Monmouth, Wales to Bristol, England

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Geo: 51.4553, -2.5919

Monmouth, Wales to Bristol, England

We only had to travel another 45 minutes to get to our hotel, Marriott-Bristol City Center. Once again we got into the city after the shops had closed and the streets pretty much deserted. Getting in late must be a ploy the traveling company has with the hotel. By getting in late after the shops have closed and there are no restaurants close by, unless one takes a bus or cab or walk 15-30 minutes, one is stuck eating at the hotel and using its bar for entertainment. I decided that I was not going to do that, especially after checking out the expensive meals on the menus for the café styled bar and the main fancy restaurant. After getting my refund for my AAA travel voucher with Dylan (I had forgotten to give it to him the night before), I decided to head up the street to the city center and try to find a McDonald's or Starbuck (although Starbucks close about 5 or 6 here in the UK) to access the free internet these places usually provides. I ran into Linda and she had already been to McDonald's and was just returning. The place was just 3 city blocks straight down the road. When I got there, I asked one of the table cleaners (many fast food places have people whose main job is to clean off the tables and chairs and throw away the left over trash) if they have internet connection here. She said no, but since the Starbucks down the street was close, I decided to go ahead and eat at McDonalds. When I finished eating (although the table cleaner tried to take my tray even though I still had my drink and uneaten fries still on the tray), I turned on my laptop to write my daily blog. Lo and behold, there was the MCDonald's Wifi logo popping up, and yes they did have internet service. So, I downloaded yesterday's blog and then discovered that I had not finished it or sorted through some of the photos. So, for the next hour I sat in the corner window of McDonalds, blogging and warding off the persistant table cleaner who kept wanting to know if I was done with my Coke yet!! After the 2nd time, I told him that I would clean off my own table when I was done. Sheeesh! By 8:30 it was getting dark, so I headed back up the street to the Marriott. I watched some TV and then went to bed.

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