Isambard Wallace Fry Wills Bevan Brunel.

Tuesday 31st May 2016 - Bath.

We thought that today we would utilise the Bath to Bristol cycle path and give Bristol a visit.  The cycle path isn't far from our site and the forecast was fine till teatime.  The cycle path is 16 miles long and is based on an old railway track so it's fairly flat.  It certainly is a well used route for cyclists, runners and walkers.

We have both visited Bristol but my visit was very brief and only seemed to involve a visit to SS Great Britain built by Isambard Kingdom Brunel.  He was narrowly pipped by Churchill in a public vote to decide who is the greatest British person ever! 

All I can say is that Brunel had very short arms and a tall head!

Our first visit was to the 'M Shed' which is a museum with a good historical overview of Bristol.  It is on the harbourside and gave us lots of information about prominent Bristolians.  There were plenty of famous people including Nick Park who created Wallace and Gromit, standby for another photo of me with a wide mouth!

Other famous people include Ernest Bevan, Samuel Plimsoll (who invented the Plimsoll line on ships to judge the cargo weight) and the Wills family who made cigarettes including Woodbines and a cigar called the 'Wills Whiff'!  

The harbour area is very pleasant, we didn't go into SS Great Britain because believe it or not it was £14 admission (no Gift Aid option).  

Now, I'm not one to gossip but Janice has had a few extra pasties and as a result she needs a little bit of help getting on and off her bike!

We had a little picnic and then went to have a look around the city and were pleased with what we saw.  The Cathedral was free to enter and had two lovely organs and an ornate choir area.

We toured the shopping areas and looked at the Wills Memorial and the Bristol Museum.

This is the Wills Momument, obviously dedicated to the tobacco mogul (not very PC now is it), it is part of Bristol University and Janice's son in law, Oli, studied for his Masters in this building.  Apparently smoking is forbidden.

Standby for another rant.....whilst in the Bristol Museum we noticed that some of the displays of Assyrian carvings were dated as from 700BCE?  I wondered where the E came from and what did it mean?  I asked a staff member and later had to google the answer for confirmation.  Of course it is a politically correct change and means Before Common Era rather than Before Christ.  The date of Christ's birth is still the date used to divide BCE from CE.  CE (Common Era) has replaced AD (Anno Domini) as well.  I thought the world was becoming more 'common' but I didn't realise it was publicly confirmed.

There was also a copy of the Rosetta Stone, the original is the most visited item in the British Museum in London.  It is an Egyptian bilingual inscription issuing a decree from Memphis by King Elvis V (sorry Ptolemy V).  It has enabled scholars to properly translate the symbols and it starts "Rosetta, are you better, are you well, well, well...)!

We cycled back along the same route and had our lovely smoked salmon salad with Jersey new potatoes, followed by Fry's Chocolate Creams that were also made in Bristol (not sure if they still are).