Day 29: Bristol ....the jumping off point .........

The meeting of the Severn River and the Avon River. At the other side of the (Bristol) Clifton Suspension Bridge (one of the wonders of the mid-19th century)  is WALES.

From the docks of Bristol sailed the 16th and 17th century explorers and privateers that laid the foundation of Britain's commercial and political global expansion and success. From John Cabot's discovery of Newfoundland and by proxy North America, to Sir Walter Raleigh's soiree to the Caribbean and the southern coast of North America which discovered tobacco and created the British tobacco industry headquartered by the Bristol docks.... Bristol has been the center of the South West of England.

But we won't stay in town too long. It's not far outside that we find old walls, country gardens and old wooden gates. And a few stray birds......

Unexpected species.....  I thought that thrush,
blue tits, finches and magpies..... would be flitting, not roaming, about the estate garden.

Bristol has many ancient neighborhoods and we are up on the Downs, the ancient pasture and growing lands of the origins of the current metropolis of Bristol. The village of Henleaze is close ti where I went to school once ... at St Ursula's, on Brecon Road.

And I get a B&B for lodging. An attached house on Henleaze Terrace, right near the Down's and not far from my friend Micky. It is hard to believe that I have known him since I was 7. Today we walked the docks, vistited an old acquaintance in a nursing home, ran about the city and generally had a very nice day with an old friend.