Bristol, England- 30th August till 2nd September

Dad (Martin), Mum (Jane) and me in front of the Clifton Suspension Bridge.

And now for a brief shift through time and space......

We will leave Edinburgh for a future post and fly down to Bristol - where we saw my mum and dad and some family friends, Liz and Dick.

Firstly, our B and B was amazing, and put to rest a prejudice I have about B and B's- that you will either be offered Jimmy's room while he is at Uni (which has happened to us), or the room will smell like Grandma, who may or may not have died there. No, this place was beautiful, our hosts were lovely, and we got to feed the Llamas and baby pygmy goats (awwwwwwwww). Malcolm (the host) had been a fighter pilot and an airline pilot, so we had to get my dad out of there with a crowbar.

Our lovely B and B, where we had (free!) after dinner night-caps and a lovely lady bought me bacon every morning.

Bristol was a bit of a surprise - we expected it to be like Bath because it is so close - but is very hilly, has a river, a gorge and is a port town. It's most famous feature is the Clifton Suspension Bridge designed by Brunel and built in 1847 - the longest suspension bridge in the world at the time. It is an amazing piece of engineering. The city itself is a lot of fun, I think Uni towns are some of our favourites - more vibrant and less touristy.

The Clifton Suspension Bridge - the bit on the right looks a little weird because it is covered with scaffolding.

I'm on the left.

We visited the 'camera obscura' - this shows the image from a pinhole at the top of a tower reflected onto a large, dished, white surface. You can turn the 'camera' with a handle - it is quite fun being able to see the cars moving and spy on people walking their dogs.

The Bristol Museum.

The Almshouse- social housing was a bit fancier in olden times.

Colourful houses on the waterfront.

The Cathedral - this one gets our 'shiniest floor' award.

An actual Banksy.

We had huge fun with Liz, Dick, their son Richard and some random Danish guy who was visiting too. They have recently bought an old gatehouse and converted stable, and are busy reclaiming their one acre back yard from the wilderness. My favourite feature was the potting shed that was on gimbals so the whole thing could be rotated (by hand!) to follow the sun. We had some great meals, too much booze and some huge laughs - thanks for having us guys!

The helicopter museum - Dad didn't want to go, I forced him.

World's oldest, complete, original helicopter.

World's fastest helicopter - 400kmh - and it can do loops and rolls somehow. I assume by using The Force.

World's reddest helicopter - this was The Queen's. It looks like it has been on Pimp My Ride - check out the chromed big bore exhaust!

World's most awesome helicopter - Russian Hind D

Mum, Jane and Dad checking out the Walled Garden.

It was lovely seeing my folks again, and the the silver lining to the poo cloud that is the upcoming trial, back in NZ, will be seeing them, and everyone else, again.

Liz, Mum and Dick. At one point in our stay Mum asked me if I 'liked Dick', which you don't really want to hear from your Mum when you are happily married.