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Bustling Bristol, Muddy Weston
-Piprey on Wheels
England
finally decided to end the 3.5 months strict lockdown due to coronavirus and I jumped at the idea of travel.
I even went to eat fish and chips in a nice, local restaurant so that I could refresh my table manners 😊 My friend at Weston-super-Mare texted a horrible weather forecast of wind and rain weather.
Dressed for the worst of weathers in my easily dryable trousers and wind cheater (both Chinese made and surprisingly durable), I walked with a light backpack to Hayes and Harlington station on my way to Weston Super Mare with a stop at Bristol by train. The ticket checker thought I was going for a free ride and there I produced a full ticket from my oyster card holder catching him by surprise 😊 A train passenger did not as the prepaid oyster card is not applicable and she was caught in the train. In my view, it does not make practical sense to get down between stations and purchase a ticket because prepaid card did not work. There should be ticket machines inside the trains.
A train change at Reading,
where I checked my favourite pasty shop only to find the prices hiked. Probably, a more attractive proposition would have been to lower the prices to attract customers. From Reading to Bristol Temple Meads (Named because of Knight's Temple and marshy land), I sat by the window and admired the idle horses/ ponies/sheep/cows in the lush green meadows.
I sipped hot earl gray tea as I watched vast patches of bright yellow fields of rapeseed dotted with pretty houses straight from Monopoly pass by my window. It took some time to get my bearings in a new place.
I followed the wind to the river, Avon but the river meandered quite a bit and a jogger kindly suggested a better path. I crossed over Bristol Bridge and walking to Castle Park (old part of Bristol). I got a semblance of St Peter's church ruins (bombed during the blitz).
Ah! The main shopping mall; window shopping after 6 months! What a feeling! The euphoria continued as I marched to St Nicholas' Saturday market. Beautiful silver jewellery with semi precious stones from India (an earring I bought for 500 INR cost 3,700 INR here). Handicrafts, little glass items, cloth bags
(16 GBP vs 1 GBP at Poundland), paintings, wooden furniture, mounted fossils among others. Meanwhile, my friend called to say he was coming to Bristol and we met at the stairs of
lovely Harbourside after he made me walk the length to find him.
The imposing Bristol Cathedral was shut
. There was a big statue of Raja Ram Mohan Roy. It was his birth anniversary (22
nd May), a pioneer of the Bengal Renaissance. There was a private walking tour which unfortunately I was not allowed to join but the guide kindly suggested the
city museum for natural history and
M-Shed for Bristol life. We walked up the steep road up to the city museum and my friend's 9 year old daughter, did a brave job!
The museum was well stocked with artefacts of ancient civilisations, mummies, stuffed birds, snakes, sparkling minerals, exquisite paintings, ammonite fossils, life - like sculptures and others. My favourite was the giant deer skeleton more like the size of an Indian elephant excavated in Ireland. Oh dear Deer!
The handsome
Mr Wright was trying to fly his machine from the roof of the building
. There was the statues of
little mermaid and a beautiful
sleeping woman- one bored and other sleepy. Observing the inscriptions and stone panels from Egypt, and Assyria (present Iraq), I was reminded again of the insignificance of time in the vast universe.
In front of the Bristol cathedral, there were peaceful protests by the Palestine supporters to free Gaza from Israeli occupation.
In one section, A little girl sitting on her father's shoulder was leading the protests.
I wondered if the little one did understand the issues. Would she think differently when she grows up? Meanwhile, my friend's daughter and I enjoyed a softie ice cream in the millennium square, where other children were splashing water in the water parks, having the time of their lives in the warm sunshine.
All restaurants and coffee shops were filled with the customers enjoying the graduation day of the Bristol University (delayed by one year because of the pandemic?). We drove up to the
lovely Clifton bridge from the observatory which was across the gorgeous Avon gorge.
I got dropped at my hotel at Weston-super- Mare. My room was clean and fit for purpose.
Had a shower and then went for a walk by the muddy long beaches, bare feet in the hope of the brown sand tickling my sole but it was frozen. The cold wind from the sea ensured that my walk was short lived. Not a single sea shell 😞
Disappointed, I returned to my hotel and watched the children play football on the road like anywhere in the world. I took a catnap.
Luckily, I got a reservation at French restaurant as the Italian and Greek ones where fully booked. The Italian was expecting 150 guests that evening. Food was lovely with loads of vegetables but a tiny piece of salmon. The beetroot and cheese salad with roasted walnuts was interesting. Had a short glimpse of a sunset. Ambience perfect.
I got up early to check out the sunrise but too cloudy.
I went for a morning walk and was delighted to hear the gentle lapping for very small waves on the cliffs.
It drizzled a bit. I returned to finish my sleep. Checked out and went to my friend's. We ate a beautiful, tasty omelette of chorizo, capsicum and basil, fresh grapefruit juice and rich desi tea. Spent some pleasant time with friend's family and it was time to catch the train home.
It was a pleasing train journey with the
same yellow fields, cows, sheep, ponies, horses in reverse order to Reading from where I changed train to Hayes and Harlington station along the London Paddington line. When I reached Hayes and Harlington, what crazy rain and wind! My umbrella almost broke by the time I reached my home. I noticed that there is no thunder or lightening in these rains unlike the tropics.
The photo of
Raja Ram Mohan Roy and me, so far away from our hometowns on his birth anniversary made my day. During the British raj, he had sailed from Kolkata to England to ensure that the social evil of Sati was not overturned in UK parliament. His concerted efforts to uplift and educate Indian women is perhaps one of the reasons, I am travelling so freely all over
the world today 😊
A delightful trip in the bustling river port of Bristol with the muddy realities of Weston; complimented by warm hospitality of friends -
Bustling Bristol, Muddy Weston.
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