In "The Plymouth Express" in the TV series, "Agatha Christie's POIROT", in which David Suchet appeared as Poirot, Bristol station appears in one of the scenes.

How to go
<train>It takes one hour and thirty minutes from Paddington station. Sometimes, you need to change trains at Bristol Parkway station.
<bus>It takes about two hours and thirty minutes from Victoria, coach station.
<In my case>I used the train from Paddington station and changed trains at Bristol Parkway station.


Two years ago, when I visited Thornbury Castle with my friend, the taxi driver who took us to the castle said, "There are two cathedrals in Bristol. Actually, they aren't so good. However, the church is wonderful! It is the best one in England!"
There are a couple of stations in which the name, "Bristol", appears. Thornbury Castle is near Bristol Parkway station, but the church is near Bristol Temple Meads station. At that time, we firstly planed to stay in Bristol for one night and go to Thornbury Castle after sightseeing. However, finally we went to Bristol on a day return, so we couldn't see the town of Bristol.
"There is such a beautiful church in Bristol. I regret I couldn't see it."
Therefore, I thought that I would go to Bristol Temple Meads and visit the beautiful church which the taxi driver mentioned, one day.
In 2004, I decided to go to England with my parents. I planed to visit a few places on a day return and listed up about five places. Of course, I included Bristol in the list, because Bristol is one and a half hours by train from Lodon. I thought it was ideal for a day return trip. When I showed my mother some pictures of the towns which I listed up, she chose Bristol. "Yes! We will go!"

On the third day of our trip to England, we went to Bristol. Firstly, we planed to take the ten o'clock train from Paddington. However, our family got up very early. Before eight o'clock, we were ready and left our hotel, so we arrived at Paddington station at around eight thirty. Therefore, we wanted to take an earlier train, the 9:15 to Bristol Temple Meads directly, but the English train fee system is strange. The train fee before nine thirty is extremely high, but the fee after nine thirty is much lower, so we finally took the ten o'clock train as we had initially planed and we had to change trains at Bristol Parkway.
We arrived in Bristol at eleven forty. Soon after, I thought that Bristol was a bleak place.
There weren't any lovely shops which I was attracted by, so firstly, we went towards the city centre to visit the church which we wanted to see.

Bristl Temple Meads station

St. Mary Redcliff church was built in the fourteenth century. It is of Gothic architecture, so from the outside, it seemed to have a very powerful and heavy structure and atmosphere. However, once when we entered, strangely, we could feel a warm atmosphere. Probably, it was because that soon after we entered, a few people who looked to be clergymen or volunteers were coming and talking to us gently. Then, they gave us a town map and three church brochures.
I had thought that the words, "The church is wonderful", was the taxi driver's original, but according to "GIO GLOBE TROTTER"^*, Queen, Elizabeth I, also said, "It's the most beautiful and attractive parish church in England." I can agree that the church is the most attractive church in England because it is solemn from the outside while it has a warm atmosphere inside.

^* "GIO GLOBE TROTTER" is a series of Japanese books which talks about travelling in each country all over the wolrd. There is a lot of valuable information which is written by many of it's readers.

After eating lunch, initially, I thought we would continue sight seeing, but the taxi driver's words, "There are two cathedrals in Bristol. Actually, they aren't so good."made me hesitated to continue. When I opened "GIO GLOBE TROTTER", I found they said that there was a boat trip in Bristol. I thought it sounded better to see the town from a ferry, so we decided to take the ferry.
We took a forty minute round trip from City Centre to Hotwells. At first, we were the only people who got on the boat. I wondered if the deal would pay, but soon a father with his son joined us. Moreover, a young girl who looked to be twenty something boarded our ferry. Then, it began to move. On the way, some people got off and some people got on at various stops, so we were never the only people on the boat. The girl from City Centre seemed to be going back to her house.
She said to other travellers, "I could walk, but today, I was tired. Therefore, I got on the boat because it just came when I arrived at City Centre."
Maybe, it is used as a means of transportation rather than for sight seeing.
During the trip, we could see many houses in which the towns people lived and the S.S. Great Britan, and so on. It was quite amusing.

We left Bristol by the 15:10 train. We were in Bristol for only about three hours. However, I was satistied because I could see the number one church in England.

(2005.1.1)

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