Bristol & Bath, Winter City Break
Emma at Clifton Suspension Bridge
For Emma’s Christmas present, I gave a weekend city break in Bristol to where we went last weekend. Firstly, I’m aware of the argument of selfishness for getting a present that I get to enjoy equally but I’d thought a break in a nice hotel and somewhere different would be a perfect remedy for the January blues … and I suppose I am a bit shellfish.
Initially to me, Bristol had not jumped out as the most obvious and desirable city break but with the days of truly cheap flights to Europe seemingly over (for now anyway … once you’ve paid tax, baggage, seat reservation fees, check in and a whole load of other rubbish it’s no longer the bargain it was) and the Euro kicking lumps our beloved Sterling, I’ve become to accept that the UK is most likely to be our destination for leisure this year. And frankly I’m totally fine with that.
I chose Bristol primarily because of some great winter hotel rates and because of the city’s history and proximity to a wealth of other worthy destinations including Bath, the beautiful Somerset countryside and towns including Wells, Cheddar and Glastonbury. You’re also not far from the Cotswold’s, the Mendip Hills and the coast. Indeed, we could have easily spent a few weeks rather than a few days in the wider region. Neither of us had ever been before which is often one of the best things about going away … it doesn’t always matter where, it’s just great to have a break, a change of scene and you tend to relax wherever you are.
We drove down on the Friday morning which for us was a 225 mile and approx 4 and a half hour drive from Harrogate. Despite my reluctance to admit that it’s required and my view that it’s another device leading to us becoming more helpless and stupid, once you get into a large city the sat nav on the Blackberry was a godsend. Our hotel was the Mercure Holland House Hotel in the Redcliffe area of the city. £79 per night was the ‘Mercure Winter Offer’ for B&B and I was pretty pleased with that. The building itself is a huge perhaps 1950-60’s monolith without a hint of charm from the outside, however once in the foyer it’s an extremely efficient and comfortable 4 star with a nice big bar and reception area and everything you’d expect from a city hotel of its type.
The hotel has a large gym and a lovely dimly lit swimming pool which we had to ourselves on the Saturday afternoon. The room was large and very comfortable and the hotel, despite lacking the soul of a bed & breakfast or the quirky features and charms of an independent or classic hotel, the Mercure Holland House was good value, comfortable, efficient and all we’d ever need for a city break (except getting evacuated at 4.30am Sunday morning with a false fire alarm was not what I needed at the time 
It was that weekend when temperatures plummeted and there were records of -10’s and -12’s being recorded all over the country. To put it mildly, it was freezing! We started by walking down to the docks, past the imposing and beautiful Mary Redcliffe Church and down towards Brunel’s Victorian masterpiece, the SS Great Britain. Walking alongside the docklands was made eerie because of the low freezing fog, the caw of lone seagulls and the creaking old boats and empty ship loading cranes. The graffiti on the wooden boards lining the walkways added to the atmosphere and I quickly learned the city has a huge scene for street art and is the home of Banksy, who is now a darling of London and spreading his famous underground exhibitions globally.
The SS Great Britain was closed despite us arriving before official closing, however we didn’t blame them, it was very cold and very quiet. Not many tourists on a freezing credit crunch January afternoon and we didn’t mind one bit as we peered through the huge iron gates to catch a glance of the ship, we were in good spirits, warmed by the freedom of somewhere new and a weekend ahead of us.
We caught a little ferry for the 30 second ride across to the city side of the harbour and walked around the quiet gentrified riverside area full of new apartments and chain restaurants. It was pretty uninspiring but I imagine more hospitable than what it was like before the regeneration programmes will have changed the life on the docks once more. It does however concern me the speed of build and apparent flimsiness of these apartments and others all over the country, that they will again become the slums of the future. Time won’t be kind to these ugly buildings and surely it won’t be more that 50 years before they need to be pulled down? In these credit crunch times there will be a lot of people loosing a lot of money which I think might remain hard to regain due to the shortsightedness of developers riding the wave which crashed just months ago.
We made our way towards the towering cathedral and as the new buildings made way for the old our positivity was maintained. There’s a beautiful grass covered square overlooked by the cathedral, flanked by elegant regency style buildings which looked like perhaps government/council dwellings. The cathedral itself was a delight because of the feeling that it was still full of life and important use. Many of our Cathedrals are tourist attractions and home to only the most dedicated followers but here in Bristol the 12th century cathedral was warm (which was nice relief from the bite outside), full of people in discussion with the sound of music lessons and business being carried out in the various rooms and corners. It was beautiful too with the choir room a highlight.
We finally found our way through to the old city with narrow cobbled streets, alleys, a market just shutting down for the day and Stanford’s, the most amazing maps and travel book shop, I’ve ever had the pleasure to come across. Emma and I could have spent hours there and spent thousands. Right up my street it’s range including all the expected maps and city/country guides right though to a huge range of obscure and rarely seen on the high street regional maps like Helmand, Tamil Nadu, Northern Pakistan and guides, travel writing and ancient region maps. Perfect but dangerous to someone like me who loves to pore over maps to the point of absolute geekery.
It was time for the now notorious early evening drink. We found a little gem of a pub called The Bank, one of those where you have no idea what it’s like before you go in and it depends on how confident you’re feeling as to whether you enter of play it safe elsewhere. You could just as easily get a cosy local and friendly wood and leather haven with great local beer or get the strangest, roughest people and place in town! We got the former and enjoyed real Somerset cider (like a cricket bat to the back of head) and dark and smooth local beer.
That evening, with Christmas over and the finances limited, we took advantage of a 2 for 1 at Pizza Express in the Old City. It was great as Pizza Express always is. How do they always combine great service and great food with great value and do it better than anyone else with regularity? We’d had a great day and watched with a mixture of amazement, hilarity and horror as the revellers of the city hoicked up their boob tubes and down their mini skirts in -8 degrees as the tore up the town as they do all over the country every weekend! We stumbled back to the hotel cold but wrapped up and warm with drink and optimism.
Icy cold Clifton Suspension Bridge
A huge full English at the hotel followed a drive across the city to the truly stunning, affluent and vibrant suburb of Clifton. This was certainly my highlight. Built on the profits of tobacco and the slave trade, it is amazing parks, beautiful grand Georgian architecture and a fashionable but slightly Bohemian centre of independent shops, delis, restaurants and coffee bars. Topping it all off is the Clifton Suspension Bridge, another Brunel masterpiece which leads you out of the town, over the giddying height of the Avon gorge over to even larger houses and wealth on the other side. It’s the type of place where you can just sit and people watch from one of the many coffee bars knowing that you’re surrounded by history in a vibrant but airy village atmosphere. It’s been home to so many historical figures with plaques on so many walls of the beautiful and sometimes slightly decrepit buildings. It seems to mix and evoke so many cultures and atmospheres of our own history including empire, the wealth of the royal, rich and famous and industrial power with simple beauty, village green cricket, a simple seaside fishing town and bohemium alternative fashion and culture. Very very cool.
Wells Cathedral
In the afternoon we drove through the suburbs and out into the cold and muddy Somerset countryside, stopping at Wells to check out the amazing cathedral and lunching on a Cornish pasty. Here’s some Wells facts:
- Wells is the smallest city in England
- It’s listed in the Doomsday book of 1086
- Parts of the cathedral date back to the 10th century
- Hot Fuzz starring Simon Pegg was filmed there in 2007, the writer Edgar Wright’s home town
Wells is really nice for a mooch for an hour or two … and we saw that bloke who unsuccessfully went on Dragon’s den with his olive oil stand … which made our day ;). Though the £5.50 recommended donation to enter the cathedral seemed pretty high, though it was in great nick with some family friendly interactive features to show the history.
That evening we had an rewarding experience. Emma had gone online and booked a restaurant without too much research, mainly because it was near the top of the ‘most popular’ on Trip Advisor and we love Indian food. Therefore, that’s usually good enough for anyone! It’s was the One Stop Thali Cafe and Emma and I have fantastic (and not so fantastic) experiences of Thalis in India and get all nostalgic about this kind of stuff. Firstly, we wrongly suspected that it would be in an area of the city with other pubs, restaurants and bars, even if it was in a suburb. When the taxi dropped us off in Montpelier, 45 mins before our booking, just it time for a beer or two before our spicy treat, we were left a bit bamboozled when there was very little around us other than a dimly lit inner city residential area. We decided to take a walk to see if we could find a pub or bar and we did … but this time we didn’t have the confidence we had earlier and chickened out. Everywhere just seemed a bit quiet and uninviting. We were even considering calling the taxi back and going back into town … was this really what we wanted for our Saturday night on our romantic city break?
It turned out it was, we went into the cafe half an hour early and were met by a couple of relaxed, young and friendly students who were running the front of house who were happy for us to take our simple wooden bench early. The place had a really cool backpackers vibe with loads of students mixing with relaxed people’s of all ages. The decor was dark pink and purples Indian kitch, the service efficient and friendly, the music fantastic mixing world with uk classics like The Cure and the ethos eco friendly and honest. Most of all though, the food was fantastic and great value. To start with we had a range of Bombay street snacks and poppadoms with Indian chutneys followed by a North Indian Thali each washed down with a few Kingfishers. All for just over £30 … an absolute bargain in a really friendly, relaxed place. Simple but wonderful. Thalis are silver trays which this time contained a basic dahl curry, rice, a potato curry, salad and yogurt. The food was all vegetarian and tasted exactly like it does in India … very good indeed.
As we left the ‘Indian’ experience continued as the ‘taxi’ called for us to take us back into town turned out to be a Fiat Punto far from being a licenced carrier but the ‘friend of the cafe’ looked after us perfectly and took us back to down for just £5. Back in town we went to a recommended pub for one at lasties. I can’t remember the name now but it was busy and fun. A bit rough around the edges with a few Vicky Pollards and plenty of tattoos and nose rings. After a short walk home we crashed to a comfy bed, full and satisfied.
Me at Bath Royal Crescent
Next morning my overindulgence showed, in my weariness and my healthy choice of breakfast. Today we were on our way home. However, before that we checked out and drive the 12 or so short miles to the stunning city of Bath. The weather was wet, windy and cold and we had very little time to do Bath justice, it really requires a weekend alone. Therefore, we (finally) got parked and walked down to the huge and imposing Abbey and to the tourist info outside the Roman Baths. To make the most of the time we had, we decided to take an open top bus tour of the city, something that would have been close to worth the £13 per person if we’d been able to take both city and area tours over a few days but it seemed a bit pricey for the 45 minute city tour alone.
We therefore blitzed it, the churches, grand Georgian arcades, ghost stories and traffic clogged medieval streets. My highlight being The Royal Crescent. According to the Visit Bath website, “one of the world’s best known landmarks.” Though I’m not quite sure it’s up there with the Eiffel Tower or Statue of Liberty for being known, it’s certainly as beautiful as these.
We got off the bus at the Royal Crescent, walked to the car and started the long drive home. It always amazes me how much you can do, see and experience in a few short winter days and we felt we’d seen a lot, had a great time and were suitable knackered. The region is certainly somewhere we’re looking forward to going back to. Next time perhaps to Glastonbury, Cheddar the coast and further down towards the south west. Highly recommended.