When we stopped at Bristol...

DH and I have a friend who last October left Australia after living there for 21 years, and returned to her home city of Bristol. We had sent messages to her a little while ago saying we would stop over in Bristol to see her but had had no response. I emailed a mutual friend who gave me an uptodate email address we could use instead of a Facebook message that we had been using. I included in the email I sent our UK mobile number and while we were sightseeing with Heather and Andrew on Sunday we got a call. So DH found us accommodation in Bristol and we set off from Taunton on Monday morning.

When we arrived in Bristol the first thing on the agenda was to find a laundromat (Aussie for launderette). DH prefers to just drive around and keep an eye out for such a place. That method wasn't really working that well on Monday morning so I suggested I google 'launderettes in Bristol' on my phone and so I did. Within minutes we were at the one in Baker St.

DH helped me carry the bags into the launderette but then left me to start the washing while he went to find a parking spot...other than using a coin operated machine in caravan parks years ago, I've never done any washing in a laundromat. But the man who was in charge was a great help so by the time DH got back the load was washing away.

After that we headed off to drive around Bristol to get our bearings...

We saw lots of streets which had rows of brightly coloured terraced houses

Lots of other terraced houses...

Some very stately homes ...

We also came across this magnificent bridge which is 150 years. It spans a huge gorge and was built by Brunel who was an engineer well ahead of his time. (I have seen a documentry on some of his projects)

We were so impressed with this bridge that we drove around so we could cross it for a second time! Lol

The view from the bridge...

I have been noticing these signs that suggest that traffic may build up...

Well the traffic did queue that afternoon in Bristol... (Although it was heaps worse when we went into the city about 5pm!)

When we found our B&B, the lady at the front desk said we had been 'upgraded'....?

I was very impressed when she opened the door to our room...

Very nice and so roomy! Our B&B had once been a hotel for gentlemen and 2 stately homes before that...we even had a small dressing room!

About 5pm we braved the busy city traffic to find where we would be meeting Alison. After a bit of a walk round we drove to the meeting place, Queens Square.

Here we are after having a big hug!

Alison suggested we walk a short distance to the waterfront....

We had a meal and stayed chatting for quite a while and then we walked back to our cars at Queens Square...and as we went Alison pointed out places of interest including a very old hotel which is very higgelty piggelty inside...

And a young man near that pub offered to take our photo...

There is a lot to see in Bristol but the best thing we saw was our friend Alison. We will meet up with her again later in April when a group of Aussies converge on Villers Bretoneaux at the Australian War Memorial.

To read the post I wrote when the parish gave Alison a send off last October, here is the link...

http://thenextstage-maria.blogspot.co.uk/2013/10/a-send-off-for-special-friend.html

Port Isaac also known as Portwenn...

One of the places that I was determined to visit on this holiday was the village where the TV show, Doc Martin, is set and the outdoor scenes filmed. And so it was that while we were in Cornwall we spent a few hours in Port Isaac.

It is a little out of the way so we were glad that we had the GPS to guide us! The car park looked quite new and is located a few hundred metres from the village. It was difficult to work out which path to take as the few buildings we could see from the car park didn't really look like anything in the show and we couldn't see the deep bay which is part of the waterfront on the show. 

Here I am looking out trying to  find that elusive bay...

I had a fleeting thought that maybe I might be disappointed and that we would find nothing like I expected. Any way we decided to walk along the cliff path to the left. Here we saw lots of seagulls roosting...I'm sure they are bigger than the seagulls at home! Lol.

After a bit of a walk I started to feel more confident that we would see the village as it seems in the show as I rounded the corner on the cliff path and saw this view...

The tide was out just like it had been when we left Penzance...those boats are sitting on sand/mud! So we kept walking...

I thought that the little cottage beside the large grey stone house in the middle of this photo looked a bit like Doc Martin's Surgery and house...we needed to keep walking and check it out...

More of the waterfront of Port Isaac came into view as we continued walking...

I used the zoom on the camera in the meantime...

A bit more walking brought us right into the village. One building from the series that I really love is the school and we found it straight away! 

It's an old school but is now a bar and restaurant...

The building is just as beautiful in real life in my opinion!

Then we started walking down the hill...

There's that cottage that I was really sure was Doc Martin's...just a little trudge up the hill...

A few more photos of that cottage!!

And...

And while I was on that hill, I took yet another photo of that 'school'...with the help of the zoom ...

We think that the house in the next photo is used as Bert Large's restaurant...

As we continued to walk in the public areas we found this stream that was flowing through the town...it was referred to as a Brook...

Regular viewers of Doc Martin would know the hill up to the surgery...

The shrubs in the middle foreground of this photo are across the road from the doc's house...if you follow the line of shrubs down the hill to where they stop and there is a tiled roofed building...well that is the roof of a rather large toilet block! 

I'm so glad we were able to visit this lovely village! 

One more photo...Mrs G doing playground duty at Portwenn School! Lol