Excursion to Bristol from Bath

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We had planned visiting Bristol and Cliffton Suspension Bridge on 13 May. Mark had printed the maps and bus timetables from the Internet. We caught the bus from Bristol from the bus terminal in Bath. After having an hour journey, a wide area of residential houses and large buildings appeared in our sight. Bristol is regarded as a city, and every single building looked bigger than Bath and Gloucester.



We caught the bus for Cliffton Village from the city centre’s bus station. It was rainy and windy when we arrived at Cliffton Village. However, miraculously, the strong wind cleared off the gloomy climate, and the sun turned up when we reached the destination. We crossed over the famous suspension bridge, popped in the gift shop, and I bought presents for my father. We walked up to the Observatory Hill and overlooked the suspension bridge, Avon River, and Bristol harbour. The Cliffton Suspension Bridge looked stunning, and we took a number of photos from different angles.



We had lunch in the café in the Cliffton Village, and then caught the bus for the city centre.



After getting off the bus, we walked to St Mary Redcliffe Church via Queen Square. The tower looked spectacular from the distance. There were loads of historic monuments and ornaments, e.g. Medieval stained glass windows preserved in the church. We found the historic ornament and documents which were associated with Thomas Chatterton, who was a very talented poet but died very young. I remembered reading the novel of Chatterton by Peter Ackroid. Having learnt that the statue of Thomas Chatterton is displayed in the Millennium Square, we headed for there. Peter Ackroid illustrated the poet’s life descriptively and subtly in the novel. I was quite surprised to see his monument.



We then walked to Bristol Museum of Art Gallery via Bristol Cathedral and Council buildings. We looked round the exhibition room of the natural history, wonderful collections of French paintings and masterpieces, Bristol glasswork and porcelain, silverworks and sculptures.



We took the bus for Bath at 16:30. It took a long time for the bus to leave the centre of Bristol.

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