Jon Jermey's Travel Blog

 One would think that the people of Bristol would be sensible enough not to have two railway stations with nearly identical names, in similar places, on different railway lines to the north of the city, but they do; and it was only after I had arrived in Bristol Pathway instead of Bristol Patchway that I discovered my mistake.  Getting here was something of an adventure in itself, since I got to the station just in time to miss the first train to Bristol Pathway -- the Cardiff train, incidentally -- and asked the station attendant where to catch the next one. He advised me to go to platform 5, which I did, but when I consulted Google it suggested the next train on Platform 3. So I returned to platform 3, and a few minutes later they announced that the train from there would be cancelled due to a 'problem' in the Severn Tunnel. So my question is: did he know about the problem ten minutes in advance of the announcement, or was he just wrong? Anyway, there was only five minutes di

 Happy birthday to me! But another grey day. After breakfast I set out to walk along the river Avon to see the famous suspension bridge at the other side of town. The river is very tidal here, with a daily rise and fall of up to 9 metres, and when I started out it was very low and grey and muddy. It got higher as the day went on, but no less grey. The walk was mainly through a residential area, but one sidestreet led through the suburb of Bedminster, which had some impressive old buildings, including an old school that looks like a jail, an old police station that looks like a castle, and the old cigarette factory that featured in several of the Bristol Museum displays. This was apparently a haven of happiness and joy for the -- mainly female -- workers there, who were apparently treated very well and thoroughly enjoyed their jobs. But one wonders how much that had to do with all the tobacco dust floating in the atmosphere. A footbridge that I had planned to cross was closed, but I got