Adventures in Bristol

Our adventures aren't all far away from our home here in Bristol -there is plenty to do in this city as well! We are living in a city that has a population of almost 450,000 making it the seventh largest city in the United Kingdom.  It has lots of interesting history, with people living in the area since the Paleolithic Era and it received a Royal charter in 1155 making it a town.  Bristol, among other feats, is the home of Wallace & Gromit, the first chocolate bar, the harbor that John Cabot sailed out (the first European to touch the soil of North America, with the exception on Leif Erickson and his vikings), Brunel (who has the awesome first and middle names Isambard Kingdom), the invention of lead shot, home to the street artist Banksy, the first city map in England, and the inspiration for many of the people and places in Treasure Island.  Needless to say there is lots to do in the historic city and when we weren't going around to other places with the Neal, Tammy and Jed (Dakota's parent's and little brother) we were busy zipping around to the sites in Bristol.

            

 Aargh! Our Pirate Walk with Pirate Pete was Perfectly Plunderous! We gleaned lots of interesting piratey facts about Bristol.  Such as that the Hole in the Wall Pub is the basis for The Spyglass Inn in Robert Louis Stevenson's Treasure Island. If that isn't enough the landlord of the establishment had one leg! Remind you of anyone? (The correct answer is yes, Long John Silver!) The Pub gets its name from a cubby in the corner where you can sit and look through small slots looking down streets to see if Press Gangs were coming to impress men into the Navy. We also visited the Llandoger Trow a Pub that's been in business since the 1600's! This is the place where Daniel Defoe met Alexander Selkirk and the novel Robinson Crusoe was born! Pirate Pete joked at us that the crooked floors were made that way so they would seem level after you had a few drinks! Jed carried a Jolly Roger around everywhere we went and Bristol natives hollered Aargh! to our guide the whole time. We also paid a visit to some caves where prisoners were stored and had to stand up on stones so that the rats didn't eat their feet, as well as a pub with an entrance to a tunnel in it, and the home of Edward Teach also known as Blackbeard the Pirate!

           

 The next site we had our eyes set on seeing was the Bristol Zoo.  Like every zoo, it houses lots of animals, but the Bristol zoo has some special highlights including; an especially large gorilla family, fur seals, snakes, and lots and lots of monkeys! We went to see the fur seals being fed and learned that 'fur seals' is a misnomer because the animal is actually a sea lion! Sea lions can move around almost as if their flippers were feet and they are much more agile than seals.  We watched as the trainer had the male sea lion catch fish from the air and hop back and forth on rocks.  It was incredible -he actually used his flippers like they were feet and walked on them.  The trainer had a trick up his sleeve to get us all wet and let the seal belly-flop into the water, splashing us spectators -especially Jed.  We also got to see the gorillas getting fed, watching them chomp down on vegetables, we noticed one had a little baby clinging to her arm -super cute! =) One of the highlights of the day was feeding the lorikeets with little cups of juice.  They flocked to your arms and one even attacked Jed's head! His shampoo must have smelt fruity or something! 

       

  

   We also went to Bristol Aquarium which has lots and lots of interesting fish! They have sea horses, puffer fish, fish that have glowing cheeks, an octopus, unicorn fish and a million more! Dakota and I loved it so much we got season passes and have already been back three times. 

            One of the best places to find out about Bristol's amazing history is the M-Shed; a museum on the harbor that is all about Bristol people, places and things.  They have great hands on exhibits including an entire Double Decker bus you can sit in from the 1960's, a bomb shelter from WWII, a plane engine you can see in action and much more.  There are stories playing at different places in the museum, such as on the bus, so you can listen to people talk about moments in Bristol's history.  Sometimes they have steam engine rides outside the M-Shed and we got to go on one! Jed's favorite part of the museum was the double-decker bus; he ran up and down the stairs and aisles and made funny faces at us through the windows.  And there was an ice-cream truck right outside which made his (and Neal's) day!

 After learning about the famous engineer Brunel at the M-Shed we went on a cruise down the Avon River to see one of his more spectacular feats: The Clifton Suspension Bridge.  The bridge was finished in 1864 and spans 700 feet across the Avon Gorge standing 200 feet over the water.  Our cruise of the Avon Gorge began in the harbor and after going through the loch, which raised 20 feet to the water level of the harbor, then lowered us 20 feet to the water level of the river, we could see the massive bridge.  It truly is incredible... especially when you remember that it was built in 1864!

         

Jed holding up the S.S. Great Britain

   We also went to see S.S. Great Britain which was another of Brunel's projects.  The ship was one of the biggest of its day and on our visit there we got to see all sorts of artifacts about it.  Jed and Dakota even got to crank the propeller and everyone rang the old bell.  The museum moved the ship back to Bristol from a beach in the Falkland Islands where it was damaged and being kept to store coal.  It is now kept in a dry dock with an acclimatized chamber to keep the massive iron hull from breaking down.  We walked next to the hull in a chamber that has a ceiling made of glass and a thin layer of water over the top of it, which made it look like we were under water.  We also went on board the ship which is decorated like it was in the Victorian Era when it was one of the first great cruise liners.  They had different audio guides to choose from; you could be in first class, third class, an archaeologist, or a funny little cat.  There were even wax figures all around.  Dakota had the bright idea to hide next to one and stand really, really still until Tammy came into the room.  He jumped out at her and boy did she yell! 

Overall we had a great time in the wonderful city of Bristol with Tammy, Neal and Jed doing all these activities and more!