A Postcard from Bristol

Last post from our half term trip last week, I promise.

On Day Three, we took a trip into the nearby city of Bristol, and we went to see this:

The Clifton Suspension Bridge, designed by Isambard Kingdom Brunel at the age of only 24, it spans the Avon Gorge. Sadly, he didn't live to see its completion in 1869.

We were able to walk across the bridge there and back .... it was very windy and it's very high!!!!

To be honest, we were only there originally, because the lovely Mr B. wanted to look at the rocks in the Bristol Gorge .... regular readers will know that this is something we do often, as he is a 'rock climber!'. No trip is complete, without a 'look at some rocks!' It just happened that the bridge was above our heads, so we had a closer look.

This link below is worth a glance....

A panoramic view of the bridge (Far better than my photos)

We also wanted to see this ship...

The SS Great Britain.

It was the world's first great ocean liner, launched in 1843..... and designed by, none other than Isambard Kingdom Brunel again!

It's now open as a visitor attraction in the port of Bristol.

At first, I was a bit dubious about it .... thinking "it's just another boat!". But the sheer scale of the thing swept me a way! And it has a wonderful heart warming story to tell.

When it was built with its great iron hull, and its 1,000 horsepower engine, it was the biggest, the fastest and best ship ever built. It criss-crossed the world from Liverpool to Australia, across the Atlantic and everywhere else. It circumnavigated the globe 32 times, and clocked up an amazing 1,00,000 miles, eventually being abandoned in the Falkland Islands in 1936.

Clearly, the story didn't end there, because an outrageously bold move was planned, and in 1970 the ship was towed back to the very same dock where it was built. 

In the museum building, there are moving accounts of that special day, written by the people of Bristol, who came to watch the homecoming.

Since then, the ship has been lovingly restored to the days of its early splendour, and it's a delight to walk around the decks. ..... and below

The cabins were small and cramped, and the bunks incredibly narrow, for steerage and first-class passengers alike. I don't think our 21st century backsides would fit in!!!!

Every last detail is there, the cabins, the washing facilities, the kitchens, the dining rooms. It really is wonderful.

The vast engine room.

But for us, the best part of the visit, comes when you go down, under the 'sea' into the heated dry dock underneath, where restoration work is still going on to keep the iron hull from rusting away. It is here, you begin to get an insight into the sheer enormity of this ship.

Photographs just can't convey the size of this vessel!

Out on the quayside, it is just how you would imagine it to be back in the day, and I loved the piles of luggage  all packed up and waiting to go!

Where were they off to, I wonder? A new life on the other side of the world, maybe!

If you want to find out more about this wonderful ship and it's epic journey from the Falklands back to Bristol there is a very moving animation on the website below. 

The Homecoming

And here is great Isambard Kingdom Brunel himself!