Out and About with Alexis - Mar 2026
| Out and About with Alexis - Mar 2026 | |
| This weekend we were able to return the favour and host Alexis in our new flat. She had hosted us so many times at her fabulous flat on Canary Wharf. We were able to squeeze in a few locations: Costco, Burnham, Brean Down, Weston Super Mare, and Bristol. | |
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| To commemorate our many outings to Costco in Ottawa, we stopped by Avonmouth on our way from the train station. We enjoyed a quick browse and a Costco hotdog. | |
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| We also stopped in Weston Super Mare to walk along the beach. Completely taken by surprise a great number of people riding horses with carts thundered onto the seafront promenade. Checking the news a few days later there were considerable discussion going on as to whether they were Irish Travellers on not. | |
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| We ignored the horses and grabbed a few photos of our happy group in front of Weston Grand Pier. Notice how Rob is airbrushed (not very neatly) into the photo! | |
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| The next day, on our way to Burnham's Bay View Cafe to have breakfast, we watched the RNLI with their boats. This RNLI rescue RIB is named "Doris Day and Brian" after Brian John Sigley and his mother, Doris Day. Brian donated money to RNLI for this boat. The smaller boat is just called "Burnham Reach". | |
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| When visiting Burnham we think it is a "must" to climb up on Brean Down and visit the fort while also enjoying a picnic. So we did. It is quite the cardio even to climb the 200+ steps. | |
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| One is rewarded with a beautiful view of Brean to the south and Weston-super-Mare to the north. The resident cows were just ignoring us, which is a good thing. | |
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| Half-an-hour's walk and we get to Brean Down Fort. | |
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| We enjoyed cups of hot chocolate and tea and our sandwiches from Gregg's. There are so many ways to hide from the wind in the fort structures, so it was quite cozy where we sat. Alexis also spotted a "Banksy-like" painting in the moat around the fort. | |
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| While enjoying a walk around Wapping Wharf in Bristol, we got to see a steam engine roll past in a great big cloud of smoke. One can buy tickets to ride the train back and to to M-Shed. We were quite happy just look at it passing by. | |
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| It was time to drop Alexis back at Bristol Temple Meads train station. First a quick educational stop at the statue of Isambard Kingdom Brunel who is famous for his many engineering feats. Other than the train station building itself, he also built the Clifton Suspension Bridge. | |
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| We drove under the suspension bridge and paid £1 to drive over it - just to have that checked off the to-do-list too. We always note his over-engineered and still-standing-strong bridge. Photo from an earlier occasion. | |
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| At the train station, we enjoyed a photo opportunity with the Giants of Avon Gorge. We don't know which one was Goram and which one was Vincent. They both tried to win over the beautiful Avona. She said she would take the one that could drain a lake between Bradford-on-Avon and Bristol. Goram built a drainage canal through Henbury while Vincent chose south side of Clifton. Goram fell sleep and failed to build a big enough gorge. He got so angry that he stamped a big foot and created Henbury gorge and a large foot print on Blaise Estate. He then drowned in River Severn. Steep Holm is his head and Flat Holm is his shoulder. | |
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| An event filled weekend with Alexis. So much fun to catch up. Thank you for visiting us! |
Mar 2026