Weekend Break in Bristol

Last weekend we went to Bristol for a long weekend – Saturday morning to Monday afternoon. Bristol isn’t too far away though, as with so many places, it’s a lot closer by car than train (about 30-40 minutes by car, I believe and around 1.5 hours on the train). We’ve been there a few times for day trips, but we thought it would be nice to stay over so we weren’t rushing to get the 2.30 train home.

On the way

The hotel (Novotel Bristol) was just round the corner from the train station and on the route to @t Bristol (the science museum), so we went to drop our bags off there first. As Eleanor has been taking a bit of a dislike to the buggy recently, we dug out the backpack again and used that for the weekend, which was definitely a success.

@t Bristol

Saturday was spent mostly in @t Bristol, the excellent hands-on science museum. Both girls were happy there throughout the day and I was pleasantly surprised at how much Eleanor got out of it (I had been worried that she wouldn’t be at the right age). She even sat through a bangs and booms show (lots of explosive chemistry) mostly happily. The fourth picture is her playing with a barrier – she spent 15 minutes there and I almost fell asleep. The first two pictures were the girls at the suction balls display (OK, I have no idea if any of these things have proper names, sorry), which fascinated them both. The third picture is Eleanor creating a makeshift table and chair from some activity (not sure what it actually was). The fifth picture is Eleanor in the travel section – there was a cockpit, luggage scanner, mini airplanes, clothes to dress up in, passport stamps and all sorts of fun things – where she spent a large part of the day. And the final picture is Rosemary at her favourite place – the magnetic sand. She was fascinated by this both times she visited. There aren’t any pictures of it, but there’s a huge animation section upstairs, which is brilliant, especially the shadows that freeze.

We broke for lunch (you can go out and come back in again on the same day) and had a delicious meal in a restaurant round the corner (sorry, can’t remember its name). Eleanor slept the whole way through the meal and woke up in time to finish off Rosemary’s chips and have most of my pudding. Smart girl.

In the evening, we had a bar snack sandwich (made the mistake of ordering a whole one for Eleanor, who again fell asleep through the whole meal) each and they were huge and came with salad and vegetable crisps. We probably could have managed with just two between the four of us.

While Chris put Eleanor to sleep, Rosemary and I went and read on the stairs and came back to put her to bed. I then read in the bathroom while everyone else slept, but got an early night myself, because it had been an exhausting day.

Bristol Zoo

Sunday was spent at Bristol Zoo, after a very good buffet breakfast at the hotel (we just paid on the day, as we didn’t want breakfast both mornings). We got the bus from the train station – it’s 15-30 minutes depending on time of day and traffic, it seems. We saw all sorts of animals and bugs – lions, fruit bats, red pandas, okapi, gorillas, lemur, meerkats, turtles, penguins, seals, tarantulas, black widows, scorpions, giant snails and many, many more. We went to a few talks/shows, including one where Rosemary got to hold a giant snail and stroke a ferret. We rode on a merry-go-round, played in the playground and the water area, had our faces painted (OK, just Rosemary on that one) and ate pizza, pasta and ice creams. We stayed pretty much to the end of the day – left about 4.50 – and the girls each bought a snake on the way out (cuddly ones, not real ones, of course).

When we got back to the hotel we had the idea of pre-ordering our dinner, so we didn’t have to hang around for ages with two tired children. This time Eleanor did manage to stay awake to eat a bit of dinner. Rosemary didn’t much like her macaroni cheese, but she loved her chocolate brownie (I was a little disappointed not to have ordered pudding myself after tasting it).

This time, while Chris put Eleanor to sleep, Rosemary and I went downstairs to the children’s play area so she could build with some of the Kapla blocks. She made four things (a house, a boat, a cake and something else which I can’t remember) and would have carried on for another few hours probably if she hadn’t been so tired. I’m looking at maybe getting some of them for us, as they were brilliant for feeding the imagination (not that Rosemary needs much help there!).

Going home

Monday morning we headed into town to try to buy some shoes for the girls. (Eleanor had spent the whole weekend shoeless – apart from walking in her wellies a bit at the zoo – as we completely lost her shoes before leaving.) Most of the shops didn’t open until 10am, which was a bit annoying, though Rosemary enjoyed going on the alligator (come on, you know what she means) and using the all-singing, all-dancing loos. In the end we got them each a pair of plimsoll-type shoes from Next and then Eleanor some ordinary ones from Clarks (well, a Clarks bit within another shoe shop). Rosemary is going to have to get hers on Saturday in Stroud, I guess, as she really wants the ones with toys in them (oh, joy – how long will the toys stay in there, I wonder). And then we went to the Disney Store. Rosemary got a Beauty and the Beast mini doll set – you know, the ones with bendy clothes and stuff – and Eleanor got an Eeyore, who very quickly turned into her comfort object – she fell asleep on him on and is now sleeping with him every night and taking him in the buggy to help her deal with being in the buggy (which she is again disliking with a vengeance).

We then headed back to the hotel and finished packing, while Eleanor slept in the backpack.

We got home about 2.30 and Chris went straight back to work, while the girls and I relaxed and played in the living room. And then Chris and I worked all evening and have worked every day and evening since. Need another long weekend to recover from catching up on the work from that one… oh look, what do you know, there seem to be some bank holidays coming up.

We loved the City Break idea and having one place to go on each day, as well as not having to travel too far. So, we’d love recommendations for other cities (not too far from Stroud, Gloucestershire) to try or other places to go in Bristol (we went to the aquarium quite recently, otherwise we probably would have gone there, too, though don’t think we could have done a whole day there).