Cirencester and surrounds - Gloucester, Bristol

For the last few weeks I have been doing some work in Cirencester. It's been a real treat working with such great colleagues, working as part of a team doing good work. But it's also meant I've been somewhat stuck in one place, so my touring has been relegated to weekends around other commitments. But I’ve still seen some stuff within an hour of Cirencester.

Cirencester and a radius. 

My first weekend foray saw me waking Saturday morning to the sound of ten hot air balloons flying right over the van and landing in a neighbouring field. Pretty neat!

While I ate my breakfast!

The excitement over, I headed north, to visit some more National Trust properties. The first was Chedworth Roman Villa. A guided tour was to start 10 minutes after I arrived, so I thought 'when in a roman villa' - and waited about. The guide, BLESS HIM, was quite the driveller. After 45 minutes of this I spotted a guy on a sunny bench who had laid before him a sizable collection of Roman coins. I not-so-subtley detached myself from the tour along with many others.

This guy must be a charisma vampire or something, because he was amazing! His enthusiasm was infectious, he was TED-talk quality fantastic. Made up for the other guy.

The villa, there wasn't much left really - a really fine mosaic in the dining/entertaining room and some of the bathing complex. Mostly the Victorians had 'fixed stuff' and thus ruined it, and I am ashamed to say I feel a bit 'roman bathed out' - they're all pretty similar since there's bugger all left!

The tidy mosaic.

At the villa, it was a sunny afternoon and I just sat reading my book on the grass. Reading about the Karluk Canadian Arctic Expedition (1913), sitting in a Roman villa, I was struck by my luck!

The afternoon saw me at Snowshill Manor, further north again. Snowshill was owned by an eccentric nut - Charles Wade. Wealthy from inheritance, he collected objects from all over the world, just by shopping in the UK. He was all about the craftsmanship and specified to the National Trust that they couldn't put labels or back stories on anything - the public just have to see and appreciate the objects for their craft. A real collectors perspective, and he'd gone to the length of living in the barn to fill his 14th century manor house with all his stuff. I still had my 'the things this guy could have done for people instead of spending his money on this shit' moment, but it passed. If everybody had done that there’d be nothing for me to look at now wouldn’t there? And there was some fascinating stuff in there - also interesting knowing it was all bought within the UK!

I headed back via Kilkeney and a nice wee pub there for the night. I was a little surprised to see them serving Guinness. Never-the-less, just sitting there, sun on my face, real ale in hand and Kindle in the other – bliss.

The week in the office was uneventful. I felt like I’d been there forever. I was invited to come along to play indoor football with the team, and once I figured out they meant soccer not rugby, I was all over it. A lot of fun though I was sore for the rest of the week! (Note: don’t say soccer here). A taste of real life again – five days down and no adventure to show for it! Some much needed pounds earned though.

The following weekend I high-tailed it out of town toward Gloucester. I had intended to do some Cotswolds walks, to enjoy what the Cotswolds are renowned for – but the weather had a different idea. Braving the rain I parked at the historic docks and popped in to the Museum of Soldiering. I wasn’t expecting much, but it was actually really interesting reading. The museum focusses mainly on the 28th and 61st … battalions, the Gloucester lads, who have been cranking it since records were kept. It was fascinating to read about England’s clashes with Ireland, Scotland, Wales, Spain, France, Germany, Russia… pretty much everybody who organised an army. Fightin' 'round the world.

Apparently this is the only photo I took of the docks. 

The rain continued to pour but I made a dash to Gloucester Cathedral. Luck was smiling on me again as a choir group was performing a free concert! So I sat and enjoyed the choir, echoing through this amazing gothic cathedral. Quite something.

The coffee shop is open.

The rain still pouring, I killed some time at the cinema. I was foolish and saw Godzilla – pretty much the worst thing I have ever seen. I find it quite annoying, knowing there are so many talented writers out there, so many amazing unmade films – yet some talentless bunch of twats get millions to produce something so terrible! It really is who you know I guess. My irritation was doubled upon leaving the cinema into blinding sunshine – I could have been exploring without getting drenched!

Another lovely pub with ale and book saw the evening out. This pub also had wild rabbits outside – but like, super tiny cute baby ones. Palm sized. I don’t much go for squeeing, but I squeed.

In the morning I utilised the sunshine and went into the hills to a National Trust carpark to explore the Cotswolds. From Haresfield Beacon I had a beautiful view of the lush English countryside. Men were flying their slope soarers from a nearby hill, and birds were flying with them – it was neat to watch.

I followed a nearby forest track on the ‘Cotswold Way’ – knowing this was a loop track. After a few kilometres, passing the ‘Long Barrow’ (ancient burial mounds), I checked my phone to see if I could find a map. This was fortunate, as the Cotswold Way does loop – it’s just a 102 mile loop. So it could have been a long day.

In the afternoon I continued south to Dyrham Park – a big National Trust estate wth Fallow Deer. Arriving at the carpark, NT volunteers were shooing cows away by popping umbrellas at them – it was a bit of a lark. In the gardens I had a Cornetto and read in the sun. My depressing read about Canadian Arctic idiots complete, I had started on a Francis Drake biography which is fantastic reading!

Dyrham Park

In the evening I found a nice secluded layby and settled in for the night. It’s 11:30pm, I’m all tucked up and snoozing happily, when a car’s headlights come right up behind the van and light my interior. Doors slam, there are voices, a lorry pulls up close by. There’s a lot of banging, crashing metal and general commotion.

I sit bolt upright – the gypsies are here to steal my wheels! I’m being parked in to be murdered! A variety of other insanities whirled through my mind as I hurriedly pulled on my jeans. I was wondering if I could get the van moving without warming her up first when I peeked out the curtain to see my attackers. What I saw was a massive horses butt.

I don’t know what these people were doing but they were loading a horse into (or back into) a horse carrier. They pissed about a while showing no consideration for the van at all and then left their horse in truck there overnight. Maybe they were modern horse thieves? I assume rich horse dicks don’t leave their precious horses in laybys overnight. Do people steal horses? Maybe I should’ve rung the fuzz.

At any rate, I’d be lying if I said I didn’t think about scaring the shit out of the horse to make up for the fear they put into me, but that wouldn’t be very sporting for the horse.

I had one more day in my bank holiday weekend, so bright and early I arrived at my southern terminus – Bristol.

After a stunning parallel park near the Cabot tower, I climbed to the top to see the lay of the land. The tower was built in the 1400s and offers 360 views around Bristol, pretty amazing!

The Cabot tower

The Wills Memorial building, Bristol University. I thought it was the cathedral.

Getting my bearings, and thinking the university was the cathedral since it was so amazing, I headed that way. Rocking in to find the building closed (exams in progress) I headed to the neighbouring Bristol museum.

I had an appointment to keep at 3pm so my Bristol whirlwind tour had tight timing - I asked the ladies on the desk if they had a Bristol-centric section. They were taken aback and at pains to explain the wonders that they DID have! And it is a great museum, they were quite right. I dashed through Egypt but I thoroughly enjoyed the British animals and paintings of Britain. The history here, it just keeps getting me – these lovely views that I have shared with these long-dead painters, views which haven’t changed much in hundreds of years! It helps keep things in perspective – for all our technology and stimulation, the loveliest things are still the most primitive and timeless – those found in nature.

One of the main halls in Bristol Museum. The pock marks on the column are left to show a little of the damage done by a downed WWII bomber which crashed into the atrium, where one of its bombs went off. 

I toodled down the hill to the Bristol Cathedral, another amazing gothic church.

Bristol Cathedral

I then toodled up to St Mary Radcliffe, another amazing gothic church. St Mary Radcliffe is actually dated around 1100 though so rather old! While I was visiting they had let the orang-utans from the zoo loose on the bell tower – an unholy cacophony was being produced the entire time I was within earshot. A lot of important figures in British history are entombed at St Mary Radcliffe, quite something to visit.

St Mary Radcliffe

I then headed along the old docks to the M shed – the new Museum of Bristol Life. It was interesting to read about life during the war and that – even I, just popping through for the day, was caught up in some patriotic vigour for this city I’d just arrived in. Top stuff Bristol!

Along the dock are plenty of lovely ships, many with the old masts and rigging. Lovely to see. Walking along you can go through a working dockyard who were doing dry-work on canal boats and that, pretty cool.

Dude doing some rigging

Little train on the dock. 'Drive it 100 metres for £5!'

3pm was approaching as I climbed back up the hill to the Bristol Suspension Bridge. They broke ground around 1839, it’s quite something! The gorge is massive, and with it being low tide it was hard to picture the great ships coming and going up the wee channel. They used the tide to pull them in and out, that was how they got in and out of Bristol!

Bristol Suspension Bridge

My appointment was to meet a potential van buddy, but it wasn’t to be. She sounded too good to be true, and she probably was. A flat tyre, or a weak excuse, I’m not sure – but whatever, the outcome was that I was left feeling a bit worthless! And then I got angry with myself for feeling like that, for having someone else (who I don’t even know!) have that kind of impact on my state of mind. Quite unfairly for her too I might add, and a little creepy.

I hadn’t even met the woman, it was just my own fantasy and hope – all in my stupid head. It’s funny isn’t it, you can daydream about what may be and know it isn’t real – know it’s bullshit – but to then have the potential to fulfil those dreams snuffed feels much more real! And all of it, all of it is in your head. None of it is really there, you create your dreams and crush them all without any external input whatsoever. I took myself on a little emotional rollercoaster, totally unexpectedly I might add, and it sucked. But never mind, I had a nice beer by myself with a great view of the bridge and now I’m back to enjoying myself. And I think I’m done with these little forays into finding a friend on the road, I don't need that shit.

I sure like oversharing, but there it is – part of the adventure. And I loved Bristol, I think it’s a great city.

What a downer - here's a squirrel. Look at how cute!

Great wee fortnight of adventure around Cirencester – can’t wait to see what the next two weeks hold!