the dark to the Custom House bus stop (800m) for the Dublin Express to Dublin T2 (€10, booked online for 4.05am) for 06.35am – 07.55 BA (British Airways) on Aer Lingus flight to Bristol Airport, UK (1.5hrs). There are quite a few travellers here so I’m hoping I can be able to board on time. Many thanks to Kevin, my pub guide yesterday for sorting out the best bus stop to get. Luckily, there were just 2seats available on this 1st bus & just enough room for me, albeit I was crammed in. Of course, the usual stuff happened at the airport, but I bought Dave & Sue (my wonderful friends who my eldest son, Scott & I met doing the Machu Picchu Trek back in 2019, see 1st photo) some alcohol gifts they love in Duty Free for I’ll be staying at their lovely home for the next few days. The British Pound does no favours with our weak AUD. The usual of late transpired, where we walked down the air bridge into a bus again which took us all over the place. Finally, we were let out & everyone was scrambling for the rear door only entrance up the stairs. These prop plane flights have minimal overhead space so looking at the large carry on of some travellers confirms the mad scramble. I had a go at a couple of people ‘cos waiting on the tarmac in blustering freezing wind from a prop plane for some 10mins wasn’t good for the young lady with a 3month old baby placed over her chest. People had no empathy at all until I came along. Didn’t give a shit for those pretentious arseholes & the lady was inside the plane much quicker. She was so thankful & I’d say the baby was too.

It was a pleasant flight (1hr 20mins) & all went extremely well getting through Immigration, etc at Bristol Airport. I already registered & paid the British ETA Tax of £16 arranged in April this year which is now mandatory to enter England. I textd Dave to confirm I was at the pickup point, but he got me on his 2^nd attempt due to the ongoing changes at Bristol Airport. It was fantastic to see Dave (& Sue waiting at their home). It felt like yesterday in reuniting & of course, so much to talk about. D & S had done some real magic in their recent house renovations .. really impressive & a credit to them.

One of the things I was recommended back at home to see at Bristol was the last operational Concorde aircraft at the local Bristol Air Museum & the super-engineered Clifton Suspension Bridge & that was all I noted for this stay. D&S had scheduled the time in for the Concorde & we did that in the afternoon, so it was timely & filled in the day. D & S haven’t been to the museum either. Back in 1986 I missed seeing inside the Concorde by just 5mins as I was working out on the new taxiways & the proposed 3rd runway upgrade project on Sydney Mascot Airport. By the time I was escorted off the runway area by our airport safety officer assigned to us I was ultimately only allowed to walk around it, due to the removal of the access stairway & added security now in place. Some 39yrs later, my 2^nd chance has now come alive & it was awesome to see. The volunteer guide was brilliant & it was such a great engineered plane to see. We also saw their other aircraft under restoration & it was certainly a good few hours of experience. When we arrived back at their home I settled in instantly, had a great home-cooked dinner, hot shower & the best sleep for a while.

02/11/25

I had a little bit of a sleep in & Sue provided my best brekky I’ve had in ages. Certainly spoilt. They had organised a visit into a very historic city nearby called Bath, in Somerset. Beautifully placed alongside of the River Avon. James was our Bath Walking Tour guide & boy can he talk fast! For a young person he stored a lot of history into his tour. We all struggled on putting the info together due to the pace of his speech, accent & the city noise around us. So much information.

England was invaded by the Romans in 43AD & around 70AD they had built a lot of the infrastructure of the mineral rich thermal baths in Bath which are world famous. The water still flows today through all sorts of bath types and rooms in very ancient Roman buildings. Apparently, it was asked, some centuries ago, “what is that” (pointing to the river)? The answer came back “Avon” & there the name stuck. In referring to the ancient British language Avon means river, so it should be called River River. LOL!!! Below is the River Avon with its very unusual weir terraces.

There is a legend that dates back to 860BC where a person was cured of leprosy due to hot springs. Aquae Sulis was the original name for Bath, dedicated to Aquae Minerva in 60AD. In the Georgian era of the 18^th century the city was thriving through other industries & the wealthy came to reside there. In 1987 UNESCO granted it a World Heritage Status.

Getting tickets into the roman baths is a wonderful experience & you can imagine the people from those days where your footprints are meeting theirs. The Romans, in my language were excellent plumbers & drainers when you see how they controlled the flow & the distribution of the thermal water. When you actually stand back & look at the buildings you can see the ancient times & the Gothic appearance and so much to take in. There are some amazing places to live here, for example, The Royal Crescent – High-end semi-circular apartments (middle right photo above) for the elite with open grounds.

James took us into a park surrounded by a circular street & buildings built around it. He stood at a designated spot next to a large tree & clapped his hands loudly. An instant & clear sound with no echo. We all had a go & my clap was far the loudest & certainly gave a great clear sound to our amazement. A really strange occurrence in a city development. It was quite a few hours in walking around & eventually we went back to D&S home for unwinding & trying to remember all the points James raised on Bath. We needed a recorder obviously.  My steps today, 2/11/25  6,975 steps = 5.35kms.

Today, 3/11/25 is going to be a big day planned by Sue & later by Dave. After a hearty breakfast by Sue, we headed off to Bristol (D&S live just outside Bristol city). Both D&S have never done a Bristol Walking City Tour so we will all learn more together & we took the city bus into town, noting the very narrow streets.

We had a great guide (name forgotten) who was a history teacher for schools, etc for some 30+years, so his local knowledge was amazing. We were blessed in only being the 3 of us for this journey. Dave quickly became interested in meeting up with him again at some point, such was his local knowledge. He showed us parts of the old city walls that tried to prevent the Roman incursion. These walls were 24’ thick (7.3m) of solid brick & mortar & when it was not solid there was an operational church or shop inside (below right photo).

There was just too much info to take in … The 2 rivers that flowed through Bristol are the River Avon & the River Flume. I believe in the 1800s the city used manual labour to create a major River Flume diversion & over time the city was built over most of it. The river still runs underground & one of my photos shows the box culverts where the River Flume comes into daylight (Centre right photo below). We stood in some street arcades where our guide stated the River Flume is directly underneath. A strange experience. The 1st photo below is the oldest residential house in Bristol.

The city is full of history & well worth doing the Bristol Walking Tour. Again, far too much to remember for my blogs. Our guide was quite furious of the blatant vandalism of graffiti over the years, nothing credible or in his word’s intelligence at all. It was everywhere. The tour went for 2.5hrs & Dave, being very time conscious suggested we also do the Clifton Suspension Bridge seeing we are close & will fill in the remaining hours, leaving tomorrow a better day for more Bristol looking. Very good suggestion Dave.

Dave was quick onto an Uber who came within 1minute, as he was around the corner & that was a relief as the road climb was quite ‘severe’. We hopped out to very strong chilly winds, being this high on the hill & what a magnificent, engineered bridge, suspended some 72m or 236ft above ground & total length of 412m (1,352ft) with the longest span at 214.05m (702ft). Clifton Suspension Bridge was designed by Isambard Kingdom Brunel, a young and innovative engineer, he was 24 when he was appointed for the project which came about through a competition. The bridge finally was built in 1864 through funding issues & today there is a £1 toll for vehicles for maintenance, etc & that does well for the 3million car users each year. The Clifton Suspension Bridge & its structural design engineer (Mr Isambard Brunel – Plaque photo above) will surprisingly come again in my next blog in a complete twist. Bristol has quite a few of world connections, triumphs & history.

We walked the entire bridge taking in all the views before walking back downhill to the nearest bus stop near the public CBD carpark, as no Uber would respond to Dave for the pickup. At least it wasn’t uphill.  It was a great day out & we did 12,809 steps = 9.95kms. Such a great few days with superb humans, Dave & Sue. I wished they lived closer to me though .. I wonder if that would also be their thought too? .. LOL!!!

I’ll end my Blog #22 here. Many thanks for reading my blogs. My next blog will be more of Bristol UK A & onwards to London. Please stay safe, happy & healthy. Cheers.