So, here I am again, writing about our recent trip to Bristol and Bath (oh yeah, the Roman name for Bath is Aquae Sulis).
We (my wife and I) have a tradition. We try to visit a new place every year on our anniversary. Except once, we have been able to fulfil that so far. This year, while planning for the trip, Bath came up. We had a few Annual Leaves available and thought of adding Bristol to it too. After a couple of days of research and lots of permutation and combination (for the cheapest options, of course), the trip was planned!
We stay in a town called Egham in Surrey county. For those who are not familiar with this place, its about an hour of train journey from the central London.
We boarded the 09:57 South Western Railway train from Egham to Reading. There was some maintenance work going on and hence we were delayed by 6 mins when we reached Reading. Our connecting train from Reading was supposed to leave in 5mins and we had to literally run to the platform , crossing an escalator and a footbridge! Luck was on our side and we were able to board the 10:55 Great Western Railway train to Bristol Temple Meads just on time!
However, we were not lucky enough to get a seat as the train was busy! We found out that the train was running with shorter capacity (5 coaches instead of 9) and hence the chaos. Fortunately, we got ourselves someplace to sit from the next station stop (Swindon). The rest of the journey was not much eventful, we were carrying books with us and they were good company!
We reached Bristol Temple Meads station on time - 12:01. Hunger had already struck by then, so we got ourselves a chicken and mushroom Cornish pasty from a shop within the station compound.
Our stay for a couple of days in Bristol was the DoubleTree by Hilton. It was about 10mins walk from the station. The St. Mary Redcliffe Church was just beside the hotel. The weather God, however, was not looking very pleased as it was drizzling heavily. Anyway, we reached the hotel, kept our luggage in the luggage room and waited in the lobby. I had a work call to attend and the lobby wifi (which is complimentary) was good enough for that. The lobby can be a bit noisy though as of course, its not meant for work. After finishing the call, we decided to find the nearby Greggs (that's another of our little traditions you can say). We found the nearest one close to the railway station. On our way to Greggs, we could catch a glimpse of the Sun for maybe a few minutes that gave us some hope, but it went into hiding quickly, leaving us more disappointed than ever! We had a vegan sausage roll and a chicken bake with a couple of hot drinks. It was already time for the check-in and we walked back to the hotel.
The check-in process was smooth. You get a complimentary cookie as well (which is, according to my wife, one of the best she had ever had). Our room was on the 4th floor. I always appreciate a hotel room with a good view. I would not say, the view from our room was great, but it was not bad too! We could see the faraway city buildings and also if you strain your eyes a bit more, you could see the mountain!
We decided to head out after taking some rest. I had saved a circular harbourside walk from AllTrails app - it was about 4.5 miles long along the sides of the harbour. If you want to follow the same trail, you can find the details here. It was chilly outside and the drizzle was still on. We could see lots of colorful houses in and around the city harbor. We managed to get a glimpse of the SS Great Britain ship (it is now converted to a museum but we did not go inside). On our way back, we saw a sun slowly retiring for the day - the reflection on the water was something majestic!
We returned to the hotel and gave our legs some rest. We headed out for dinner at around 7PM. As the tradition goes, our first dinner in the new place has to be in an Indian restaurant. Luckily, we found a decent one near the hotel itself. Ganesha Indian Restaurant - it was about 10 mins walk from the hotel. The food was good and the staff were friendly. We finished our meal and had a nice walk back to the hotel. The drizzle had stopped and the weather turned very cold. Walking past the huge church could make you feel you are inside a horror movie set!
We retired early that night as our bodies demanded rest!
Cost for the day
Food : £36.50
Our 2nd day in Bristol started with a wonderful sunrise. I woke up early and could see a thin ray of sunlight coming through the window. Soon, the cloud cover was gone and we witnessed one of the best sunrises we have ever seen. We could see the Sun slowly rising over those faraway hills, the rays coming through the tall trees. As with all great things, this too did not last long and a thick cloud interrupted. Though it was only for a few minutes or so, the sunrise made our day!
We had decided to have the breakfast from outside. After spending about 20 minutes on Google Maps, we found one place nearby (also, that would fit our budget). Spicer & Cole is a nice little café with ample sitting space. We grabbed a table for two. The food was good and the price was on the expensive side. It had a toilet as well which is always a plus!
After feeding ourselves, we headed out to explore the Bristol city. We had a few places on our itinerary and we started with Will’s Memorial. It’s one of the architectural marvels of Bristol city, you can find more about the history here. We did not explore in detail and instead moved to the Bristol Museum next door.
The museum was free to enter. It was spread across 3 floors. There was some Japanese porcelain art exhibition which was quite interesting. You have all the necessary facilities (accessible entrance, toilets etc) in the museum. We spent about an hour or so there and headed out. According to our itinerary, the next place was the very famous Clifton Suspension bridge. It was cold and overcast - not the ideal day to visit any outdoor attractions but we had made peace with it.
Just opposite to the museum entrance, there is a bus stop from where you can take Bus no. 8 for the Clifton Suspension Bridge. You need to get down at the Clifton Village stop and then walk for about 5mins to reach the starting point of the bridge. If you are travelling by car, there is a £1 fee (that's the major source of the maintenance cost for the bridge) to enter the bridge , however, you are free to walk over the bridge.
It will take you about 10 mins to cross the bridge by walk. If you are someone like me who is afraid of heights, I would ask you not to look down while you are crossing the bridge! But if you dare to do, you can see the river flowing down (it was quite dry when we went though) and also there is a railway track that will come into view. If there are many vehicles on the bridge , you may feel a bit of shake as well. Once you cross the bridge, feel free to enter the tiny visitor center and learn about the making of the bridge and also the great mind behind the design - Isambard Kingdom Brunel! He was a fascinating person and you will learn a thing or two about him. It has a small souvenir shop as well if you fancy. There is a small workshop setting that explains the design and architecture of the bridge to the young minds.
After the short tour of the visitor center, we crossed back the bridge. Here, if you take a little detour (by walk), you can reach to the Observatory. You get some outstanding views of the bridge from here. There are a couple of more things to do. There is a small cave and a obscura (to get a 360 view of the area) - there is a small fee though. We decided to skip it as our stomachs were too grumpy to enjoy any view. So, we took the return bus (the bus stop is about 4 mins walk from the observatory) and got down at the museum stop as we had seen a Wetherspoon and thought of having our lunch there.
Though it looked like a small branch, this Wetherspoon was actually quite spacious inside. Even on a weekend and during lunch time, we were able to secure a table for us. It was quite warm inside and we spent some time planning the next items on our list.
We had thought of going back to the hotel after lunch to rest our limbs. But, someone up there had some other plans. While on our way back, we found the Cabot Tower (on Brandon Hill) was a 5 mins detour and we decided to walk that extra 5mins (that later turned out a lot more than that).
The Cabot Tower was a tall tower on top of the Brandon Hill. There are a few staircases you need to climb to reach the tower. I was already exhausted, I am someone who can't walk much after a meal, let alone 10 mins of climb. I found a bench nearby and settled myself while my wife decided to climb further to reach the top of the tower. There were many visitors at that point. I decided to utilize the time by taking some timelapses as you get wonderful view of the Bristol city from up there. It was not more than 15 mins into it, the weather suddenly changed drastically. The sun was shining bright and the whole city (along with the hill) was frenched in sunlight and it was beautiful! The feeling can't be explained simply in words (maybe if I was a writer, things would be different). We have had these kind of experiences earlier as well, when you stop expecting the weather to be as per your liking, it decides to surprise you like this! Once my wife was back down and narrated the view from up there, I battled my inner conflict and decided to put on a brave face and climb up.
The stairs were narrow enough to barely accommodate one foot! However, there were many visitors going up and coming down at the same time and the stairs were spirally going upwards (like any other tower stairs) and it was a challenge to maintain your balance. That too when your feet are shaky as hell! Anyway, I managed to reach the top (later understood, you could even further up) that had 4 windows to grasp the breathtaking view from there. As it was getting packed with crowd, I quickly came down to avoid being stuck.
As the sun was still undisturbed by the cloud, we strolled a bit around the Brandon hill and then walked back to the hotel when our limbs were about to give up and needed some recharging. We took the much needed power nap in the hotel and was ready to venture out for our dinner.
We had earlier decided to go to KFC for dinner. But, on the way, we found out there is a Crispy Dosa restaurant and by default, our minds were tricked to go in there. Though it was a bit crowded, we managed to get a table here as well (clearly, luck was favoring us that day, atleast in getting us a seat). The place was cozy and warm. The food was very close to being authentic (specially any south Indian delicacy) but the service was a bit slow and sloppy. The ambience was nice and you can easily spend some time there with some good Indian music being played in the background.
After dinner, we walked a bit more to the nearest Lidl to buy some fruits and nuts for our breakfast next day. It started to drizzle a bit while we were walking back to the hotel. The streets were , however, bustling with crowd and for once, Bristol felt like a proper city!
Cost for the day
Food : £50.91
Transportation : £8
Souvenir : £3.5
The morning started with another beautiful sunrise. I can wake up early everyday if this is promised! They say, morning shows the day! Well, in this case, I could not disagree more! The rest of our day was as gloomy as it could be (from weather perspective).
We decided to have breakfast from Greggs. I managed to get myself some quiet-early-morning-city-walk time on my way to the nearby Greggs. Walking amidst the deserted city centre was blissful – it felt like after all the hustle-bustle of night, the city is taking a much-needed break!
After having breakfast, we got ready as we were to check out from the hotel. The check out process was as smooth as the check in. We kept our luggage in the luggage room and headed out for our next place on the list – Weston super mare.
The best way of commute to Weston super mare is to take a GWR train from Bristol Temple Meads. It takes about 35 mins to reach there. The return fare for 2 persons cost £12 (with a railcard). While making the itinerary for this trip, we had planned a few places to visit in Weston super mare, but it was pouring continuously, and we had to drop the idea.
Luckily, we found a McDonald’s near the train station and spent about an hour or so there. That saved us from getting drenched in the rain. We had our brunch from there – we were lucky enough to get some good deals too! As the rain settled down for some time, we headed out to the Grand Pier – the main attraction of this place. Unfortunately, we visited during the low tide times, so could not enjoy the ocean but we spent most of our time in the Arcade Games area (which we love by the way). As we were already feeling lucky, we tried a few games and won a ton of points too!
After out inner children were satisfied with the games and the gifts, we took the return train back to Bristol, collected our luggage from the hotel and took the next train to Bath Spa – our next destination for 2 days. It took about 16mins by train.
We had booked a Travelodge near the river side. We got a good deal there. Of course, the room was not a grand one but decent enough to stay. They had done fresh painting and the smell lingered for a while. To go with our tradition, after freshening up, we went out for a walk around the area. It was drizzling and we found an Indian Takeaway shop nearby (that turned out to be a Bangladeshi shop, anyway). We had taken a chicken and a mutton biryani. Unfortunately, we did not like the food!
We visited the Topping and Company booksellers. It’s a bookstore just nearby the Roman Baths. I had never come across such a beautiful bookstore before. I would highly recommend this. There were 3 floors (including basement) stacked with books! Booklovers will consider it a paradise. Although these days, its more preferable to read on Kindle, but this bookshop will certainly bring some fresh air of nostalgia! After lingering on for about half an hour, we came back to our hotel and crashed.
You can take a circular walk around the beautiful town of Bath through this route.
Cost for the day
Food : £53.81
Transportation : £12
Other: £12
The next day started a bit late as our bodies finally started giving us warning of tiredness. I had already booked us breakfast in Travelodge, so headed there to explore. The breakfast area is on the ground floor. The ambience and the views are good, however, there is a limited food option, especially for vegetarian people. We had a lot of places to tick off for the day and we could not afford to have less energy. So, we fed ourselves a lot and then prepared for a daylong of exploring.
We started with the main attraction – The Roman Baths. Though we were a bit confused about whether to buy the entry tickets OR is it enough to get a view from outside (for Free), I would highly recommend the tour of the entire Bath complex – its so interesting to learn about the ancient Romans and how they created and maintained the entire complex. Sometimes, you may forget that it was done so many years ago when you see them using a heated pool! The whole tour (they would provide you a free audio guide, it’s a device where you can hear the narration of different stories and facts associated with the place) takes about 2-2.5 hours. However, as it’s a self-guided tour, you can take as much time as you want. Pro tip – don’t forget to speak to the ancient roman characters you may come across during the tour – they are fun! Also, make sure you drink the hot spring water (there is a designated place near the exit).
After we finished with our tour, hunger struck again. We had a quick lunch from a baguette place – was a bit expensive and tasted okay.
The day was bright, and the sun was out. It lifted our spirits, and we had a walk around the city centre. You can never miss the consistent bright yellow sandstone buildings (kind of reminds you of York). We walked uphill for about 25 mins to tick off Palladian Bridge from our list – but unfortunately, we could not find any entrance and walked back. On our way back, we entered the Bath War Cemetery. There is this thing I feel about cemeteries, they can be quiet and loud at the same time! You can give your legs some rest here and enjoy the nice views of the houses around the hill.
To top up our stomachs, we went to a nearby KFC (after a 15mins walk, anyway). We had learnt about another place to visit – Sham Castle. After taking a bus for 30 mins and then a walk-through muddy terrain for another 15 mins in the little sunlight that was left just before the sunset, we found out it was literally a ‘Sham’ or a ‘fake’ castle! It was just a wall that stood near a golf course. However, the wonderful sunset view of the Bath city was the silver lining. We came back to Travelodge and gave ourselves a much-needed break.
Although, we had thought of skipping dinner, we could not resist visiting a proper Indian restaurant in Bath. I had read about the Indian Temptation restaurant, and we arrived there at around 09:30 at night. We were among the last customers there. It felt like a family-run hotel. The staff were really nice. We caught a glimpse of the most beautiful moonrise I have ever seen! To top it off, the food also was really good. I would recommend the vegetable jalfrezi (oh, did I mention that it’s a pure vegetarian restaurant?). It was hot and spicy as per Indian standards!
Cost for the day
Food : £43.01
Transportation : £8
Entry tickets: £43
Souvenir: £12.09
Other: £1
Our trip was coming to an end and this was the last day! I had an early start of the day. I woke up early and headed out for a quiet walk in the city center. The sky was literally pink with the pink glow of the sun. The air was chilly and there was calmness in the atmosphere. The sun was slowly waking up and lighting up everything with it. I was lucky enough to catch that beautiful moment. There is a nice park near the Pulteney Bridge. You can have your morning walk there if you want.
After coming back from the walk, we started getting ready. Sowmya wanted to visit the Bath Abbey, so she headed out and I started with the packing. The Bath Abbey used to be free to enter but recently they have started charging and admission fee of £7.5 per person. You can find some guided walking tours within the abbey complex that will give you interesting facts about how the place was built and rebuilt.
We checked out at around 11AM, took our luggage and went to the city centre for some brunch. We had Cornish Pasties and Hot Chocolate.
Although we did not feel like coming back, it was time to face the sound of reality, unfortunately! We took the 12.39 train from Bath Spa and then the connecting 14.09 train from Reading. On our way back, we had already started to brainstorm our next trip.
Cost for the day
Food : £13.5
Entry tickets: £7.5
Additional Information:
Here is the list of places we considered for both Bristol and Bath
Until next time, stay happy and keep travelling!
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