Monday, March 31, 2008

Bristol Day 2

Having nailed pretty much all I'd wanted to see in Bristol on day 1, I could relax on the remaining two days and so for one of them I decided to visit Bath, a short train ride away.


Bath Abbey is the big building in Bath. It could have been a cathedral but it gets the Abbey tag because it was used by the monks. It's a nice example of Gothic architecture.

This is the entrance to the main bath building. Home to a natural spa.

A view from the top of the spa.

The spa, random french kid students and the abbey in the background.


The spa, which you're not allowed to touch because it's untreated. A bit odd given generations of people going back to the Medieval times used it for medicinal purposes. Proof that the Health & Safety laws in place are a bit much.



One of the natural channels leading within the spa.



The back end of the spa. There is a bit of the spa that you are allowed to use but at a price, which I wasn't prepared to pay.


A Georgian street in the North of the city.


Rubbish pun number 1.

Rubbish pun number 2, this sold metal beds.

Unlike Bristol that has welcomed graffiti into its city, Bath didn't have too much and to be honest having loads would have spoiled the look of the place. There were a few pieces though.


Someone had stolen a Banksy stencil to do this one.


The river Avon cuts through Bath.

A behind the scenes view of the Pulteney Bridge that crosses the river. It has shops on both sides of it, a quirk shared with only 3 other bridges in the world.

A view of the river south of the bridge.

The home of Bath rugby club. No game today though.

A daft little museum at the end of a long road east of the bridge. It caught my eye so I thought I'd walk to it, I shouldn't have bothered as there wasn't much to see (although in their defence they're expanding it so it might get better in the next year or so)

Back on the bridge.

A random old building.

This is apparently the oldest building in the city. It goes back to the late 1600s

What I did like about the city was that the look of the place took precedence over the advertising of the shops. It made it hard to find HMV though!

There are 3 spas in the city that still work this one is now a money maker. You can use it but you have to pay for the privilege and I couldn't be bothered.


Nice edit on the top road sign.


Back to the station having had my fill of the city. I thought there would be more to see but bar the abbey and the one spa there wasn't much to see. But its still a nice place.

Back in Bristol I decided to revisit some of the pieces from the other day.

This mural was found on Stapleton Rd station. Rather than walk the miles this time I chose to catch the train :)

Do you think this one was edited?


The attacked Banksy.

The dogs, which I didn't realise the previous day was a Banksy piece.

Back to the station, some storage container art! When I got back to Bristol I then decided to head South into Bedminster.

Maori or Jedi?



This was found opposite a local farm. It has a Bill Hicks "You are free to do as we tell you" vibe to it.

Rather nice piece!

This is the Windmill pub, which used to have a large mural of the countryside on it onto which Banksy had added a powerstation. Alas it's now been painted over. I should mention that in doing my research into the pieces in Bristol I'd found this location but failed to transfer it onto the A-Z I took to Bristol with me. Hurrah then for my body compass for managing to recall the route from memory but boo to there being nothing at the end of the search, especially as I had to climb a bitch of a hill to get here!

However Bedminster station has some great pieces on its walls.



Back in Bedminster town centre it looks like someone is jumping the gun.

Back in the hotel, quite a good room.

A poor shot of the city's Hippodrome theatre.

The Weak lager sponsored Academy, which is one of the main music venues in the city. Now band tonight though.

A pub that proudly boasts being the oldest in the city.

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