J and K Adventures: Friday, July 25--A Walk Around Old Bristol

Today was our last day in Bristol. Both of us were sad at the reality of leaving this lovely town. Even though we had been here almost a week, we still felt there was lots to see and experience. We had picked up a brochure that described a walk around the old city. Bristol used to be surrounded by a wall, bisected by four main streets. On the wall were many churches and cathedrals. The walking route in the brochure followed where the wall had been. Sadly it was destroyed through the years from wars and modernization, most recently from a bombing during WW2. So we sat off with water and walking sticks to see "Old Bristol"

We started at King St. home of some of the oldest pubs in Bristol. The streets are cobblestone and the pubs are obviously well used. We saw lots of evidence of partying.

Dress code

Someone missed clean-up time

We crossed the Bristol Bridge and on to our first destination.

St. Stephens Church. It was smaller and more intimate than the Bath Abbey or Salisbury Cathedral, but just as old and pretty impressive in it's own right.

The steeple at St Stephens

Inside St. Stephens

The garden was hidden by surrounding buildings. You had to walk through the church to get there.

After walking down some narrow streets and seeing historical buildings of many eras, we came to the oldest part of our tour. The last remaining section of the wall was attached to the oldest church--St. Johns.

Section of the old wall and the entrance to St. Johns.

Waiting at the door. Alice, the volunteer, had stepped out for a few minutes.

Inside St. Johns

There is a crypt under the church. Alice had a huge key to open the door. But it was sticky so Jeff gave her a hand.

The key was huge, the door was small

Ancient tomb from the 1400's

Low ceiling and tombs in the floor

After our visit to the crypt, believe it or not, we were hungry. We had also walked a long way. So we found a secluded pub and had a nice lunch.

The Bank Tavern

They love their queen

We continued our tour and ventured down narrow streets covered with graffiti. We arrived at a section of the city that had been a market. There were still stalls and booths selling everything from hats to perfume.

Narrow walkway following the wall

Not the usual graffiti. We saw this several times.

Formerly a newspaper office from the 18th century, now a backpackers hostel

Stairs inside the City Hall. There were couples there waiting to be married.

The market, and another church

Jeff considers a new hat. Fred would love it here.

We concluded our journey around old Bristol with a cold beverage and a nice sit down in Queens Square park.

The view from our bench

And if you can stand a few more church pictures......after we got to the hotel I wanted to walk across the street and up the hill to see the Bristol Cathedral. We could see the towers from our hotel, but hadn't actually seen the cathedral. Jeff wanted to sit this one out, so I took a short walk to the Bristol University area where the Cathedral sits in a huge quadrangle.