St Albans, the Midlands and now Bristol

The iconic library, Birmingham City Centre

We left St. Albans and returned to the Midlands, once we’d got word that Laura and Rich had safely landed. Pottered, booked Halfords to come and fit mum a new car battery and went to the Red Lion for dinner.

Tuesday general pottering before meeting John for a pint or three at The Crown. We’d already booked it but after waking to the 4th attempted break in to get the keys to steal his car he definitely needed a pint!

Wednesday we had to go into Birmingham for our interviews to volunteer for the Commonwealth Games. It was a great experience, though I’m not sure how well I did. It’s a very long time since I had an interview. From 25000 applicants they want 13000 volunteers, so the odds aren’t great and we won’t know till January or February so time to blank it from our minds! We then went to Denise and Paul to have a look at the damage caused by a leaking washing machine. They’d dealt with everything except getting a piece of plinth off. A good excuse to see them anyway and go out to dinner at The Drum and Monkey.

Grand Central railway station, Birmingham or, to us locals, New Street Station!

On the 'beach' at Clevedon with the pier behind

Thursday we’d offered mum a day out using her and Brian’s bus passes, but she said she’d rather go to the seaside. We considered north Wales and South Wales, finally deciding on Clevedon on the Bristol Channel. We set off in mizzle which cleared by the time we arrived, after a detour to a craft centre we saw signs for on the way in. Elevenses in the form of cream tea called to us, jolly good too. On arrival at the seafront it seemed to be Christmas, there was filming for BBC kids TV going on so decorations had been sprinkled about. We went down the pier, the only grade I listed pier in the country, and onto the beach, though with the tide going out the mud prevented paddling until we got to the lido where it just had to be done. Fish and chips on the seafront rounded off a grand day out.

Us with Jackies mum, Pauline walking along the pier at Clevedon. Interesting story about the pier that I'd like to share with you: Built in 1869 and partially collapsed in 1970 during a strength test for insurance purposes. Huge bags filled with water were placed on each section and left there for an hour. The first six sections were OK, but the seventh section collapsed into the sea taking the eighth with it and leaving the pier head stranded (see photos below). It remained like that, gradually deteriorating until, 1985 work began to rebuild it, having been taken over by a trust. The decking was stripped off down to the support frames and it was decided the pier head, by now completely derelict, should be dismantled and shipped to a repairer in nearby Portishead. It was broken down and floated up the Avon where work started. Unfortunately the company doing the work went bankrupt, leaving Clevedon with no pier and no contractor! It was eventually taken over by another contractor in 1988 and opened in 1989 to great fanfare with a temporary access to allow ships to berth there, fully open a couple of years later. It was awarded Grade 1 listed building in 2001 and 'Pier of the Year' in 2021. Not bad for a pier that Clevedon council wanted to demolish in 1970!  

Friday dentist and shopping before off again, almost the same route as Thursday, to Bev and Iain in Bristol. Sadly four cats from two years ago has now gone to two. The passing of Mr. Pickles was not a surprise, but it’s still sad to come back and find him not here. We had a lovely evening before waving them off on Saturday morning. Shopping then (fortunately not for fuel, we’ll worry about that in a bit) and Brian bought a new phone, his battery has been getting worse and what with his long walk coming up, that’s not good. Setting up the new phone took most of the day, and is still ongoing.

Sunday we walked along the river into Bristol, a nice walk, except for my Achilles. There doesn’t seem to be any logic as to when it hurts. A relaxed lunch before getting the bus back, with Brian finally getting to use his bus pass!

Photos of Clevedon pier taken from a display at the pier head showing the collapsed sections in 1970

Repair work underway

Grand reopening in 1989

Pauline goes paddling!

Clevedon Marina Lake. People pay a lot of money to swim in an infinity pool and here's one for free! It's filled by high Spring tides overflowing into it

And, of course, no visit to a British traditional seaside resort is complete without fish and chips on the seafront!

And so to Bristol to look after Tinsel......

....and Millie

Our walk along the River Avon into Bristol, a distance of over seven miles, but it was a nice day and fabulous scenery. See our short Relive video with photos by clicking here

As we got into the Avon Gorge proper we came upon the crags, very popular with climbers and ones Jackie and I, along with my old climbing partner Phil have been to many times. This is the Sea Walls crag and we've done virtually all the recognised climbs below E1 grade here and have many, many stories to tell. Here Rob and I climbed an HVS after weaving our way through the gypsy camp at the base. He fell off, pulling a huge block off. I held him and he suffered just a ripped jacket. On starting to climb again the gypsies ran over to us and asked whether they should move their caravans in case we fell off again!

A bit further down and this is Main Wall. Again we've done most climbs below E1 here with, again, lots of stories to tell. I did my very first HVS lead here - very scary at the time! There are actually people climbing in this photo, in the shadowed part on the right. Zoom in and see if you can see them. We've done that climb a few times

A bit further along the gorge again and here we are near the iconic Clifton Suspension Bridge. Centre in this photo is a vertical arête called Giants Cave Buttress, picked out with a slight shadow (just right of the Giants Cave opening, you can see the yellow railings three quarters of the way up). That ridge is one of the finest climbs in the Gorge. It's a VS three star and it deserves every one of it's stars, it's magnificent! Any climbers are on show from people walking over the bridge. I've done it twice with Phil and thoroughly enjoyed the tremendous exposure of seeing the ground several hundred feet below your feet!

And next door, beneath the bridge is Suspension Bridge Buttress, more magnificent climbing in a hugely exposed position. Sadly you can't now climb onto the bridge, abseil points are fitted so you climb up to near the bridge and then abseil back down again. Nothing below HVS grade on there

Approaching Bristol centre now

This is the lock gate that keeps the river level constant in the harbour whilst the Avon rises and falls with the second largest tide in the world 

And there's the SS Great Britain in it's dry dock in Bristol Harbour, the same dock in which it was originally built. We visited it in June, you can read about it by clicking here

And so to Sunday lunch in Millenium Square, Bristol