After the busyness of London we slowed things down a tiny bit by heading West to Bristol. This port city has a relaxed vibe. We were there for only a brief spell from the 25th to the 27th of July but we were able to see many sites cheaply. We enjoyed a quick and quiet train ride on Great Western Railway with center facing seats and a table for our train lunch. From the station to the hostel the hike was about 1.2 km. We decided to walk it with our backpacks and daypack on.
After arriving and checking our bags at the Bristol Youth Hostel we headed for The Bristol Violin Shop. They are the main reason that we are in Bristol. They will also be at the London Suzuki Group’s summer institute that we are attending from August 21st – 28th. Renting instruments from them will allow the kids to have about a month of practice time, play them at the institute, and then… here’s the best part. We return them AT the institue without having to go all the way back to Bristol to the shop.
The highlight for me was having dinner with a students from my very first year of teaching. I taught Verity in grade five at St. Gabriel. She now lives in Bristol and works for Ardman studio. The same studio that has produced famous stop motion animation shows like Chicken Run, Wallace and Grommet, and Sean the Sheep.
If you’ve ever heard me speak fondly about my grade 5’s, it is her class. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve recently had a very memorable grade five class. Verity’s grade 5 class is the O.G..
We met up at a chain type restaurant called Pieminster. They have a great selection of vegan and vegetarian pies for Heather and the kids. It was great! I got to have a steak and kidney pie, some beer, and hangout with Verity and her fiance. She retraced how she used instagram to land a job at one of the TOP animation studios of our time. She filled me in on how all the 5’s were doing. It was just a big glorious gab-fest. Reminising about the good-ol’ days is pretty fun! They also gave us recommendations about what to do in Bristol.
Bristol’s core is very walkable and we discovered most of the attractions while on foot. I pulled up a map of Banksy’s art and we planned to see 5 of them. We ended up seeing six plus one the stencil used for the Prisoner Escaping. The first was The Girl with the Pierced Eardrum which is inspired by the painting of The Girl with the Pearl Earing. The earing in the painting is an security alarm speaker.
Both the Bristol Museum and the M Shed were only in our planned travels because of Banksy but we really enjoyed both. The M Shed is a restored cargo shed that now hosts exhibits about the history and culture of Bristol. Bristol was a major slave trading port and they cover that history well at the M Shed. Outside the M Shed there was a replica of John Cabot’s boat The Matthew that the kids got to play on. The Bristol Museum & Art Gallery had a dodo and an angler fish. It was probably Desmond’s favourite because of all the animal history.
We were supposed to go from Bristol straight to Cerne Abbey but the Great Western Railway had a strike on Wednesday. It prevented us from going too far. We took this opportunity to divert to Bath for a day (by bus) and explore there. Here are some images showing our adventures in that lovely little town.
Ball Family Travel 