Boats, beers and Banksy's

On Tuesday night we went to have a look round the city and suss out where to go for the rest of our stay.

The outside of the Cathedral.

Alms houses gifted by John Foster in 1483. There is also a chapel of the Three Kings of Cologne. Foster was a Mayor of Bristol. In 1533 Dr. George Owen,  who was physician to Henry VIII added to the bequest and the building is beautful.

 The Alms Houses are next to the Christmas Steps.

The Old Fish Market is now a Fuller's pub that was really nice inside. Mind you it was also the most expensive.

The next day we had been going to do a walking tour but it had been cancelled so we went off again. The St Nicholas Market was beautiful but I couldn't work there due to the lovely smells coming from the food stalls. Helen found some wool she needed for a project and then we went off to the new shopping area called the Citadel.

We ventured into the New Rooms that is the very first Methodist Hall and was built to plans from John Wesley himself in 1739. It was from here that their Missionaries stepped out to the New Worlds and also the continued open air services that they were renowned for. It was a place of great calm in an area of bustle and is well worth a visit.

In the afternoon we went over to the SS. Great Britain and had about 3 hours to look around and we filled it all. The SS Great Britain was actually built in the dock where she now sits. It was a massive undertaking and took over five years to build but it was the longest ship in the world from 1845 to 1854. She was built for the transatlantic passenger service and her first trip was in 1845. After several successful runs as the first iron ship to cross the Atlantic making good times she grounded off Ireland. She lay there for nearly a year and the company went bust and the company that bought her spent a good deal of money on here and after only one more trip to North America was sold again. The new company decided that she would be perfect for the Australian immigrant service after the Victoria gold rush started. She made her first trip to Australia in 1852 and was very successful until 1882 when she was sold again and converted to a sailing ship only. The removal of the engines etc meant that there was a great capacity for cargo and her size means that she was profitable. She carried coal to the west coast of America, round Cape Horn and brought back guano on the way back. In 1886 her cargo caught fire and she put in to Port Stanley for repair. The place was so remote that the cost of repairs were massive and she was sold to the Falkland Island Company to store coal and wool. In 1937 she became too old even for that and despite the islanders trying to raise money to buy her she was beached just outside Stanley in Sparrow cove. There she stayed until 1970 when she was salvaged and put on a pontoon and towed back Bristol and now sits where she was built. It is a fantastic story about a fantastic ship and just one full of superlatives and firsts.

The bow from the bottom of the dry dock. The iron hull has been so impregnated with salt that the only was to preserve her has been to cover the dry dock at the water line level and constantly pump round warm dry air.

The main deck looking aft with the skylights down to the saloon.

The Promenade Saloon for first class passengers. There are more skylights to get light down to the deck below.

The dining saloon which was quite sumptuous.

The ship carried a Doctor and he seems to have been kept very busy.

There are too many photos to show many but the steerage passengers didn't have much room or any decent food but you will have to go and see for your selves. I was anchored just off Sparrow Cove in the Falklands for a month in 1982 twelve years after it had disappeared.

In the evening we went for a walk and stopped off at a few pubs. There was quite a bit of nice beer and several very beautiful pubs too. This one is the Kings Head.

Bristol is associated with Banksy the street artist and we managed to see three of his 'works'.

This is called the 'Well Hung Lover' that can be seen from Park Street bridge.

This one is the 'Girl with the pierced eardrum' and is in Spike Island close to the Orchard pub that has about twenty ciders on tap, and several beers too.

This one was painted on the side of a ship that was a floating night club called the 'Thekla'. When the ship went into dry dock the City Council bought the tag and the piece of ships hull is not on view in the M Shed museum. It is called 'The Grim Reaper'.