Water

You cannot move in Bristol without crossing water, walking beside water, navigating a waterway. Two arms of the Avon River embrace the city, meander back and forth, flowing sinuously through the heart of Bristol, and the city flows along them, beside them, above them.

Water defined this city a thousand years ago; without it, Bristol would not have been a ship building centre, a port, a point of entry and debarkation. The city’s wealth was built on water, its aristocracy stayed and developed as a result of the city’s  proximity to water, its raison d’être was the water flowing endlessly out from the Avon to the Bristol Channel and then beyond to the Irish Sea.

In Bristol, there are two forms of public transit: by bus, and by ferry. When you arrive at the train station, you are directed to your choice of taxi cabs, bus stops or the water ferry. But unlike most ferries, which cross a body of water and then return, Bristol’s ferries ply the canals and rivers and estuaries of Bristol like taxis along streets, moving along and through the city.

And because the waterways wend and curl  their way throughout downtown, under bridges and past old warehouses and new office buildings, taking a boat is actually a viable way of getting from one part of town to the next, sometimes even the shortest and fastest way.

It adds a dimension to Bristol that a land bound city cannot possibly possess. That sense of never being distant from water, regardless of where you are, is one of the aspects of this city that I find most admirable, most magnetic, most appealing.

I’m staying a while longer, and definitely coming back.

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