Uphill, Downhill

Last night, walking through Bristol, we'd seen more than a dozen small cafes offering a full English breakfast. We'd been walking for more than an hour and Kathy was feeling a little faint. We never did find a restaurant serving breakfast, but we saw a Cornish Pasty company and so we got some coffee and small sandwiches. (Bacon butty for me, of course.)

While we were sitting eating our breakfast, I looked over Kathy's shoulder and noticed that John Wesley's New Room chapel was right next door. That was what we were going to look for after breakfast, and surprisingly, while we were still eating, they opened the doors.

Thursday morning dawned bright and sunny, and so we were up and gone before 7 am, eager to see what Bristol was all about. We didn't even wait around for breakfast, but set off down-hill to the train station, to set up our reservations for Sunday morning. (We want to visit the 12:30 morning service at the Docklands this week, so we had to make sure that the connections were just right.)

Bristol reminds me a little of San Francisco; row houses and steep hills going down to a harbor. We allowed gravity to lead us down hill to the water and then walked past Brunel's SS. Great Britain (where a swan was nesting next to the path).

The modern, redeveloped harbor area with its shops and aquarium was mostly deserted first thing in the morning. As we got closer to downtown, and to the train station, the streets started filling up with workday Bristol, starting its day.

It took about an hour to get to the station, and by this time, both of us were pretty hungry. There were no restaurants at Temple Meads, so we headed back to the mall in the center of town; kind of a combined sight-seeing, scouting, food-scavenging party. That's where we found the Pasty shop right next to John Wesley's New Room Chapel.

The New Room Chapel was build in 1739 and is the first headquarters and oldest Methodist building in the world. It was from this building that John and Charles Wesley traveled all over England preaching the gospel.

Upstairs from the Chapel are the Preachers' Rooms where the itinerant Methodist "circuit preachers" would rest and fellowship between rounds.

These rooms are filled with different artifacts from the history of Methodism, including this picture of Wesley's mother Susanna, a personal heroine of Kathy's.

Visiting the Chapel took us almost time to eat again, so we met Karen Robinson for lunch and an afternoon of sightseeing. (Just sandwiches, so no pictures.)

The first place we visited is called the Red Lodge. It is the surviving portion of the manor house from the Dowager Lady Byron's estate.

Walking by on the street you'd never think that a Tudor mansion lay behind this plain red door. The paneling is just amazing.

In the 18th century, the house was converted into the first "rescue mission" for young teenage girls.

After walking all through the house, we walked five or six blocks across town and looked at The Georgian House exhibit, which was different, but equally impressive.

The house was built in 1790 for John Pinney, a wealthy slave plantation owner and sugar merchant, it was also where the enslaved African, Pero lived. (The foot-bridge across the harbor is named Pero's Bridge after him.)

Eleven rooms (on four floors) are displayed as they might have looked in the 18th century. You can see the kitchen where servants prepared meals; the bedrooms and parlors. There is even an indoor cold-water plunge.

The highlight for me, though was the slavery display on the top floor. Today, it's hard for us to understand how anyone (who professes to be a Christian), could square such a practice with the scriptures. Apparently the same argument was presented to Pinney, but he rejected it saying that "If God didn't want us to own slaves, He would have sent us some kind of sign." Sigh.

After the Georgian house, we went looking for some coffee. Instead, we found the Bristol Cathedral, which is really very beautiful. While we were there, Karen started up a conversation with a lay minister (and Kathy joined in.) I'm not sure exactly how long it went on, because I fell fast asleep sitting right there in the pew.

Once they woke me up, it was time to meet Ben and Conor Berry, who are heading up the Calvary Chapel church plant here at Bristol. The church currently meets on Thursday at 7:30, so we met up about 5:30 for some dinner. (Conor is originally from Santa Maria, and has just moved here with his wife Hanna and daughter, Fae).

The church building that they are meeting in, Alma Chapel was originally an offshoot of George Muller's Bethesda Chapel.

At the church meeting, we got to meet several of the members getting this new church started; I spent some time talking to George who writes programs for Sybase here in Bristol, and Terry who is Ben's roommate. Before long it was time to wrap up another long day.