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Bristol Balloon Festival
  • Bernie Allen
  • Bernie Allen

Bristol Balloon Festival

A short but fine adventure by Bernie Read more
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  • Trip start
    August 9, 2023
    Bernie AllenBristol Balloon FestivalTraveler
    Lunch Stop
    JellyfishFlower Girls

    Travelling To Portishead......🚗

    August 9, 2023 in England ⋅ ☀️ 24 °C

    A fairly good trip down, neither nagging back or Lina needing too many stops. A little slow round Birmingham but all in all must be considered a 7/10 . On arrival at Portishead, we unpacked fairly quickly, and unsurprisingly, Lina was ready for a snack. Leftovers from our packed lunch came in useful.
    We then took a stroll around Portishead Marina and our new surroundings. After a stop for refreshment and to pick up a few basic provisions back to our pad to relax and make plans for tomorrow. It's All Good!    Read more

  • Bernie AllenBristol Balloon FestivalTraveler
    Look close you'll see the sky divers

    1st Visit To Ashton Court. 🎈

    August 10, 2023 in England ⋅ ⛅ 26 °C

    Looking to take in Night Glow at the Balloon Festival so we had a relaxed morning discovering more of our surroundings. We set of to Ashton Court mid afternoon, and part of today's adventure was the bus ride from Portishead head, 27 stops and 40 minutes as suggested. There was certainly a throng at the Balloon Festival that if we are honest, turned out a bit of a let down. A sky diver display acting as an appetiser for the mass launch of as many as 100 balloons was executed well. The mass launch unfortunately ended up, due to weather conditions at higher altitude (?), being ten balloons inflated for half an hour on the launch field. Lina enjoyed the funfair rides and vendors wares, prices like the ten balloons. Inflated! Deciding to cut our losses we thought we'd leave early and give the night glow a miss. The upside being we get back to Portishead on the bus for free with our bus passes. No! Road closures for the festival meant this plan was thwarted with our return bus stop temporarily closed. Our saviour was Jacob and Uber. Home at last!Read more

  • Bernie AllenBristol Balloon FestivalTraveler
    Croissants for breakfast.
    Sarnies for lunch.Lasagne for dinner.

    Pool day. 🏊‍♀️

    August 11, 2023 in England ⋅ ☁️ 22 °C

    A leisurely morning with a shared croissant breakfast at Mokoko on the Marina. Although the memory is distant the almond croissant was I think a match for the one we had at The Rocks, Sydney. Equally yummy a cheese & ham and chocolate one too. A lunch time swim at the leisure centre then a walk up to Portishead outdoor pool to see if it will be suitable for a dip before we start our journey home on Monday. It will. We stopped on route to the outdoor pool to enjoy our picnic lunch. After sussing the outdoor pool spent time at Portishead Lake Grounds. Lina had a go on the trampolines and then spent some time on the park before we headed back for dinner. Nana's lasagne. Mmm!Read more

  • Bernie AllenBristol Balloon FestivalTraveler

    Postcard hunt.🔍

    August 12, 2023 in England ⋅ ☁️ 19 °C

    A grey day with mid morning rain found us on an unsuccessful hunt for a postcard for Lina to send home. We then meandered through a food market at the top of the marina picking up a few goodies for lunch . We returned to base in the rain to eat our purchases and catch up on how The Lionesses were doing in the world cup with fingers crossed the weather would improve. 🤞 As the afternoon promised slightly better weather, we headed out in the car to Weston Super Mare. One visit this lifetime will be enough but we found some fun things to entertain Lina. The place had obviously seen better days with some. grand buildings. Oh, and we found a postcard too.
    Balloons didn't fly at all today due to weather.    Read more

  • Bernie AllenBristol Balloon FestivalTraveler

    Crabbing and Outdoor Pool 🦀

    August 13, 2023 in England ⋅ ☁️ 18 °C

    Grey sky again this morning saw us on the marina's crabbing purposed pontoon with our crabbing line and bucket. 🪣 Our bacon bait had woeful results, zero crabs, 🦀 The only thing our bucket saw being water awaiting vacant possession by crabs. On the plus side, we were close enough to Mokoko bakery to sample more croissants and coffee.
    The afternoon again promised better weather, so we headed to Portishead Outdoor Pool for entertainment. The promise wasn't fully delivered and although it was a little chilly out of the water we had a splashing time. 🏊‍♀️
    In the evening we gave it another go to see a mass hot air balloon 🎈 flight from a recommended vantage point on the A38, again the weather defeated the event. Then to cap it off fiesta road closures saw us going round in Bristol circles before finally finding an escape route.
    We'll probably give the balloon festival another go with lessons learned from this trip.    Read more

    Trip end
    August 14, 2023