You may be pleased to know that university is finally giving me something to do (my first hand in is this Sunday).  Nevertheless I still found time last week to visit both Bristol and Lacock.

Of course, the justification is that Bristol was for uni research, and it was.  We spent a bit of time visiting our old friend the Clifton Suspension Bridge.  We were fortunate to visit on a windy day, as it was very exciting to see just how much the bridge moves in the wind (it was recently shut because of this during a bad spell of weather).  The visitor centre was also very helpful and we had the additional good fortune to be passing by when some workers were going underground to inspect the abutments.  Enough about my bridge, but here is one more picture.

While in Bristol I also got to wander through a cave with very small tunnels and a brilliant view at the end, visit the library (very nice!) and see one of Brunel's other great achievements, the SS Great Britain.

This is Bristol Cathedral (sadly no time to investigate)

This is the library, it is directly beside the cathedral and a book-lovers dream.

On board the SS Great Britain

The SS Great Britain was a pioneering ship of its time.  It made the crossing from Bristol to New York in a record 14 days.  It wasn't in use as a passenger ship for long though, and nowadays rests in a dry dock as the hull has become too fragile for use.

On Saturday we visited the small medieval village of Lacock.  I was enchanted.  The whole village is very quaint, and I was very excited to see how the buildings have moved in hundreds of years of use.

 

The focal point of the village is Lacock Abbey. This was founded in 1232 as a nunnery, but after Henry VIII split from Rome and the monasteries were dissolved, it was sold to William Sharington to use as a private home.  Sharington was a real rogue, he counterfeited money and even avoided a death sentence.  Despite this, he had good taste for architecture and his legacy remains today.

The abbey has also been home to William Henry Fox Talbot, inventor of photography.  There is a museum devoted to him on the grounds.  They were also showing a gallery of celestial images, which I enjoyed immensely.

 

Part of the grounds around Lacock Abbey

The abbey itself.  Sharington had the church demolished and built the tower to the left to store his treasures

Lacock Abbey was also used for filming parts of the first and second Harry Potter films

More of the abbey...

And some more

This was the church in Lacock village, also very lovely