Setting a run for the Bristol Hash House Harrier (“Gentle Exercise for the Slightly Drunk”), I noticed this rare visitor in a private carpark at the east end of Shirehampton High Street. Although I’ve seen them abroad before, this was the first Trabant (for that’s what it is) I’ve spotted in the UK. It looked as if the journey from Poland was not without incident.
14th March. Lisbon, at last. We flew, without incident this time, from Bristol, arriving at our apartment in the Rua de Sao Paulo near the Barrio Alto in the old centre at about 7:00pm, to be met by Catia, who recommended a rooftop tapas restaurant in the next road. All seems good. The apartment building is a converted seventeenth-century convent, so expecting to see a ghostly nun or two during the night, depending on the amount of vinho verde we drink.
15th March. We went on a long walk around central Lisbon, to get our bearings:
16th March. We took a tram to Belam, walking back along the coast:
17th March (still brilliant weather). We walked through the Baixa Chiado area and up the Avenida Da Liberdade to the Marquês de Pombal monument at the top. Then the National Natural History Museum, which reminded us of the Eden Project in Cornwall. Then to a seventeenth century aqueduct and back, via various parks, to the apartment. Evening in al fresco restaurant down the road:
18th March.Train to Cascais, fab lunch in fish market, snoozed, paddled and read on beach. Proper tourists!
19th March. Lazy-ish Sunday in Lisbon finding places previously missed. Back along the beach accompanied by live bands and via the bun fight that is the Time Out central market:
20th March. Took another train journey (from the northern Rossio station) to Sintra, which, being higher and a little colder than Lisbon, had the feel of an Indian hill station.
21st March. Last day in Lisbon. Weather has been brilliant, specially for March. Long wait at airport but home safely mid-evening.
Angela Carter, who lived for a while in Bristol, was known for her visual storytelling, which delved into fairy tale, surrealism, the Gothic and fantastic. The Royal West-of-England Academy (RWA) has an exhibition which brings together artists whose only connection is that their work resonates with the bizarre fictions of Carter’s imagination. It’s bonkers!
The Norweigan oil tanker, Marika, off Portishead pier.
…a strange journey at The Holburne Museum in Bath. More at www.holburne.org.
A belated visit to Bristol’s M-Shed museum for the annual Wildlife Potographer exhibition.
Farm near Tytherington, Gloucestershire.
Snowdrops at Tytherington Church.
Lamplighter’s Marsh is a nature reserve on the north side of the River Avon, occupying a strip between the river and the Portway, the road connecting Bristol to the port of Avonmouth. It has a rich maritime and industrial history, as well as being a haven for wildlife.
We think that this building, on the south bank of the river opposite Lamplighter’s Marsh, was used to take patients from boats to the infectious diseases hospital (now Penny Brohn Cancer Care) in the last century.
A last-minute trip to Brighton, first time in years. Ate lots of fish and seafood and walked about ten miles up to the race course. Not as warm as Lisbon, where we had expected to be this week.
Martin's Mag. 
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