On our last morning we checked out, leaving our bag to collect later, stopped for breakfast at Wapping Wharf then walked up through the city to BBC Bristol for a tour.
We looked round reception and could see the kind of programmes made here like Antiques Roadshow, Gardeners World and Countryfile. Their pride and joy is the Natural History Unit which have made all the best known wildlife programmes from Life on Earth to Seven Worlds, One Planet that will be shown this autumn. The technical developments during this time have been immense, enabling the camera to get closer and closer to the action, nowadays often using drones to disturb the animals as little as possible. BBC Bristol also make the local news programme Points West and our tour showed us the BBC Wildlife Garden where the weather is filmed and the main news studio – both behind the scenes, and in front of the camera!
Afterwards, we had a go recording our own radio play with special sound effects including rubber gloves for bats, a bicycle pump for a champagne cork …
… and then filming a news and sport bulletin with a weather slot which certainly helped us see there is a lot more to this tv lark than meets the eye!
Walking back, we popped into the Bristol Museum and Art Gallery, really just to see Banksy’s Paint-Pot Angel, but it was out on loan … so we’ll have to see that next time. Once inside though, we took a turn round their Pre-Raphaelites and really liked this one …
… saw this view of the bridge …
… and this replica of the first plane built in Bristol – the Bristol Boxkite.
The tower of the Wills Memorial Building dominates the city and is considered one of the last great Gothic buildings to be built in England. It is part of the University of Bristol and we just looked inside the entrance hall …
… then headed passed the Cathedral and we were done.
We had watched the quiches and salads being prepared while we ate our breakfast this morning and returned to Mokoko to try them out!
Chatting over lunch, we thought we would probably be back sometime, after all there’s definitely more to see, it would be nice to see the city with a little more sunshine and there are lots more restaurants to try!
On that happy note, the ferry took us back to Temple Meads and our train home.
Off Travelling Together 