And week 4….
Tina McInerney
We were back in Romsey for a while. Dad played golf a couple of times with Roger Lillie. I had lunch with Roger’s wife, Margaret, we went to Winchester for a day, Christmas lights were switched on Romsey after a Christmas parade through the streets, coffee with Margaret and Sue, a trip to Portsmouth, a lovely walk with the Lillie’s over Winchester way followed by lunch at a pub. One Friday was a highlight with a trip to Bristol.
Bristol was a surprise. It was a port town, pretty run down but now has been rejuvenated. It has an interestested harbour which runs through the town like a canal. One of the highlights was museum for the ship SS Great Britain. It was built in Bristol in 1843 as a liner to travel to America but it wasn’t profitable so became a lot of other things including an emigrant ship to Melbourne. It ended up sitting rusting away in the Falklands for about 40 years until someone recognised its importance to Britain and organised for its return to Bristol. Now it is a museum which includes a story of its designer, Isambard Kingdom Brunel, and the life of the ship. The ship itself is being returned to its former glory as a liner. The story of Brunel was so interesting, a very productive engineer considering that he died at 53 and had built bridges, railroads, aquaducts, viaducts, tunnels and many other things. Quite amazing, really.
The rest of Bristol was a mix of old and new - it had been bombed during the war so a lot of the old town was flattened. One of the interesting was the Banksy story. There were still a few of his work on the walls of buildings and the TI had put a trail together so that was a bit of a focus for me as I trailed around the town. Some photos:
there are photos of the banks of the river, the harbour, the ubiquitous Ferris wheel. The orange propellor is the thing that changes the worlds transport. It was the special thing about this particular ship as well as its size. You will notice the photo of the bridge with the locks. The last photo is the Bristol Railway Station - pretty grand!
