Bath and Bristol

Bath vs Bristol: Two Cities, Two Worlds

Episode summary
In this episode of Unravel Travel, we compare two of the great West Country city breaks: Bath and Bristol. They sit close together on the map, yet they feel like completely different worlds. Bath is elegant, Georgian, polished and deeply historic. Bristol is colourful, creative, messy, musical and restless.

We start with a contrast inspired by Tears for Fears’ “Mad World” and Massive Attack’s “Protection”. Both songs suggest urban life, vulnerability and atmosphere, but in very different ways. That contrast becomes our way into the episode: two cities that almost touch, but are a world apart.

Bath: Georgian architecture, Roman history and classic English elegance

We begin with Bath, a city that offers one of England’s most recognisable historic city-break experiences. If Bristol feels loose, urban and creative, Bath feels composed, classical and straight-laced.

Bath is famous for its Georgian architecture, and we talk about some of the city’s best-known sights:

• Royal Crescent
• The Circus
• Pulteney Bridge
• Pulteney Weir
• Bath Abbey
• the elegant streets and squares of the old city

Unlike Bristol, Bath is not a city covered in graffiti and street art. Its beauty is more formal and more immediately recognisable. For many visitors, especially international tourists, Bath may feel like the more “classic England” experience.

We also discuss Bath’s major attractions, including the super historic Roman Baths, the Thermae Bath Spa, the city’s links with Jane Austen, and its smaller museums and galleries. There is a sense that Bath works very well as a refined weekend break: a B&B stay, a canal boat trip, a walk through the old town, a visit to the spa, and perhaps a rugby match at The Rec.

Bristol: street art, music, harbour life and creative energy

We then turn to Bristol. Malcolm has been visiting Bristol since the early 1990s, first through friends and nightlife, and more recently on trips with Petra. Today, Bristol has become one of his go-to cities from the Cotswolds.

We talk about Bristol as a vibrant, alternative and slightly hippy place. It has always had a strong music and club culture, from legendary venues like Thekla, the boat-venue in the harbour, to memories of St Pauls in the 1990s and the city’s wider live music scene. There are also personal memories of seeing bands around university refectories and student venues, including Radiohead on The Bends tour.

Bristol’s art scene is another major part of the discussion. The city is inseparable from street art, with Banksy works such as The Mild Mild West and Girl with a Pierced Eardrum, but the real appeal is that the art is everywhere. Bristol is a city where walls, streets, galleries and public spaces all seem to contribute to the atmosphere.

We also cover some of Bristol’s major visitor highlights, including:

• SS Great Britain
• Clifton Suspension Bridge
• Bristol Harbour
• Arnolfini
• M Shed
• Royal West of England Academy
• the pleasure of simply wandering around the city

For us, Bristol is not just a checklist city. It is a place to drift through, look up, get lost, find a bar, cross the harbour, notice a piece of street art, and feel the city’s energy.

Practical travel notes: visiting Bath and Bristol

Both cities work well as day trips or short breaks, but they offer different experiences.

Bath is probably better if you want beautiful architecture, Roman history, elegant streets, spas, museums, tea rooms and a more traditional city-break experience.

Bristol is probably better if you want nightlife, music, street art, independent culture, harbour walks and a more alternative feel. It rewards repeat visits and aimless wandering.

We also touch on the practicalities of visiting, including driving, parking and using park and ride options, especially in Bath, where the city centre can be awkward by car.

So which is better: Bath or Bristol?

The real answer is that Bath and Bristol are best understood together. They are close enough to visit on the same trip, but different enough to feel like two separate worlds.

Search themes: Bath travel, Bristol travel, Bath vs Bristol, West Country city breaks, UK city breaks, Cotswolds day trips, Bath Georgian architecture, Bristol street art, Bristol music scene, Roman Baths, Clifton Suspension Bridge, Royal Crescent, Pulteney Bridge.

Episode keywords: Bath, Bristol, Bath vs Bristol, UK travel podcast, West Country travel, city break, Bath architecture, Bristol street art, Roman Baths, Clifton Suspension Bridge, Royal Crescent, Massive Attack, Tears for Fears.

If you have any question on this or another travel topic, just contact us at contact.unraveltravel@gmail.com

Our theme music is Traveler's Blues by Jerzy Gorecki from Pixabay (with licence)

https://pixabay.com/users/jerzyg%C3%B3recki-2233926/

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:09

Welcome to Unravel Travel, where every journey has a story.

SPEAKER_00 0:16

Paying to get in. Yeah, I I I paid to get in and it it was uh money well spent. It's I I do like a bit of Roman culture. And I uh you know, in my early travelling days before I went outside of Europe, obviously what I was doing was in Europe, and uh Barbara, my ex-wife, she's a bit of a historian, so we we did quite a lot of travelling around Europe to see Roman ruins and such like, and then you know, two, three years in we sort of went to Bath and thought, my god, this is better than anything we've seen in Italy. It's not a member of the member of Massive. For a long time that was the rumour, but it changes all the time. Uh a paper in New York recently came out with who they thought Banksy was, and I've forgotten already.

SPEAKER_01 1:07

I didn't know that actually, but I've seen it. I put it in one of my cricket club quizzes once. List of pictures, who are these people? I think the Daily Mail published a photo of who they alleged was Banksy about ten years ago as well, so yeah. All around me are familiar faces, worn out places, worn out faces, bright and early for their daily races, going nowhere, going nowhere. David.

SPEAKER_00 1:37

Uh all around me familiar faces. Well, that's tears for fears. Does that mean they're from Bath? Yes, they are from Bath. It was written in Bath. Didn't know that. So well I always thought it was written in the bath. No, I didn't. I had no idea that they were from Bath.

SPEAKER_01 1:58

There are there are people all over the country and dare I say world grandiosely cringing at our northern pronunciation of the place of bath, as my children would call it.

SPEAKER_00 2:11

I might be wrong, but I believe that in Bath they pronounce it the same way as we do, even though they're from the south. Probably not with quite such a strong accent, but yes.

SPEAKER_01 2:22

They might use the strong A.

SPEAKER_00 2:24

Yeah, I believe they do. But you know, if I'm wrong, people from Bath who are listening, please uh say Malcolm's wrong in the comments.

SPEAKER_01 2:33

I I can just tell them they're wrong in general because that's the right way to pronounce it. I think it is. Yeah. So what's today's episode about? Um so we're gonna talk about Bath and also another close by city, which we'll come on to later, as part of our sort of talking about places in the UK. It looks like we're working our way north gradually f from Cornwall, which is what we did last time. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 3:01

Wow, so does it it almost looks like we've got a plan. Almost? Yeah. You could you could actually do it as a road trip.

SPEAKER_01 3:07

Yeah. I've been to Bath quite a lot. Uh we stayed there last uh in December for uh a long weekend, three or four days, and I've been plenty of times before. And it's a com because it's not too far from us, actually, it's a place we commonly take guests visitors to the UK.

SPEAKER_00 3:27

Yeah, and it's not that far from London either. It's not a huge distance from here in the Chilterns. I've been a couple of times, just long weekends or short weekend each time. Actually, long weekend, I think. Always enjoyed it, although a lot of the time I was walking, so I didn't I only really spent the evenings or the usual touristy stuff in Bath itself. I think you've got a more in-depth view of Bath.

SPEAKER_01 3:50

Yeah, perhaps. Although I've never really gone particularly outside the the sort of the core of the old city centre, but still there's a lot to see there. And I mean obviously there's the Roman heritage, the baths in Bath. I haven't looked up the entomology of which follows which.

SPEAKER_00 4:10

Yeah, and how the Romans pronounce it.

SPEAKER_01 4:12

Yeah. But that's probably a topic for another day. Uh have you been to the Roman baths? Have you paid to get in? You can walk round the back and sort of look over the wall a bit, but paying to get in.

SPEAKER_00 4:24

I I I paid to get in and it it was uh money well spent. It's I I do like a bit of Roman culture, and I uh you know, in my early travelling days before I went outside of Europe, obviously what I was doing was in Europe, and uh Barbara, my ex-wife, she's a bit of a historian, so we we did quite a lot of travelling around Europe to see Roman ruins and such like, and then you know, two, three years in we sort of went to Bath and thought, my god, this is better than anything we've seen in Italy.

SPEAKER_01 4:57

I think we went to the Roman villa at North Lee together a long time ago when we were living in Woodstock and the kids were low.

SPEAKER_00 5:04

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 5:06

Yeah, we've paid to go into Roman the Roman the baths in Roman blind me. The the Roman baths in Bath a few times, and and it's more than just the pool and the colonnaded area. There's a sort of quite a historical museum. You can get down into sort of the bowels of it a bit, can't you, as well?

SPEAKER_03 5:27

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 5:28

It's pretty interesting, yeah, well worth the money. Can be a bit of a long queue though, in the height of summer.

SPEAKER_00 5:34

Yeah, I don't remember I mean sure they I'm sure there w was, um, but I can't rem don't remember it being bad when we went, so maybe we just got lucky and it would have been summertime. Actually I remember now, I've been to about three times thinking about it. But yeah, we did go in summer.

SPEAKER_01 5:49

Yeah, no, it's very good. And then as a um as a contrast, uh I've also been several times, and we'll go again this year, I think, to the uh Ferme Spa, which is just round the corner, uses the same water from the that originally felt fed the uh the baths, and is like a sort of you know, spa thing, steam rooms, big open air bath on have you are you aware of it?

SPEAKER_00 6:21

I've been. Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_02 6:23

Right.

SPEAKER_00 6:23

Yeah, yeah. Well I you know, I wasn't sure whether I've been twice. Um wasn't sure whether I'd enjoy it particularly, but loved it. You know, I'm not a kind of spa person, I would have thought, but yeah, absolutely loved it and I'd I'd go again quite happily. Uh well worth the money. Yeah. Just a quick quick question. Now last episode was about Sri Lanka and this sluice gate that opened and in and they created you your own private swimming pool. How did the temperature compare from there to uh to to the hot really hot bit of the bus spark? Uh there was quite a distinct temperature gradient. Yeah. The only reason I mentioned that is that the first time I went, I'd actually done some a bit of a cot the Cotswolds way, but about a 20-mile hike.

SPEAKER_01 7:07

So you got in there all smelly, did you?

SPEAKER_00 7:10

I think we we had a shower first, but yeah, we didn't go back to our place, I didn't have an awful lot to eat, and I ended up feeling really rather faint, which was partly lack of food, but also it's bloody hot. Okay, yeah, soreness, so yes, you should have to be. Well, the steam rooms are the killers, aren't they? Yeah, yeah. I think that was the issue. I went in the steam room and I literally started feeling faint, and we ended up going to the top swimming pool, the open area, which I must say is one of the best swimming pool views I've ever been in or had. It's fantastic.

SPEAKER_01 7:41

Um it's uh the the so for people that don't know, it's like a three or four-story building, it's right near Bath.

SPEAKER_00 7:48

Um that's next to the Roman baths.

SPEAKER_01 7:51

Yes, it is. Uh, and and with a view out on the the church. It's not a church Minster, that's it, Bath Minster. And so it's totally open air, the roof top swimming pool. Um it's not really a swimming pool, is it? It's sort of a metre deep and it's just for you know lounging around in. Um chatting and stuff and looking at the view, which is great. Good to go at sunset so you get a bit of a view of the city before it gets dark, and then some when it's dark, if possible.

SPEAKER_00 8:18

But I was gonna say, have you ever been at night? Because I bet you it's yeah, I've only ever been during the day, but I bet you as the sun's coming down, uh the bath starts to light up, I bet you it's beautiful.

SPEAKER_01 8:27

We went once during the day and once at night, and we're going again this year. We haven't decided exactly when yet. But the the only problem I would say is we went in it so in December last year, and it was night time. Actually, the steam coming off the baths, they've got these like security glass walls, you're not supposed to get out of the bath, and you know, but they've got these meter-high glass, yeah, glass walls around the edge for safety. But of course, they then all steam up. You know, so you can't see the view. Yeah, yes, yes. So that's a bit of an annoying problem. As you're not supposed to be out of the pool anyway, it seems a bit overkill to have the walls, but I'm sure that's health and safety gone mad.

SPEAKER_00 9:07

Well, having been up there, it I think it's quite a sensible health and safety precaution. But I take your point, since you're not supposed to be out of the pool.

SPEAKER_01 9:16

Yeah, it it's um the one we go to in check quite often, is a bit you get a bit of a longer stay. I mean, I think you only get 90 minutes or something, don't you? It's not quite enough to properly enjoy it.

SPEAKER_00 9:29

I think I'd like a bit longer, really, but I think you might be able to get two hours if you get a voucher or something.

SPEAKER_01 9:34

Well, if you've used a cafe, I think they add on a half an hour. Right, okay. Uh to encourage you to buy something to eat and drink.

SPEAKER_00 9:41

But no, it's very good, and there's a big basement sort of covered, obviously basement covered, swimming pool thing as well, which is quite, if I remember it correctly, it has some sort of water circling around so you can just sort of float around in circles. And then is it is it aromatherapy or is that the steam room?

SPEAKER_01 9:58

Yeah, the aromatherapy steam rooms and saw and um saunas and stuff.

SPEAKER_00 10:02

It's yeah, it's I did like the aromatherapy, but yeah. Yeah, it I I I can't even remember how much it costs, but I would say well worth the money, because it it's quite a for me, it was quite a unique thing.

SPEAKER_01 10:13

Yeah, so if you go into Bath, it seems rather pac paradoxical, but pack your swimming stuff. Exactly. They do sell them, but they're quite expensive. So probably not very trendy. No. Yeah, so that's a that's a real sort of interesting thing up uh about Bath, the Roman baths, and and that modern one. But one of the things I found really interesting about Bath is the architecture. I mean, you know, it's just classically what people picture as, you know, it'll be on Miss Marple or something, wouldn't it? It's just that streets and streets and streets of those things.

SPEAKER_00 10:52

They've got a crescent there, don't they? Yeah, the Royal Crescent. Yeah. Which I I've seen elsewhere, and I'm trying to remember where, but I'm thinking Edinburgh or something. But I I've seen other places that have got a similar design, so it must have been probably Edwardian, I don't know, something like that.

SPEAKER_01 11:08

Yeah, something something like that I'd say. When we were there in um in December, with a totally without planning, we hit the something anniversary of Jane Austen birth. She was based around Bath, wasn't she?

SPEAKER_00 11:22

Did you say so?

SPEAKER_01 11:23

Yeah, because they were all on about it. There's a Jane Austen museum there, and there were people walking around in that sort of character Jane Austen outfits, tall hats, frilly dresses, etc. We went up to the Royal to to check out the Royal Crescent, and there was a load of people wandering around dressed as rear admirals and all sorts of stuff for the tourists. It's like oh for flipping.

SPEAKER_00 11:46

You love it you love an opportunity to dress up.

SPEAKER_01 11:49

Yeah, me personally, but these are these weren't the these were paid actors wandering around.

SPEAKER_00 11:53

Oh right, right, I I just thought it was people that dressed up and just getting the swing of things. Just see you in a your tour, what what are the name of those hats that look like chimney? Stovepipe hats. There you go. It's that stovepipe looks like a chimney.

SPEAKER_01 12:10

Yeah, that's what it was called. Yeah. I'll uh I'll talk more about that in the second half. Okay. Um yeah, the Minster's very good as well. I've not been in there. Yeah. I'm surprised. It's quite good. Uh we went in there and saw that. Just remember there was a thing going around for a while. It's like the Goya World or something. It was a massive balloon with a projector inside it, projecting the it looked like the world turning. There was uh it was a big sort of performance art piece thing. Um that was up in there when we went in, which is quite impressive. But you know, I I like a good minster. Good. But the world so the real crescent is very good, but there's many of those sorts of things as well, uh more widely spread around Bath. And just the sort of wandering around that area. It's on it's obviously well, not necessarily obviously, but it's got some steep hills on it, hasn't it? It's built into sort of a bowl, the river runs through it, and the river Avonites. Yeah, and and some of those views are fantastic, they're just timeless. They might not have changed for a couple of hundred years, those sorts of streets, and and often there aren't so many cars because parking is quite difficult. So you get restrictions, I think, now don't they?

SPEAKER_00 13:23

Uh yeah. Emission restrictions. Yeah, there's a there's a zone, I think. Yeah, so it'll make it a bit like Oxford, I guess. It'll make it a bit easier to wander around once you get parked.

SPEAKER_01 13:34

And last time we went, we parked, we we went in by park and ride. Yeah. So we went to the park and ride outside town and came in on the bus. Uh, because you're not really walking very far outside of the city centre. You don't need your car when you're small.

SPEAKER_00 13:48

Once you're in the city, it's really small. And I I felt like the centre had a feeling of Covent Garden about it.

SPEAKER_01 13:55

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 13:56

Like that, like there were street performers, you know, it just had that lovely vibe of uh a city with something about it. Some of the street performers are good, some are terrible, but that's what you always get, isn't it? Exactly. But yes, in the evening it was quite if after you'd been out for dinner, it was actually quite nice just having a wander around soaking up the atmosphere.

SPEAKER_01 14:17

Yeah, definitely. There's a nice covered market in there. I don't know if you've been to that. There's some nice covered sort of market spaces. One of them's uh really quaintly sort of circular hexagonal, perhaps, with some nice sort of you know boutique type shops. It's all yeah, all quite sophisticated. I I'm gonna murder the pronunciation of this, but the Pultony Bridge, which is like a it's like the bridge in Florence and the old London Bridge. It's got shops built into the side of it, you know that. And Paris as well. I think Paris had one of those. I'm sure all ancient cities had them probably. Yeah, yeah. Do you do you know that that's just above the weir? I I think I've completely missed that. That's sort of classic view of Bath is the weir on the river. Um so just near the big hotel. So the Minster sort of backs onto that. If you went beyond the Minster a little bit further, there's the river winding through, and there's a big weir, and the bridge is just above that. So the river comes underneath, obviously the bridge. Uh but you can walk up the stairs, and the bridge has got all those little shops, narrow little shops on either side of it. What sort of shops? Uh boutique. Yeah, they're pretty boutique. Uh there's a couple of cafes probably.

SPEAKER_00 15:34

They were very different back in the day.

SPEAKER_01 15:35

Yeah, probably a posh flower shop, uh, wine shop, it'll be that sort of thing, I think. Yeah. But that's got one of those really long views up to sort of some posh house up at the other end of the road, you know, it's that sort of i it's a uh a a sort of s designed city, planned city you might say, in a way that makes it quite nice, in the way that now when people plan estates of houses they look like terrible. But back then when they planned sections of towns with new housing, they seem to have a s some sort of elegance around it. You know, it would be the crescent, or it would be a long road with a featured view at the end. Now you just get as many houses as you can packed into a s field.

SPEAKER_00 16:18

Uh yeah, you gotta make your money.

SPEAKER_01 16:21

I suppose so.

SPEAKER_00 16:22

So it learned quite as well, will it? Well, no, but they don't care, they've lost uh the although they're no longer responsible once it's got past a certain number of years. That's true. You've been listening to Unravel Travel on the subject of Bath, Bath, and Bristol. You mentioned the river Avon. Yes. Do you know what Avon means?

SPEAKER_01 16:47

It means your makeup is just about to arrive. Nope. Okay. River. Oh, is that what it means? It's the river river.

SPEAKER_00 16:55

It's the river river. So good they named it twice. Oh, very good. Yeah, I know. I always like those little things. I looked it up once when I was there or thereabouts to see what Avon, where the name came from. Found out it meant river. Right.

SPEAKER_01 17:09

Perfect. Also, you wa if you don't know that area you won't know, but the the Bath Rugby ground, the wreck, is right next to the river as well, just near Pult Pultney Bridge. So you can in fact you can go into just the corner of the ground and have a look, but obviously that it's quite busy when the when the rugby's on. Some pretty vibrant pubs down there. Yeah. And when we've stayed, we've used sort of B and B's a couple of times. But the last time in December, we did something pretty unusual. We stayed on a canal boat. Ah, very nice. Right on the river there, just next to the Weir. So up against the side of the rugby club stands, which doesn't sound quite so nice, but looking out the other window, you can see um at the Minster and that big hotel on the top and all those sorts of views.

SPEAKER_00 18:04

Uh no, in rugby players and rugby fans, so you had the Minster on one side and uh several moons on the other side.

SPEAKER_01 18:11

There was no rugby on it, was midweek. Okay. Where did you get to park? Well, we came up we came by park and ride. So Right, okay. Okay. Although actually just across the other side of that river is uh the cricket club as well, which has a pay and display car park, which I've often used midweek because it's right near the city centre, um and and not particularly well known, I think. So yeah, the canal boat was excellent. It wasn't one of these narrow boats, it was a double width one, like a a a Dutch barge type thing if you're familiar with those. Less than you probably, but yeah, I've uh I've heard of them. And it was uh I say moored up, you know, and it had a a power hookup and uh a big wood-burning stove and you know, proper kitchen and shower, presumably. Yes, but the a limited water supply. So shower and toilet, but a limited water supply. And it was great, we stayed there for two or three nights, and the the only issue was it was the middle of December. It was clutter of what it had rained quite a lot. There was a lot of water coming down the river and over the weir, was moving around a little bit in the night against its ropes. I'm just imagine you got seasick on a barge. No, I I found it fine. Um Rock you to sleep. Not everybody found it quite so fine, but I thought it was okay and quite interesting. But the the water level was I mean, obviously, you know, they're moored, so they come up and down with the water level. Yeah. But it got to the point where the rape is long enough. Yeah, but it got to the point where it was sort of up against the where you would get out onto the bank, you know, the concrete top of the river. It was at that sort of height, you know, it started to flood into the park on the other side, so it was quite high. I think there'd been some sort of warning about the river level, so um so that just added a little bit of entertainment, yes, to the to the stay. But it was great because you're I mean you're absolutely right in the middle of town. Yeah. You know.

SPEAKER_00 20:21

Where did you eat on the Minster? Because I've got a good restaurant that I went to.

SPEAKER_01 20:25

Well, we cooked on the boat one night, definitely. We ate out a couple of times at sort of there was quite a nice cafe in this covered market we ate there a bit. We went to a sort of fish restaurant.

SPEAKER_00 20:38

I went to a good fish restaurant with an upstairs? It's yes. I think it might be was it fish and chips downstairs, but it was proper fish options upstairs. Oh right, okay.

SPEAKER_01 20:48

Well, yes, that's where we ate, and we thought we had just fish and chips, but the near the covered market? No. Uh but that's what we thought was we thought that was all that there was. I didn't realise it was a different menu upstairs. You're not telling me that now, but yeah, we might go back differently. But it was good. The fit I mean there were fish and chips, but the but it but the the the range of fish was like different. It was like hake and stuff, it wasn't just cotton chips.

SPEAKER_00 21:11

I think we had rock actually, but yeah, I maybe the menu wasn't different upstairs because I just remember it was a more advanced fish and chip menu than what you'd normally get. I'm I'm sure there was stuff other than and they had yeah, they had oysters and all sorts of different things. Yeah, exactly. No, it was the same menu. Uh I mean I'd always I'd love fish and chips anyway, so I'm very happy to have it. But yeah, it was a it was a fancy but very tasty fish and chips.

SPEAKER_01 21:32

I mean, you know, I I'm I'd like to think I'm a connoisseur of fish and chips, bearing in mind where I was brought up and the fact that I worked in a chip shop for many years. So but it was pretty good fish and chips, yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 21:45

And then the other place that I went to that uh I would highly recommend if you're happy eating beef steak is the Hudson Steakhouse. I think it had been voted in the top five steakhouses in the UK. Uh right. I've been there a couple of times now. And it it's really good, really good steak. Uh with uh parmesan fries, I think it um um uh sorry, parmesan and truffle fries. Really lovely.

SPEAKER_01 22:11

Right. Well that wasn't quite on the menu for us, so as Patrick doesn't eat.

SPEAKER_00 22:17

Uh yeah, I'm not sure. Not sure what other options there are beyond. I mean there are some, but if you go into a steakhouse, you the other stuff won't be as good as the steak. Do you have anything more to say about Bath, Dave? No. Uh as I say, I've only been there about three times. Oh, actually, one other thing. You talked about staying on the barge. When I went there, I I one of the times I ran a walking holiday. Uh so we didn't really go into Bath very much. We we would sort of like Betty Singet for dinner, and we were going out during the day doing walks in the Cotswolds. And we stayed, it was in the summer, so we stayed in the university accommodation.

SPEAKER_01 22:54

Oh, right, okay.

SPEAKER_00 22:55

And there's a bus from there into town, it's up at the top of the hill. Yeah, I know where it is. Um I think the Ollie took the University in Bath actually. Oh, did he? I didn't realise that. Accommodation these days for students isn't well, I never stayed in halls, but I saw a few. It it's just not it's a different level. Yeah. You know, every everything's en suite. They were double beds but slightly smaller, maybe, than your larger double bed. But you know, they they were it was really good accommodation, cheap, easy to get into Bath, don't have to worry about the car because you can park at the university. Uh so if you're looking for something slightly different and it's out of term time, then and it's not just Bath. Oxford, I've done stayed when I went to a Stagdad, we stayed in accommodation in Oxford that was student accommodation as well. Okay. So, you know, it's just a a way of because uh Izzy and I at the weekend book some accommodation in York, and you're talking 150 quid a night now, it can be really expensive. Yeah, uh so if you're looking for something a bit cheaper, maybe have a look at if it's a university town, so if that that the university's offering accommodation.

SPEAKER_01 24:00

Yeah, definitely. And I I looked at the accommodation for where we stayed and found the canal boat, but that was I mean, they're booked solid all year. It was just December. I don't think you know, we just got lucky. Right. Accomplished. It's a wonderful way of doing it, isn't it?

SPEAKER_00 24:16

Yeah. We stayed, as he and I, when we went before, stayed in a great B and B that was very central, but I I I I can't remember where it what its name was. But yeah, great breakfast, great lovely room.

SPEAKER_01 24:27

Yeah. You're listening to Unravel Travel on Bath and Brizzle. So I think we should talk about the the other city which is very close by, which is Bristol. Excellent. Which I've been to quite a few times as well. Let me do a quick reading for Bristol. I should have done that first probably. This girl I know needs some shelter. She don't believe anyone can help her. She's doing so much harm, doing so much damage. But you don't want to get involved, you tell her she can manage.

SPEAKER_00 25:00

I'm sure you know what that is. Only because I read your notes. So I know it's Massive Attack, and I know they're from Bristol, but for some reason I managed to miss Massive Attack, even though they allegedly have uh a very famous member. Who I'm sure if people haven't heard of Massive Attack, they will have heard of this alleged artist. I don't think that's true. Uh is he not the famous Banksy after all?

SPEAKER_01 25:25

I d I don't uh uh I mean Banksy obviously exists, but I don't think that's not a member of Banks.

SPEAKER_00 25:31

He or she is a member of Massive Attack. For a long time that was the rumour, but it changes all the time. Uh a paper in New York recently came out with who they thought Banksy was, and I've forgotten already.

SPEAKER_01 25:42

I didn't know that actually, but I've seen it. I put it in one of my cricket club quizzes once. List of pictures, who are these people? I think the Daily Mail published a photo of who they alleged was Banksy about ten years ago as well. So there are plenty of names around. There's a very good podcast on Banksy as well, and speculating about who he is for people who are interested in that sort of thing. I think it's called Finding Banksy or something like that. But Bristol is a I mean they almost co-join, don't they? I think Bath and Bristol. There's very small gap between them if they don't it's very close. Yeah. But they're really quite a different sort of Bristol's really quite a different sort of place. It's a much bigger than Bath, of course. And it's a much more vibrant and hippie place in the way that Bath is a bit more traditional and upmarket and conservative. Bristol is none of those things.

SPEAKER_00 26:32

Well, shall I tell you before you get into your swing, shall I tell you my other than driving through Bath on the way down to Dartmoor and a few times Cornw Cornwall, uh, I've only stayed in Bristol once. So before you get into doing all your lovely stuff about it, this was my experience of Bristol. We basically got there at about 10 o'clock at night. We were just staying overnight in a travel lodge. It was on the way down to either Dartmoor or Cornwall. I can't remember, probably Cornwall. Middle of winter, I think, or you know, it's pretty cold. People just barely dressed, young people wandering around in the middle of the streets. Obviously, I think it's a bit of a stag and hendoo location, isn't it? Could be.

SPEAKER_01 27:11

Uh and that that was my a lot of students as well.

SPEAKER_00 27:13

Well, yeah, maybe it was just you, I don't know. Uh that was my one experience of Bristol, and I was very happy to get into the travel lodge. Away from all these drunk people. But anyway, over to you, because I know nothing more about Bristol than that.

SPEAKER_01 27:27

I mean, it's quite a hippie place, Bristol, which which obviously makes it very different to Bath. And it's got some excellent music venues. I mean, we used to go down there quite a bit when I first moved to Oxford. We had friends of friends that lived in Clifton that were at that were at the University of Bristol, Clifton campus. So we used to go down and stay there. So uh the Thecla, which is a nightclub built into a boat on the harbour in the middle of Bristol. Yeah, well, perhaps. I didn't fall asleep in that particular nightclub, Dave. So otherwise it could have been a theme. Well, yeah, that was Rock City for anybody in Noting for anybody who isn't aware. Uh it's still there when we went there the year before last. It was still there, the Thekla. And it's got gigs every night, as well as sort of nightclubs. And it's excellent, it's all built into the hold of the ship, so the walls sort of curve, you know, like that. It's a it's it's a very interesting place to go. And I mean, and now we go to lots of gigs in Bristol. It's a it's a sort of location of choice for us from the Cotswolds, easier to get to than London, and most of the big bands play there. There's quite a few good venues. Obviously, not quite as big as major events in London, but I don't really go to those. And it's got a good art scene. I mean, obviously, Banksy, street art is a big thing in Bristol. I mean, uh there's graffiti all over the place. Um some of the Banksys are in very well-known locations. You can't believe how they managed to put them up without anyone spotting them. And some are in a bit out-of-the-way places as well, but we went and did a sort of tour around seeing some of the ones we particularly like. But also there's loads of galleries. I mean, the layout of Bristol is that it's built around a harbour which cuts through to the sea, so it was a major port. I mean, it its past is sort of scarred with slavery. Um it was the sort of hub of all that sort of thing in the UK, and there's been lots of protests about that and statues thrown into the harbour and stuff since. But that's the sort of origin of the harbour, and there's quite a lot of galleries around it, free ones, the Arnold Feeney's quite an interesting free gallery, the M shed as well. And then a bit further up out of town is the West of England World Academy, uh, which does an autumn show like the Academy in London's summer show. So those things are all quite good, but then there's also the engineering links of the SS Great Britain and Clifton Suspension Bridge. You know, Brunel um built obviously the railway line all the way out to the West Country to Bristol, about Bath and Bristol, and then further down. Um I'm not sure how far. Certainly into Devon. So there's a big connection to uh to Brunel in Bristol, and those things are fantastic. The suspension bridge, have you been there, Dave?

SPEAKER_00 30:14

Yeah, well, I think I've driven over it once, uh, because I decided to go through the centre of Bristol because it looked a lot shorter. Uh the one one thing I would tell people don't do it if you're looking to save time. It's it wasn't a good idea. No. Uh not but not because of the suspension bridge, it's just oh my god, was that a convoluted way of doing a shortcut? Yeah, it's a lot quicker to stay on the motorways. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 30:37

Uh the suspension bridge itself is really interesting. I mean, it's very high, uh, and uh and it's got quite a good museum associated with it, but it's a sort of classic of British engineering uh and well worth a visit. And and actually Clifton around it is quite nice. There's a nice walk because it it cuts through a natural gorge through the the hills there. So around Clifton is really quite pretty, some excellent views, and so yeah, nice walk there, which is sort of in the city but not in the city. And as soon as you get across the suspension bridge, it's sort of quite open on the other side.

SPEAKER_00 31:12

Um, and and if you're talking walking, I'm just gonna sort of deviate off a little bit. You're you're kind of like on the edge of the Mendips there, and you've got Cheddar, not a million miles. When in fact, one of the holidays I didn't end up doing was gonna base myself, and that's why we were talking about before Bath, but then do a drive down to Cheddar for the day. But I should imagine it's the same if you're in Bristol, it's not very far if you wanted a a day trip out into the countryside to go to the Mendips and Cheddar, which is countryside.

SPEAKER_01 31:38

And there's probably some decent bus routes I would have thought heading out of Bristol in that direction. Certainly quite a few buses came past us as we crossed the bridge. Um the other thing about Brunel that's particularly interesting is the SS Great Britain, which is down in the harbour in a museum, and I would say it's probably the best museum I've been to for a long time. They've got the actual ship which they hauled back from the Falkland Islands, which is where it ended up. Wow. But it was the first ever metal cruise ship. You know, it used to do the routes to Australia, it crossed the Atlantic lots of times, and they've sort of rebuilt half of the inside so you can see exactly what it was like on these early cruisers. Uh fantastic. How big is it?

SPEAKER_00 32:21

Yeah. Oh, that's a question, isn't it? Because you know, these days cruise liners are sort of humongous, but obviously not as big as that. Well, no, but I I guess it's that big just to make it financially viable.

SPEAKER_01 32:33

Yeah, I mean, people were obviously taking ships, sail ships out to to Australia and stuff beforehand, and that was viable. But this this was I think maybe twice as big as the largest cell ship. If you've been to the Victory in Portsmouth naval dockyards, it's probably twice the size, twice the length of that, I should think, something like that. Okay. It was also the first steam and screw-powered one. So it's very interesting, and its life story is interesting, and they brought it back, like I say, put it together in this museum. And there's a great dressing-up option. Uh I've got a photo of me which might well make it to the cover with a Brunel stovepipe hat on. I think I've seen the picture. Yeah. It's an excellent museum, not to be missed, and it's another one of these where you get you know, you you buy an entry and you get a free entry for a year. Uh highly recommended. I mean, we've we spent probably four or five days in Bristol, and it was great. R really good. Could have probably spent some more time. It's that you know, that much bigger. You can get out into slightly different areas. So that's like I said, Clifton area is a bit different from the middle of Bristol, and there's lots going on. And I say I've been there quite a lot in the past as well. Unlicensed pubs in St. Paul's in the nineties.

SPEAKER_00 33:42

Yeah, well by unlicensed, what do you mean by that? Literally. Literally unlicensed. Yeah, it was St.

SPEAKER_01 33:48

Paul's pretty much a no-go area, you know, and lots of raven reggae parties as well. The first place you went, presumably, the no-go area. That's right. So yeah, it was excellent. And we saw uh radio head on the Benz tour at the Clifton University refectory in the days when when those sort of gigs used to happen in in canteens. As they were. So yeah, uh, Bristol's an excellent place, uh, and Bath's an excellent place. They're just quite different. A tour to both of them would um would tick many boxes, I would think.

SPEAKER_00 34:24

Yes, yeah, a nice contrast.

SPEAKER_01 34:27

Yeah. You're you're giving me some hand signals, Dave, which either means we're nearly out of time or you don't agree with my views.

SPEAKER_00 34:34

It could be both of those things. Yeah, it's both of those things. Actually, no, I I I don't have an opinion on on Bristol, so uh it does sound nice actually. It was a place I think because I went there the first time and just saw a load of drunken people, I it never crossed my mind to go there.

SPEAKER_01 34:49

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 34:50

But no, there's uh it sounds like there's a lot more to it than just party.

SPEAKER_01 34:53

The home of Wallace and Gromit as well, of course. Ardman Studios are based in Bristol.

SPEAKER_00 34:58

You're full of adopts useful, famous people information today.

SPEAKER_01 35:02

I am. I am. Right, uh that'll probably do us, I think, won't it? For that's Bath and Brizzle.

SPEAKER_00 35:09

Yeah, thank you.

SPEAKER_01 35:10

We'll go for a West Country accent for Brizzle. I'll let you do that one.

SPEAKER_00 35:15

Anyway, thank you for listening, everybody, and thank you, Malcolm, for taking us through those two places, very expert views. Yeah, thank you, Dave.

SPEAKER_01 35:22

Speak to you all soon.