This is a panoramic photo of the Clifton Suspension Bridge, taken after we left the cafe when the weather had cleared.

The building that was to become known as the Clifton Observatory was built in 1766 as a windmill. It was bought in 1828 by an artist called William West who installed telescopes and a camera obscura for the use of fellow artists.

More recently it has been bought by a private owner though public access to the camera obscura has been retained.

This is Bristol’s premium Victorian shopping mall known simply as The Arcade.

And finally…

This is a photo of the Clifton Suspension Bridge at night, taken by Tigger almost exactly one year ago.

If you know your Bristol, you will recognise the above as the Clifton Suspension Bridge built in 1864.

There is a story, no doubt apocryphal, that in Victorian times a lady sightseer fell from the bridge but floated safely down with her voluminous skirts acting like a parachute.

More to the point, what are we doing here on a rainy afternoon when the view is poor?

The answer involves the Bristol International Balloon Festival that takes place this weekend. The hill from which I took the photo and which is home to the Clifton Observatory, is a good place from which to see the balloons. Or would be, if there were any balloons to see. Unfortunately, the sky is empty of anything resembling a balloon. Perhaps the gusty wet weather has brought a halt to ballooning.

Happily, the Observatory has attached to it a cafe and herein we have sought shelter from the rain. Later, when the rain holds off for a while, we will make a dash for the bus stop.

Tigger has just taken this view from outside the cafe. Maybe the weather will clear, at least for our journey back to town.

Instead of a room in a hotel, we shall be staying in an apartment for the next couple of days. If you prefer looking after yourself then an apartment is a ideal but it’s a matter of personal choice.

Like hotels, apartments in a given price range can vary in quality and you never know what you are going to find until you arrive. This one is fairly comfortable and better than some we have experienced.

We were admitted by a housekeeper who showed us to our home away home on the second floor and handed us the key. The street door is kept locked and is opened by means of an electronic fob on the keyring.

The first task was to spy out the power points for our rechargers. There are enough and with our various cables we can arrange things nicely.

There is free wifi and I am already logged in so as to be able to post this!

The photos show two views of the living room which doubles as the dining room and trebles as the kitchen.

This is Bonapartes (no apostrophe) Café Bar on Temple Meads Station where we have stopped off for a cup of tea before confronting the city of Bristol.

We have yet to pass through the ticket barriers. Said tickets are no longer the small, stiff pieces of cardboard that they were when I was a child. These days, they are not even physical tickets but QR codes stored on Tigger’s iPhone. (Tigger is our travel organiser.) At the ticket barrier, she sends me through first with a wave of her phone over the detector then follows me.

What would we do without our phones? Lose your phone and your life grinds to a halt.

I’m not sure where we are but the clouds have parted to reveal the sun,

Perhaps we will be lucky with the weather after all!