Not All Those Who Wander are Lost

Yesterday, Madeleine (English Lit, from Norway) and I went wandering around the northeast part of Bristol. Here are a few of our findings:

The museum part of the Bristol Museum/Law and Earth Sciences Library Building.

The fountain outside of one of the student union buildings. It's not the Student Union Building, but at least for orientation week it has operated in much the same capacity. Across is the Victoria Methodist Church. This and one other church are right along the bar/club street. One stop shopping for sin and atonement?

One of the more interesting pub signs I've seen in Bristol. This is for the Penny Farthing Pub.

The chimneys in the residential sections remind me of Mary Poppins.

Chim chim-in-ey, chim chim-in-ey, chim chim cher-ee!

Rent-a-church, anyone?

Yes, that is a giant two-headed blue goose sculpture on a rooftop. No, I don't know why it's there.

A typical Bristol house.

A bridge over some (rather pretty) train tracks, leading to a (rather small) park.

A view from the park. It makes Bristol seem like a quaint, picturesque little town, when it's actually a bustling city.

We came across this incredible garden fence in some part of the residential section (we weren't entirely sure where we were at this point). It's covered in iron creatures that live in and around the water. I have some close-ups of a couple sections of it below.

Baby elephant graffiti! Isn't it cute?

This is an almshouse founded in 1483 by the Mayor of Bristol, John Foster. The chapel on the left edge of the screen was founded by him a few years later. It's so over-the-top whimsical--especially for an almshouse. It looks like it came out of the "It's A Small World" Disney ride.

Close-up of the detail work on arched doorway of the 13th century St. Mark's Church right next to my building. What, exactly, were those medieval monks smoking in their incense burners? At last, mysticism explained.