After departing Cardiff, we drove just across the channel to Bristol. We like it here. Bristol is a lot larger than we had thought and it has all sorts of interesting things to do. We are staying in Easton, a neighborhood northeast of the center of town. It is unpretentious and diverse, filled with parks and pedestrian-friendly streets. The weather the last few days has been about as perfect as it can get.

One day, Garett and I walked for about a hour–Bristol is really big–and finally arrived at the most photographed sight in Bristol, the Clifton Suspension Bridge. Although we’ve seen our fair share of architecture at this point, this was really cool. It’s right over the Avon River Gorge. The pictures you’ll usually see of it have air balloons in the background because there’s an Annual Balloon Fiesta in August. They call it a Fiesta, that’s not me making up the name.

We also visited the harbour and the “We the Curious” museum which is an interactive science museum with a 3D planetarium. Here are some photos.

Yesterday we spent 5 hours on buses traveling to the Mendip Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty or AONB–that’s the actual acronym they use. It’s a large area, but we went to Cheddar Gorge (of Cheese fame). As an aside, Garett couldn’t remember the name so he called it “Orange Bluff,” which I thought was really funny. After getting lost and becoming really frustrated, we finally found our way up to stunning views of the limestone cliffs and the land below. We got a few decent pictures of the area.

The village of Cheddar was also very sweet and quaint. I have a theory that the UK only produces picturesque, bucolic towns; the cities by contrast can be quite industrial, sort of gritty and grey. It’s good they’ve got the villages to balance things out.

The sword and the stone.

Take a look at that hedge! It’s a plant AND a wall! It must have been really satisfying to cut out that doorway.

Also, we saw three cats on “Mewswell Drive.” They wouldn’t all stand still for the picture of course, but I thought it silly enough to include based on the name alone. MEW!