Hello - this is the second part of my trip to Bristol, focusing on the town's cathedral as well as the football match which I went to. If you've not read part one, you can find it here.
Here goes:
Bristol Cathedral
The station may have looked like a cathedral, but Bristol has an actual cathedral too. It's been around for nearly 900 years and still looks great, though only the chapter house is that old, with the rest of the cathedral constructed bit by bit, sometimes rebuilt due to renovations and events such as riots which occurred 200 years ago and destroyed its library. It's got all the features you'd expect of a cathedral - stained glass windows, tombstones, and lots of ornate artwork on its walls. I was hesitant to take photos of the cathedral inside, but I do have this simple one of the interior. You can easily access it by either climbing up a series of steps to reach the green surrounding the cathedral, with the benefit for me that it's direct from the route I took, or you can simply walk around and access the green that way. Outside the cathedral I overheard a tourguide mention Brunel, who I'd later learn was more significant in Bristol than I assumed, and once I got inside it was a matter of walking around and admiring the church organ and architecture, especially the magnificent nave which can be seen in the photo on the left below. More of the cathedral's history can be found here, though it begins with the writing of the gospels (a thousand years before the cathedral even came close to being). Unfortunately I wasn't there for long, so I don't have much more to say on it.
One
thing I would soon realise is that Bristol is an interesting mix of
both ornately decorated buildings, houses with more cobbled frameworks,
and rather modern glass exteriors, with or without chimneys, and all these differences combined give the city a peculiar
feeling of multiple historical eras compressed into one - and the
cathedral is obviously partially the oldest building still standing. Whilst many other cities are like this, this mix of styles makes the city even more fascinating to
visit from an outsider's perspective. It became rather obvious when
standing by the choir school adjacent to the cathedral, with its cobbled
exterior, just how different each building can look here, and the image below hopefully shows that contrast between the old and the new.
Ashton Gate (Bristol City - Millwall)
There are two main football clubs in Bristol - City and Rovers. The former play at Ashton Gate, located near the Avon and can be seen from the Clifton Suspension Bridge (which will get its own blogpost soon), and it was Millwall's turn to visit the stadium on New Year's Day. The stadium has been around since the late 20th century, but from its bowl-like exterior, you might not assume that immediately. Yet (see here) destruction during World War 2, the construction of new stands, further redevelopments and new regulations that came from the findings of the Taylor Report have made the stadium look as it does today. They also play rugby here. All visitors, however, are greeted by this statue of club legend John Atyeo, who also has a stand named after him as well.
The
match itself was rather appalling - it was awfully quiet compared to
some of the stadia I'd been to (admittedly few), and the two teams
didn't really try to play in the first half. After forty-five wasted
minutes, half time approached, and since I was at the away end, there
was nothing to see of the stadium apart from a colourful mural of the
city beside a staircase.
The second half thankfully saw Millwall remember how to attack, and (though still shy) fans of both teams started to chant more often - still a miserable amount for a stadium that could fit 27,000 people, but at least it was slightly louder. Rain began to pour as well, but thankfully I was hidden under a roof. And in the final few minutes, Millwall scored from a corner to ultimately win 1-0. I was surprised as most probably were, and my trip back to London would be accompanied by fans chanting, probably relieved they had at least one thing to smile about whilst their coats got even more wet.
I'm not finished writing about Bristol, though. I've got a separate blogpost on the Clifton Suspension Bridge planned, but it would be far too long to fit into this series, and I'd rather you weren't inundated with too much Bristol content.
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