As we were walking through Brandon Park, we saw this gull on the grass by the path. I don’t know for sure what it was up to, but I wondered whether its steps were designed to sound like rain falling to worms beneath the surface to encourage them to come up and then get eaten. Maybe it is something else but, whatever it is, it was pretty funny to watch. Needless to say, I thought it was worth getting some video.
I posted about Cabot Tower in a previous post about our Bristol visit. When there is a high point to try, it is likely I will head up there. Nancy is less enthusiastic about this sort of thing than me so I left her below and headed up. There is a narrow stone spiral staircase to get to the upper levels and I was rather glad that it wasn’t a busy day because the stairs would not be ideal to pass on. It would work but it was better to not have to!
The view from the top was great. You are already high when up on the hill but the extra 30m gives you a great view of the city in all directions. You can see the various buildings within the city center, you have a great view over the harbour area, and you can see the stadium further out as well as the Ashton estate. The stadium is Ashton Gate which is the home of Bristol City football club but from my perspective is more importantly the home ground for Bristol Bears rugby team. Since Nancy was waiting below, I didn’t hang around too long up the tower but I did take in the views. Shame it wasn’t a slightly nicer day but at least we got down and back to the car before the rain started.
I previously posted some shots of Brandon Park in Bristol. At the top of the hill in the park is Cabot Tower. Cabot was an explorer of Italian heritage and is tied to the exploration of Canada. His voyage set forth from Bristol – hence the association. It is on the high point of the park, but it adds some height to the views of the surrounding city. That will be the subject of another post. For now, I shall focus on the views of the tower itself.
The grounds surrounding the tower are ornamental and provide a nice setting for the tower. It is a cool stone structure and provides a focal point for the park. It is about 30m tall, which gives you an enhanced vantage point to view the surroundings. It was recently restored after having suffered some degradation and hopefully will be in good shape for a while before requiring any further work.
Last year, while we were staying in London, I got to take my first trip on the Elizabeth Line or what was known for a long time as Crossrail. This is a major addition to the transportation network of the town and appears to have been very successful. I only took one trip through the core of town and one to the airport. It was a very quick way to cover a journey that previously was a lot more drawn out. However, the thing that impressed me most was the stations. They are huge. The trains are long from the start, but they have built capacity to have them longer and the platforms are about 250m long as a result. You need to know which end to get out to make sure you don’t find yourself several blocks from where you intended when you get to the surface.
If you are a fan of a certain British cooking program, this post maybe more relevant to you. I have never watched Bake Off but Nancy has and she knew of Welford Park, the location where it has been shot. The grounds are not normally open to the public – only paying TV crews – but once a year they open up for the snowdrops which I previously posted about. After walking through the woods and seeing the flowers, we came back to the main house where they had a café since a spot of lunch was in order.
Having not watched the show, I am not familiar with the layout of the grounds. However, I am told that the steps down to the lawn from the house are a feature of some of the TV footage. The house itself appears in shots and the lawn area, which was clear while we were there, is where they have the tents in which the contestants undertaken their challenges. If you have seen the show, hopefully these shots will be recognizable to you.
The terrain around Bristol is pretty undulating. Houses are built up the sides of hills on streets that are rather steep. However, the buildings up in the Clifton area of town seem to have made better use of the land than might have seemed likely. From low down beneath them, they seem awfully precarious but, since they have been there for well over 100 years, I guess they are reasonable solid. The road in front of some of the buildings clearly seems to have been built up from very little with the arches supporting the roadway built on to the cliffs. It all looks rather dramatic. I suspect if you are up there, you are not as aware of what is beneath you but you will have little doubt of the vantage point you have looking across the surrounding countryside!
Our day in Bristol had a rough plan but not a terribly fixed itinerary. I did want to check out Brandon Park since it appeared to have a nice view over the rest of the city. That proved to be the case but that was because of the sizable hill climb involved in getting there. At the end of our walk, this was a bit of an effort but it was worth it. The park has a commanding position above the harbor and it provided a relaxing spot in the middle of the city (if you ignore the exertion to get there).
It has Cabot Tower at the top but that will have its own post. In the surrounding areas, there are some gardens laid out with water features which caught me quite by surprise. I wasn’t expecting something so structured up at the top of the hill and was very taken with how nice it was. It was not the best of weather when we were there but I imagine on a sunny afternoon, the place would be heaving with people taking it easy.
Our walk through the City last fall brought us out at St Paul’s. It wasn’t part of our itinerary and is somewhere we have been before but it wasn’t like me to pass a landmark without taking some pictures. The strange thing about shooting St Paul’s is that it is hemmed in on most sides with other buildings. It has some space around it but not much given the size of the building. Consequently, I was shooting some tighter shots to see what I could get.
When we lived in the UK, Nancy and I spent a weekend in Bristol as part of a visit to the balloon fiesta that is held there (or at least it was then – I don’t know whether it is still a big event or not). As part of that visit, we did head up to Clifton which sits on the hills overlooking the center of Bristol. The area is most famous for the Clifton Suspension Bridge spanning the gorge in which the River Avon runs. Built by engineers based on a design that Brunel had originally proposed, it is quite a structure although the movement you feel in it as you walk across it is a little unsettling.
As you walk along the river from the harbor, you come around to get a good view from the underside of the bridge high above. We walked up this way to get a little closer and I accepted the cloudy day for what it was and got some photos of the bridge. You are walking along the river but also a rather busy road so it isn’t the most relaxing way to spend some time. However, I did get a view from below to match the ones from above from our previous trip.
During our stay in Longparish, we could hear the sound of helicopters on a regular basis. We weren’t far from both RAF Odiham and Middle Wallop so getting military movements was to be expected. Getting a camera to hand when they came over was another thing. However, while on one walk, we did see a Royal Navy Merlin operating across the fields and behind some trees. Getting a clear look at it was very difficult and, as we got closer to where it was on our walk, it naturally moved off somewhere else. I never got a good shot. Here is the best I could manage as they taunted me by remaining just out of reach.