It seemed like a good idea. The first sunny day of summer coincided with the Bristol Harbour Festival and I like boats. I also don't really know Bristol despite living within 20 miles of the city centre for the last 10 years...
So the festival it was. Amazingly we managed to park in a side street reasonably close to the harbour and it was only a couple of minutes walk. In a city noted for being difficult to park in, this was a minor miracle in itself.
So what is a harbour festival? Well it is a lot of boats ( obviously), a lot of food stalls and a lot of people. You may have noticed that I really don't "do" people in large crowds but occasionally I forget this and almost always regret it...
The first site to greet us was the pirate boat giving trips up and down the harbour. Very evocative of Bristol's maritime past. This is a replica of John Cabot's ship "The Matthew" in which he sailed to Newfoundland some 500 years ago
Walking on down the harbour past the Royal Navy ship, HMS Cattistock ( huge queue to go on board) we spotted the harbour firefighters display team!
The old docks and warehouses of the harbour are being re-developed at a rapid rate but I prefer the older properties higher up the hillside. Love the colours!
There were of course plenty of boats of all sizes to be seen and the buzz of the harbour was regular punctuated by the unmistakeable sound of steam whistles from both the steam tarin giving rides and the steam launches going up and down the harbour.
Leaving the harbour briefly we wandered up to the historic Queen Square and rapidly out the other side. This was heaving and with one of the several soundstages there as well, extremely noisy. Hot and bothered we sat for a while outside one of the many pubs and enjoyed a jug of Pimms.
Suitably refreshed it was a meander back to the harbour past the old almshouses which are quite dwarfed by the modern city buildings.
I'd had more than enough of the crowds now so it was a relief to wander along the banks of the Avon to return to the car. The river is very tidal and was approaching low water when this picture was taken
