Gurt Lush!

Last evening we had a brilliant time at the theatre seeing “Priscilla, Queen of the Desert” with Jason Donovan.  The performance lost very little of the West End feeling.  The show has been a sell out for its’ two week run and we were very lucky to get two of the last seats remaining and only a few rows from the front as well.  Afterwards we enjoyed the rest of the evening  in a few bars and clubs.

Today, we had a bit of a lie in and then had eggs for breakfast (we have eggs at weekends just to remind us it’s Sat. / Sun!) We also did haircuts because another week and James would be looking like a full blown dandelion!

It’s been mostly sunny all day and about mid morning the steam railway on the other side of the docks from us started its’ week end work by carrying people up and down the dockside.

A couple of very dear Bristolian friends  joined us mid morning for coffee.  This is Fran and Shaun on their arrival.

We’d planned to have lunch with them so we walked the short distance through Queens’ Square, with it’s ‘forest’ of mature London Plane trees,   ………….

……… and the beautiful terraced houses that surround it………

…….to the very old “Hole in the Wall” pub.

The pub has much history attached to it including having the distinction that Robert Louis Stevenson wrote “Treasure Island” in this nook. There are tiny slits in the walls of the nook that look each way down the road and were used by smugglers to spot ‘the law’ coming.

James, Doug, Fran and Shaun having pre-lunch drinks.

After lunch we returned to the docks area to find crowds of people enjoying the sunshine and listening to the band playing.  This is one corner of the docks where we could look across and see ‘Chance’  in the background under the old tower.

There’s a very nice bronze statue of  John Cabot who sailed the “Matthew” from Bristol across the Atlantic and found America in 1497.

Walking back to our mooring we found the port authorities setting out the finish line, for the rowing regatta today, just in front of ‘Chance’.

Post-lunch drinks on board ‘Chance’.

The same drinks we hasten to add, but this (better) photo is courtesy of Shaun and his superior camera equipment.

We had a super relaxing afternoon  on ‘Chance’ with Fran and Shaun – watching the competing rowing teams from two local universities:  the steam train whistle blew, the band played on, there were water craft all over the place and people enjoying their weekend in the sunshine.  ‘Chance’ bobbed and rocked under the choppy waters of the docks and it was “Gurt lush”! (Bristol-speak for’ lovely’ or something like that!)  Thank you Fran and Shaun for your company – it was great to catch up with you again.