After the visit to the student accommodation the other weekend, Saturday afternoon and evening was spent with the youngest in Bristol.
I absolutely love Bristol! It’s got a real edgy city feel, a real diverse population and when you are 19 it is such a cool place to be. It is the UK’s only European Green city with some gorgeous parks, has a huge art and creative scene, historic harbourside, great food scene and is regularly voted the best and happiest city to live for under 26 year olds. Needless to say, he absolutely loves it!
It has strong links between art and political activism and is the home of world renowned graffiti artist and activist Banksy.
It is also home to some of the most stunning Georgian architecture and perhaps civil engineer Isambaard Kingdom Brunel’s greatest achievement the Clifton Suspension Bridge spanning the Avon River Gorge, 101 metres above the water, which marked a major achievement in the history of engineering.
The City was also the starting point of many famous voyages in the discovery of America including the 1497 voyage of John Cabot to Newfoundland.
However, try telling all this to a 19 year old who was under the impression he was going to sit in a harbourside bar for the afternoon at my expense! I’m one of those lifelong learners. I like to know the history of a place and love to wander around discovering new things…….at 19 he is not the same. However, we do have a love of discovering new places and food. We have had lovely trips to Amsterdam and Rome together but you have to make it into sort of a treasure trail……see a few sights and coffee, a few more and cake, a few more and a bar etc. but that suits me fine. So that’s basically how Saturday went.
First stop, the Cabot Tower in a leafy suburb park on the edge of the city. A beautifully preserved tower built in memory of John Cabot which you can climb up inside, using the spiral staircase, to be rewarded with some fantastic views of Bristol from the top. It’s quite high for those of us not fond of heights and the spiral staircase is very dark and narrow but with much encouragement from the teenager we made it and it was very worthwhile. Far reaching views over the harbour and over to Clifton Suspension Bridge.
This was followed by a walk down to the docks, still on the Cabot trail to see the statue of the man himself and the replica of his boat, the Matthew.
One thing I love Bristol for is graffiti. That might sound really odd as the majority of people find graffiti quite disrespectful and offensive, and a lot of it is. But some of it is fantastic art, but maybe just in the wrong place. Bristol is famous for its graffiti and you can download many a graffiti walking tour. By this point though the teenagers legs were refusing to go any further without a refuel. So burger and beer it was and Aperol for me before the graffiti tour. Now I just love Banksy……a lot of people don’t! A lot of his messages are a bit too left wing, I get that definitely, but I really do admire both his ability to communicate what a lot of us are thinking, and the ability to express it through art in the way he does. He does it with a simple picture, no words required, often with a double meaning, and some of the locations and placings are just so well thought out, clearly not chosen by accident. My favourite Banksy…..entitled ‘Rage – The Flower Thrower’ is not in Bristol and I’ll probably never get to see it. He travelled all the way to Jerusalem to deliver his message and paint this one. It depicts a masked Palestinian poised to throw a grenade…..but instead of a grenade he is about to launch a bouquet of flowers. The entire piece is in typical monochrome black and white, except the flowers which are in vivid colour to emphasise the need to make peace not war. Such a simple piece yet the message so powerful.
So off we set on our graffiti walk which always includes one Banksy. First stop, his ‘Well Hung Lover’. I’ve seen this so many times and it never ceases to make me smile…….both the double meaning in the title, and his absolute perfect placing on the side wall of the Bristol Sexual Health Clinic. It’s just a pity that some people don’t have the same appreciation for his work and it’s now been vandalised with black paint in addition to the blue paintballs that had been fired at it last time I visited. My other two favourites from this walk were one called ‘Lynx’ by street artist ATM, on the side of a semi-detached house in the Stoke Croft suburb and ‘Natural Adventures’ by Zase and Dekor. This one is so colourful and detailed and its placement at the bottom of the entrance slip road to the mundane M32 motorway is enough to brighten up anyone’s drive.
Grafitti tour done, then it was time for a trip to the suburb of Clifton. For two reasons…….another close up look at the Clifton Suspension Bridge as it never ceases to amaze me and also because outstandingly pretty Clifton has the best selection of small independent shops in Bristol.
Now this was done without the student. By this time his patience had worn thin and a night out with his friends was beckoning. He does not understand why I need to look at the bridge again……..”It will look the same as it did last time!” I explained that it looks different in different weather and different light and I learn something new about it each time I visit. I did point out that the XBox screen looks the same if you play the same game over again but that did not go down well. And he hates shops like those in Clifton…….they don’t sell branded sportswear! They do however, have excellent coffee shops and quite the best independent book shop. I did remind him of all those times I had spent with him in JD Sports looking at Nike trainers debating whether to buy Air Force Ones, 95s or 97s……which usually takes much longer than half an hour. Anyway, I continued on my own. After looking at gorgeous Autumn wreaths and decorations for home in the florists and spending at least half an hour in the book shop choosing and talking to the delightful owner about all things book related I emerged delighted with my purchases. I revived myself with a visit to an excellent little coffee shop and was delighted to see that the coffee shop recycles all its used grounds which I thought was an excellent idea…..I love to see good recycling ideas! I recycle mine at home as anyone with an allotment will know that coffee grounds are really good for the soil for all the reasons stated on the photo below. So out I came with a bag of used grounds.
Well that marked the end of a delightful day in Bristol. So it was on to Bath for a day with the eldest the day after…….and my company can’t have been that bad as the youngest opted for a second day with me too……..or could that be because I happened to mention belated cocktails and food for the eldest’s birthday?
So that’s a very, very brief look at Bristol in a day. It’s a city that’s well worth a weekend in it’s own right. So much to see and do and even better if combined with the very pretty, affluent, decadent, World Heritage city of Bath only 20 minutes away. Anyway, more of beautiful Bath and adventures there in a separate post.