Self-driving tour in Bristol

It was a long time since last blog as quite busy in the work at the moment. Considering the time passed since Feb, I’m going to end up this series of travelling blogs as soon as possible. Probably another one or two blogs will be going further. Afterwards, I really want to catch up something which I have learned and researched in my recent work and spare time and shared to you. Life is not just work and travelling, isn’t it?

Day 6 in Bristol

After rushed exploring the Bath, we took the bus to Bristol Airport on Day 5 afternoon. The reason we approached to Airport first because we planned to self-driving from Bristol and around Cornwall!

Pick up the car

We reserved a can in advance from Enterprise Rent A Car (they are a nice company personally speaking) and because I had full Irish driving licence and membership of them, the whole process was smooth and fast. We picked up a Renault Clio, nice and clean, manual and diesel. Good enough.

Driving in the UK

Actually it’s my first time to drive in the UK, well except the last time I drove to Northern Ireland. However, there are differences regarding to the roads and traffic. Bristol is not a big city but the traffic was busy enough. The roads in the England truly are much wider then in the Ireland due to the amount of cars running. To be honest, it made me quite nervous especially we were not familiar with the direction. All we could do was to follow the navigation. Sometimes, if I passed the correct exit juntion, I need to drive a while and turn back in order to get out from the main road.

Clifton Suspension Bridge

The most famous landmark in Bristol is Clifton Suspension Bridge. You can easily find the detailed description so I won’t talk more here. I had two feelings towrds to the bridge:

  1. It’s truly very high;
  2. The best view is not on the bridge.

Here are two photos which my girl took (I was driving!):
Bristol Suspension Bridge

Bristol Suspension Bridge 2

Tip: It’s better to park before you drive through the bridge as it will charge 1 pound for car but free for pedestrians. In addition, the whole bridge is not very long so it’s easily to miss beautiful views via driving. Well, to be frank, it’s really hard to find a suitable parking place! Finger crossed!

Bristol City Centre

After driving around the city, we entered into the city centre and found a large shopping mall, parked the car and enjoyed the dinner there. Afterwards, because it’s winter time, the sky went dark very eariler. We walked around the city centre then drove to our accommodation.

In the End

We only spent less than 1 day in Bristol (actually one afternoon and one night), we prepared the last 2 days of our journey towards to Cornwall. So, in the next one or two (maximum) blogs, I will talk about the last 2 days’ journey. Trust me, it’s worthwhile to read and very unforgettable.

Hope to see you soon in my next blog!

Have a good evening.