UK-trip, Day 2: Bristol
After yesterday's adventures in Cardiff, this morning T. and I allowed ourselves a little sleep in, to fully enjoy our marvelous hotelroom. Before walking into town we went to the bed- and breakfast next door for -ehm- breakfast. (Delicious!)
Around ten we started our exploration of Bristol. We sort of made a figure eight walking around, and we saw a couple of areas more than once which resulted in me making more pictures, but I'm posting the photos in chronological order anyway:)

I hereby invite you to walk with us, our first goal is to find the venue for tonight's concert...


We walked from the hotel across the bridge, past the 'Hole in the Wall' restaurant (see photo on the way back;) and the Broad Quay House (1795).


From there we crossed the square at Anchor Road and turned left into Denmark Street, where right at the end we find the Hatchet Inn. According to legend the front door has bits of human flesh and skin in it. (We'll have dinner here later!)


Right behind the Inn is the O2 Academy where the sign is up for Panic! at the Disco, yay! We also see a tiny group of fans with a sleeping bag in front of the entrance. Poor, cold Panicbabies. If we'd had hot cocoa, we would have handed it out. In stead we continued with the second part of our mission: find Banksy Graffiti...


My guide said there was graffiti in Frogmore street, but we don't find it. I do snap a pic of this awesome logo. At the end of the street, we give up and decide to follow T's guide which leads us to climb up the stairs to overhead Park street.


Then we find that both guides were correct: Banksy's piece is on the side of a building that's actually standing in Frogmore street. D'oh. We had walked right underneath that (pictures on the way back!)


A closer look. The painball stains are not part of the original graffiti. But notice how after re-painting the bottom of the building, the city did leave Banksy's autograph intact:) The image is on the side of a sexual health clinic. *wink-wink-nudge-nudge*


We continue on Parkstreet to the Council House on College Green, where we find golden unicorns \o/


We wondered whether this was a church or a cathedral...


...and learned it was called a Cathedral Church. Huh.


From College Green we walked back down to the square on Anchor Road to catch a bus to the Suspension Bridge (number 1 on the list of touristy things to see in Bristol)


After a ten minute ride we got off at Clifton Down Road for a short walk to Clifton Bridge to admire the view and walk across the bridge, designed by Isambard Kingdom Brunel in 1830. (I love that name!)


There was an open fence next to the pedestrian walkway, which T. didn't like, but she kept on going like a trooper while I stopped for photos;)


Look at that amazing view! I couldn't discover any holes, but there are caves and a tunnel underneath the Observatory that's build on top of the rocks.


We visited the tiny centre of the Clifton Suspension Bridge Trust for some souvenirs. One of the volunteers couldn't stop telling stories about the origin and history of the bridge, but we did eventually manage to say goodbye to walk back along the other side for a view of Bristol.


Back on the other side we climbed up to the Observatory. The area is a protected nature reserve. There are lots of signs explaining what animals and plants live here, as well as copies of old paintings to show what the area looked like before and during the build of the bridge. Very cool.


I combined two pictures to capture the height:)


Sadly the observatory was closed, which meant we couldn't get into the caves either. Luckily the view alone had been well worth the visit already:) So we walked back to the busstop.


Took the bus back into town, got of at Parkstreet, where we got some souvenirs before taking the stairs down to Frogmore street for another photo of Banksy's graffiti. We had actually checked that parking lot earlier but had not thought of looking up;)


After checking the venue to see if we could get our tickets from the box office (nope), we walked back to the hotel. Don't know what this building is, but I like the designs.


A quick photo of the Bristol Theatre The Hippodrome and the funky dude next to it. (If you're still keeping track: we're back at the Anchor Street Square;)


Statue at Queen Square. The sun made an appearance! For realz!


And past the Hole in the Wall again. (Told you I made a photo;) See the St. Mary Redcliff Church in the distance? If you remember, that's right next to our hotel.


After reading for hours on the comfy beds in our hotelroom, we went back into town for diner and the concert. We checked out the harbour for restaurants. Later we learned we could have found yet another Banksy on one of the ships here. But we only saw the funky bridge. Oh well. (Alas. Lack of preparation. Lesson for next time; study all the guides, even before going on a short city-trip)


Eventually we decided to have a bite at The Hatchet Inn (see above) right in front of the venue, so we didn't have to worry about being late for our Meet & Greet and the concert. The horrid stories on the wall didn't stop us from having dinner;) (The cars driving right towards the window before taking a sharp turn however, did manage to make me shiver)

Continued with Panic! at the Disco concert

Back to Day 1 - Cardiff

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UK-trip, Day 1: Amsterdam-Bristol-Cardiff
Originally Tan and I had wanted to travel to the UK as usual: by Eurostar train to London. Due to a national strike in Belgium, we had to find another way to cross the channel. Luckily we managed to buy cheap plane tickets from Amsterdam straight to our destination Bristol, where Panic! at the Disco would perform on Tuesday, January 31.
But I'll start my travel story on Monday, when I caught the bus from my house to the station for the 7.16 a.m. train to Schiphol airport. Despite the snow (!) my journey went according to schedule and I met Tan as planned around 8.45.
Here's what we did on the first day of our five day trip to the UK...


After checking in, passport + baggage control and a lot of waiting we finally boarded the 10.40 EasyJet flight from Schiphol to Bristol. It left about fifteen minutes late.


I had a window seat, yay! I so love watching the clouds:)


At Bristol airport we got on a bus that brought us close to the hotel; we only had to walk around the St. Mary Redcliff Church. Very impressive, couldn't get it in one photo:)


Our hotelroom exceeded our expectations: it was HUGE. Two double beds, a fancy sitting area, a closet full of fluffy towels and tea with flapjacks. \o/


We left our luggage at the hotel, walked to Bristol Temple Meads trainstation and...


... got on the train to Cardiff. We didn't even have to wait!


About an hour later we arrived at Cardiff Central Station. Welsh is a funny "language". :-D


To start our Torchwood fangirling touristy tour, we got on a bus to Cardiff Bay. See the fountain on the right? That's the elevator-exit of Torchwood! For realz!
(When I was here in July 2008 it was covered with strawberries, I'm so glad I finally got to make a clean picture:)


Close up of the Canolfan Mileniwm Cymru (Wales Millennium Centre;)


Tan standing on the Torchwood exit \o/


Both of us fangirling on the elevator (stupid bulky wintercoat)


Eep! We found the Torchwood entrance (former tourist-information centre) covered in crazy fangirl messages; a shrine to coffeeboy Ianto. Oh dear.
(Also: check out the beerlogo on the top building and say it with me: B-R-A-I-N-S!)


Wave of lettering on the pavement surrounding the Norwegian Church in the bay. Couldn't make out what it was saying. There were also inprints of fishes and other sea-creatures all along the walkway. Cool design.

We had wanted to visit the Doctor Who Exhibition/Experience, but as it turned out that was moved to London. So we ended our fangirling and went back into Cardiff Town to visit the Castle!


The history of Cardiff Castle stretches over 2000 years. (Click to read more;)


Before going on a guided tour inside, we walked around the grounds. This is The Black Tower.


Stained glass windows in one of the towerrooms represent all the days of the week, this is Wodan. (Wednesday)


Love conquers all. Or something. :-p


Very impressive mural.


Ceiling of dining hall.


A glorious indoor pool in the top of the tower.


After the wonderful tour, we went into town to find a place to eat. I had to take a photo of the bollards (Is this the correct word? It's what the Dutch equivalent, an 'Amsterdammertje' is called on Wikipedia).


A very helpful* Welshman saw us looking for a cafe, and gave us directions to the best restaurant EVER: Harvester. We shared a starter (potatoes with cheese and bacon, mmm) and chose different maincourses: peas and chicken for Tan, boneless ribs and potato for me (I gave my corn to T.;) Dessert was even better: strawberry sunday for T. and I got a Lemon Blizzard. (Size matters *grins*. De-lic-ious.


Completely satisfied and warmed up we walked back to the station and managed to get on a (delayed) train back to Bristol and our marvelous hotel, where I made a display of my souvenirs:)

Day 2: Walking through Bristol

*All the people today were supersweet! Our cynical hearts melted a little (despite the cold;)

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