Claudi's Grand Adventure
- our trip to England with a 7 week old
baby -
Part 3 - Bristol and Beyond
We arrived in
Bristol on October 4th to stay with our (expat Aussie) friends
Anthony and Rebecca. It was great to catch up with them - it
seemed like forever since we had seen them. They had a fantastic
house with lots of spare room and - very importantly - a washing
machine and line!!
After a night's catching up, where I went to bed Very Early and Fraser went to bed Very Late, we set out for our prehistoric day. A stop at Stonehenge made a great start despite the chilling wind (clever Justine had brought her mittens; we weren't so lucky and Claudia was not impressed.). I hadn't been there before, despite having intended to go every time I went to England (and yes, there are still things on that list even after this trip). It was well worth the visit, and it is great to hear that the two motorways that intersect just near Stonehenge will be going underground. We were amazed by the carpark charges at Stonehenge.
While I was pregnant, Fraser and I saw a fascinating documentary series in which some scientists (engineers, mathematicians, ...) tried to re-create many ancient structures. Episodes I remember include Stonehenge, Incan temples, the Pyramids of Egypt, and a weather canopy over the Colisseum. They set out to prove how these things were built by re-building a part of them using the same (hypothetical) methods. From memory, the Stonehenge episode involved well over a hundred people dragging the stones to the area. Next they dug a big pit so that they could slide the stones in and pull them upright. The challenge was the horizontal stone. For this, they built a ramp and then slowly built up a wooden scaffold to raise the stone to the appropriate height. It also had recesses chipped into it for the top of the upright stones to fit. It is hard to imagine the scale of the original building exercise.
From Stonehenge, we drove to Avebury to
see their famous set of Standing Stones, with an
interesting detour along the way. We saw "white horse"
marked on our road map, and saw a faint shape in the hill, so
decided to go visit. From a distance and even quite close, it
looked rather impressive. We went wide to take a photo, the
noticed something strange about the horse ... see if you can see
the lines on it in the photo. Some go one way, others another ...
it's almost as though the horse were made of squares of
something solid...
Up close for a look, Fraser confirmed
what we had suspected. Our "White Horse" - which we had
expected to be an Ancient Chalk Figure - was made of cement. So
much for our taste of ancient culture!
Leaving the White Horse, and the neighbouring Hill Fort (which we still believe was genuine but may have just been an attempt to turn an old tip into a tourist attraction), we spotted some trucks. Big trucks with mixy bits on the back - that's right, cement trucks. Going to Blue Circle Cement, just up the road from the White Horse. I hope that the staff got a good laugh out of the tourists who drove several miles out of their way to see their "artwork".
Off to Avebury, past Silbury Hill and West Kennet Long Barrow - Fraser and I went for a walk among the Stones but forebore to dance naked (as I mentioned, a cold cold day). Friends of ours have visited Avebury & stayed in the village, then got up to walk among the stones at dawn. Maybe another time, when sleep is less precious (although Claudia was still sleeping through the night, we weren't used to it yet, and constantly expected her to wake!)
A very tiring
day all up, and Claudia and I were glad to have a nap when we got
back to Bristol. At least, we thought it was going to be a nap...
Fraser thought otherwise when he clomped into our bedroom and we
stayed asleep ... then he took a photo and we snored on so he
decided it might be best to leave. I was tired from being cold
and walking around ancient sites all day ... Claudi was tired
because she had learned to dribble real saliva. "Oh look,
she's teething" became the catchphrase of old ladies
everywhere. "It's a Sign, you know". It would be
another 5 months before we saw anything but great big gummy
grins.
Tuesday 6th marked a change in tack for our sightseeing. So far, we had tried to visit Culturally Important sites - not because of some sick kind of snobbery, but because we were interested in the historical sites, from prehistory through to modern day.
Another of our interests is Science
Fiction, and although we don't get into the dressing up as
characters and talking Klingon side of things, we do enjoy a good
old episode of Dr Who, for example. So when we read that there
was a Stately Home -cum- Safari Park (yes really) with a Dr Who
exhibition, we thought What The Hell Let's Do It. Off we drove to
Longleat, the Seat of the Marquess of Bath.
Maintaining a Stately Home is a costly business these days. After Death Duties etc have decimated the Family Fortunes, One is left with upkeep on an enormous house that one could play Hide & Seek in for weeks, a Staff whose names One can hardly remember, and Grounds that quickly grow into Jungles. This last point sparked the imagination of the Marquess of Bath in the early 1950s, and he decided to import some animals to live in his Jungle (oops I mean Garden). Thus was born the Stately-Home-As-Theme-Park business.
These days, Longleat boasts about a zillion things to do. The current Marquess is very fond of Mazes, so there are mazes galore. There is a miniature railway and safari boat tour, a virtual reality ride, more mazes, the drive-through safari park and of course the giftshop. Oh yeah - and you can tour the stately home (Justine and I enjoyed this, while Fraser and Claudia explored the grounds).
The safari park drive-through was actually quite interesting, with monkeys climbing all over the car; we also saw wolves, tigers (including a white tiger), lions and various other animals.
Day 14 of the Grand Adventure, Wednesday 7th October, we spent in Bath. After some trouble orientating ourselves and finding a park, we explored our surroundings. I am a fan of Georgette Heyer's Regency novels, many of which are set in Bath, so I had some set ideas of what I wanted to see. Fraser and Justine were happy to wing it.
Highlights included the Pulteney Bridge, which is lined with shops on both sides. Unfortunately I couldn't find anything I really wanted there. The Edgars Buildings, where various characters resided whilst in Bath, were a surprise "find" at the top of Milsom Street, another great spot for shopping. Justine and I had a wonderful time blowing our life savings in Past Times.
The Museum of Costume had a major exhibition at the Assembly Rooms. Fraser and I enjoyed seeing the various period costumes dating back at least to Elizabethan times and coming right through to the 1990s. Some looked distinctly uncomfortable! Justine and Claudi waited outside, where Justine discovered once again that a baby is a magnet for old men to come and talk to you.
Thursday 8th we spent in Bristol. We saw a statue of a man on a horse, went to the post office, and drove to look at the Clifton Suspension Bridge which we gather is the main tourist attraction in Bristol. It crosses the motorway about 300 feet off the ground. I am terrified of heights so completely lost it & refused to be driven over it, so we turned around, did a little shopping, and went home. I'm sure there are some great things to see in Bristol, it's just that we didn't see any of them.
On Friday 9th, Justine left for Canada.
Fraser, Claudia and I had a day of rest (although Claudia
complained bitterly - we suspect she had got used to being on the
go all the time).
The photo on the right is of Claudia and the grow-suit that she wore on the plane over. Just Day 16 of our odyssey and she is already 6 or 7 centimeters too tall for it!! We were glad we'd brought her biggest clothes.
We had dinner with Anthony and Rebecca and their friends Rita and John, with baby "Otter" (Oliver). We weren't the only ones who thought our baby was growing - John's first words on seeing Claudia were "good heavens, what a monster!"
Saturday 10th was not a sightseeing day. As we were in town, Rebecca and Anthony had invited Woofy and Deb to come to Bristol from their home in London, and we spent the day playing games before making pizzas for dessert. It was one of the few really good meals we had during the first half of our trip.
On Sunday, we saw some local sights before lunch and more games. Claudia had her first ride in a supermarket trolley, and seemed small and lost in its capsule. A moment to mark our last day in Bristol.
Previous - Part 2 - roaming the South Coast ... Next - Part 4 - A Little Bit of Yorkshire.
Copyright © Melissa Rogerson 1999,2000.
