British National Cycle Network: To the Coast and onto Wales

9/19/15

Today was another beautiful day, so after doing some work on my project, I enjoyed my Saturday by using the national cycle network to head out to the “beach”.  I biked from Bristol, along the Avon river to Pill and then onto Avonmouth via the Avon bike path.  From there, I turned North along a different bike path and headed to Severn beach.  Severn beach isn’t much of a beach as it’s mostly rocks and mud, but it had nice views across the sound and over to Wales.  A bit further along the trail past Severn beach was a protected wetland area that is famous for the large number of shore and migratory birds that it attracts. 

There is a bike path that runs along the coast, which I took for a while before taking a different path that would lead to the giant Severn Bridge. which goes across the sound and into Wales.  The bridge actually contains separate cycle lanes on each side of it, so I biked across the bridge (over 1 mile long) and into Wales.  There were many bike paths branching out once I entered Wales that I was tempted to take; however, daylight would be running short, so I had to turn around.  I took a different route on the way back through Bristol then involved a steep climb to get up to the Clifton Downs.  All in all, it was a great day of cycling, and I biked about 44 miles.

9/21/15

Today was the first day of classes for the University of Bristol, so the campus and city was all abuzz with the excitement of the students.  It's also gotten much more busy, just like Gainesville.  I visited the student union building today because I needed to fill out some registration paperwork at the international students office which is located there.  The SUB is quite nice and similar to the ones I’ve visited in the States; however, it does have a full service bar and pub since underage drinking isn’t such a big deal in the UK since their drinking age is 18.  I managed to get all my forms filled out and then my last step will be to get my student ID card, which will give me full access to the university.  It’s kind of cool to be accepted as a student to the University of Bristol because they are listed as a top 30 Global University right up there with Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Cambridge, and Oxford.

In the evening I helped Elizabeth clean and cut up some of the fruits from her garden.  She is making this really delicious applesauce as well as drying apples.  She’s also making strawberry, raspberry, and blackberry jams and also making an alcoholic beverage out of them.  She calls it wine, but it’s not quite the same and probably has double the alcohol content per glass.  I tried some of her wine she made from last season, and it is indeed very tasty.

9/22/15

I did a lot of the new student registration today, which mean lots of queuing, but I ended up getting my student ID, getting access to all the places I need to, and becoming an official student of the University of Bristol.  I was queuing mainly with what they call the "freshies" (although they don't use the freshman, sophomore, junior, senior ranking, they call them freshies I guess b/c they're fresh faces).  There was a girl in line behind me that said she keeps getting lost in Bristol and she asked the guy next to me, who was getting his ID because he had lost his from last year, what is the best way to learn her way around Bristol.  The young chap said, "I suppose the best way is to get really pissed (that's British for drunk) several nights and then you'll have it.  Then you'll walk around town and be like, 'Oh this is where I fell, and this is where I puked' and then you'll have it".  She didn't seem super satisfied by that answer and asked me. I pulled out my A to Zed (http://www.az.co.uk/?nid=60&iid=3517) pocket street atlas and told her that has served me well, and I hardly have to use it now.  I guess I really dated myself with that contrasting answer.  Speaking of dating, I got asked out on a date by one of the freshies in a different queue after I had been telling her all about Colorado. I had to tell her that I was honored, but sorry I already had a gf back home (not to mention I am probably over 10 years older than her). haha

After work I took a little mtn bike ride along a smooth and most flat trail along the River Avon.

Elizabeth made me a tasty Asian chicken dish and shared a bottle of Ginger beer (it's alocholic here, which is interesting).  Then she asked to see photos of my home.  So I showed her lots of photos of EP, Crested Butte, Telluride, and Heron.  She couldn't believe how beautiful Colorado is.  She squealed at all the elk pictures and the bear up on the deck.  She said that she goes to a weekly slide show they give at the youth hostel b/c she enjoys seeing pictures of around the world.  She told me the last one was a guy who did a trip to Yellowstone, but she said my photos are as good as anyone who gives the presentations at the youth hostel, which was very kind of her to say.  She really liked looking at pictures of my family and kept saying "Your mom is so lovely" And she also kept saying "Elisha is so gorgeous".  She couldn't believe bro would study a thing that would appear to be so dangerous and couldn't believe he'd ski all those peaks.  She's into art and maybe her favorite thing I showed her were the ice sculptures in Crested Butte.  She just got such a kick out of them and thought they were so fascinating.

She also liked the Kayser garden b/c she is really into gardening and has an allotment in Bristol. And she was very impressed by how self-sufficient the Kaysers are and said she figured they'd do well if the world ended as we know it now.

9/23/15
The lab had a end of the field season bbq party up on the roof of the science building today at lunch.  Lots of good food.  With all the South Americans in the group, there was plenty of steaks and meat to be had!

The Bristol Channel has the 2nd largest tidal range. Second only to the Bay of Fundy in Canada

a portion of the bike path

Bridge to Wales

Go Gators!

The seashore

Bridge to Wales

Sunset out towards the ocean from near Clifton Downs in Bristol with the River Avon below

Elizabeth's home-made wine

My "office" in the Life Sciences building.  You can see my blue laptop and waterbottle and sunglasses.

British National Cycle Network: Bike to Bath and beyond

9/18/15

It was Kath's birthday today, so I took the day off as she was as well.  And b/c the weather was just so gorgeous.  With the nice weather and day off, I decided to bike to Bath, the little town famous for it's Roman Baths, back when the Roman empire stretched as far out as the British Isles.

The UK has this amazing bike network called the National Cycle Network that links hundreds of miles of bike paths together.  Where there is a break between bike paths, they route you, via excellent signage, on non-busy rural streets to connect to the next set of bike paths.  It's super amazing.  The more I explore it, the more impressed I am.  Really easy to follow, good signs with distances, and so many places to go. I once read a Bill Bryson novel called "Notes from a Small Island" about his journey backpacking through the England.  I was imagining that now you could do an amazing bike packing trip stopping at pubs and small inns along the way with this cycle network.

Anyways, cycled to Bath, which is on a bike path the entire 18 miles.  Bath is an old and cute little city.  I actually visited it before when I was doing a study abroad trip to London with Drs Maughan, Claassen, and Schaper.  Sara, Jenn, Tyler, Ashley, and I all took the bus there from London for a day trip to see Bath and also Stonehenge.  Because of this, I didn't pay the $25 bucks to go inside the Roman baths since I'd already seen them.  Save my money for a different adventure.  But I walked around Bath for a while and did a hike up to a viewpoint of the city.

After exploring bath, I found another bike path called the 2 tunnels greenway, which I rode all the way to Radstock.  The trail was nice b/c it went out into the country into farmland and the little stone country towns.  But the highlight was that it went through two very long old train tunnels (a lot of the cycle paths are similar to our rails to trails in the US).  The longest being over 1 mile long!  They of course had lights inside, but one of the cool things is they also had music playing in the tunnel from these little speakers, so you got to enjoy classical music has you biked through the dark and cool tunnel.  My dad would have absolutely loved it!  I was out much longer than I had anticipated, so I got a bit hungry, but not problem b/c the trails here are just lined with blackberry bushes loaded with delicious berries!  All in all, I biked about 62 miles today.  Not bad.

Bristol to Bath bikepath

Bristol to Bath bike path

the obligatory red phone booth photo

famous Bath view

near to the Roman Baths

The city of Bath

one of the long tunnels

at one of the small countryside towns

Radstock

inside one of the tunnels, listening to classical music

Made it back to Bristol in time for sunset

A visit to Cardiff, Wales

9/17/15

I caught the early morning train to Cardiff, Wales to meet with Dr. John Deeming, a taxonomist specializing in Muscidae and Calliphoridae (fly families) who works at the National Museum of Wales.  I needed to pay him for his ID's, pick up my specimens, and have him look at a couple more.

John was an amazing guy.  Everything you'd imagine in a retired, 70 year old entomologist.  He had wild hair on his head, hair coming out of his ears and his nose, he was thin and a bit short, but full of spunk and a great smile.  The security gal when I checked into the museum told me "Oh lucky you.  Dr. Deeming is the coolest and most interesting person I know.  He's my favorite person".  And it was true.  He was super sweet (the kind of guy that all the young girls have old guy crushes on), funny, charming, incredibly polite, and had great stories and jokes. He's been all around the world collecting Diptera (flies).  When we'd walk around the museum, even into the public display area, everyone would cheerfully greet him.  He's retired now, but he's one of the few experts in his area, so he remains working and just takes some small fees from people like me who need flies identified.

It was funny to listen to his commentary as he looked at the new specimens that I had brought him.  Flies are most readily identified via their genitalia.  So he'd mutter things like "oh beautiful, look at the genitals on that chap".  He likes to call the flies "chaps" and there was much discussion of genitalia.  The more and more I learn about insects, the more and more fascinating I find them.  He was describing to me some of the ways that the particular specimens I had brought attract their mates through various genitalia displays from waving to unraveling to shaking and vibrating and even to what he called dancing or having filaments on the genitalia wave in certain ways.  Quite funny to hear from this man in his strong British accent.

In the group of flies that I sent him, it ended up that we had captured 3 species new to science.  So that's pretty cool!  That means that we found at least 4 confirmed new species to science during our time in Kenya

When I originally wrote to him about ID'ing my insects, he told me what he charges per hour and made it clear that it did not include tea breaks.  I found this kind of interesting b/c that's usually something that's implied. But after hanging out with him for the day, I see why it was important to state, b/c he enjoyed and had many team breaks.  Which was nice b/c then I had the pleasure of hearing all of his stories and jokes.

One of my favorites, which I figure Elisha might find funny and unnerving:

"In the West of your country, the wildlife commission has information on bears because bears can be a danger.  They give out a pamphlet to help out with bear identification and avoidance.  It states that there are 2 kinds of bears.  It says that the black bear isn't much of a worry, but the grizzly bear, now that's a major concern. The pamphlet explains that you should walk around with bells to warn the bears of your presence but in case that should fail, you should carry pepper spray.  The pamphlet goes on to describe how to tell them apart, which is important since remember, the black bear isn't much of a concern.  The pamphlet mentions that being able to recognize their scat is quite important.  It states that black bear scat tends to be well-digested, not in clumps, and has a musty smell, whereas grizzly scat tends to have little clumps of metallic bells and smells like pepper"

He took me out to a nice lunch of fish and chips at the university.  John's also fond of poems, and he recited several to me by memory.  One that I thought might pique Elisha's interest has the gall to put down her beloved Huckleberries.  He recited this to me after we started talking about American cuisine.

In Massachusetts all the way 
From Boston down to Buzzards Bay 
They feed you till you want to die 
On rhubarb pie and pumpkin pie, 
And horrible huckleberry pie, 
And when you summon strength to cry, 
" What is there else that I can try ? " 
They stare at you in mild surprise 
And serve you other kinds of pies. 
And I with these mine eyes have seen 
A dreadful stuff called Margarine 
Consumed by men in Bethnal Green. 
But I myself that here complain 
Confess restriction quite in vain. 
I feel my native courage fail 
To see a Gascon eat a snail ; 
I dare not ask abroad for tea

When we finished our work up after lunch, he gave me the private tour of the natural history museum.  They have a really great natural history museum, and it made me realize I need to visit natural history museums more often.  There was set up really cool.  You start out in this dark area and get to be in the middle of the big bang. Then as you snake your way around the museum you go from the very geologically active period of earth to early life to the rise of animals to dinosaurs to the extinction of dinosaurs and rise of mammals to humans to the ice ages to the mass extinction of the large mammals (wooly mammoths, saber tooth cats, giant cloths, wooly rhinos, et al) to present.  They have lots of fossils, skeletons, and well-done realistic looking animals that move.  Definitely very cool!

After the natural history portion, John also gave me a personalized tour of the art gallery, especially the paintings.  He's a huge art fan and his enthusiasm was contagious.  Cardiff has the largest collection of french impressionists in one place, which of course included lots of Monet pieces.  But many other famous artists like Pissarro, Corot, Renoir, Van Gogh, El Greco, and Manet.  They also had a famous collection of Virgin and Child paintings.

After my meeting with John, I had a couple hours to kill before my return train, so I walked around Cardiff.  Although it's the capital of Wales, it's quite small.  They have a nice river and green space, and the highlight is probably the large castle in the center.  They are preparing to be a host city for the Rugby World cup, so they were erecting lots of special booths for that.

Elizabeth has been bringing lots of fresh fruits and veggies from her allotment (community gardent), which has been very nice.  And today she baked us a tasty bread and also made a sort of crumble pie with apples

Natural History Museum

A little Welsh

The Cardiff Castle

Mountain Biking in Bristol

9/12/15

With my new bike, the weekend, and nice weather, I decided to head out for a mtn bike ride.  There are 3 trails within a 10-15 minute ride from my place, which is cool.  And 2 of them I reached by riding completely on bike paths to get there.  The first one I went to, called Nova trail, sits on a giant estate called Ashton Court Estate.  The estate is everything you'd imagine in a wealthy British estate: it has a mansion, large fields full of deer for hunting, forests, gardens, and a golf course.  It's open to the people of Bristol to use all the trails, including hiking, biking, and mt biking.  The trail was fun and very much man-made like the trails at ski areas, so it was very flowy and had little jumps and banks built into it.

I then headed over to Timberland Trail which is on forest service land.  This trail had more of a wilderness feel and ended at a small pond called Abbot's pond that monks used to use to catch fish as they journeyed through the countryside.  In the area of this trail, I found miles and miles of other trails, which I explored.  In the forest area and then between farms, they have public walking paths and public bridle paths that are singletrack that you can ride.  Unlike back home where horse trails aren't good for biking, here they are fine b/c the soil is different.

The third trail I hit was the Yer Tiz in Leigh woods which is a National Trust Forest.  It was quite similar to the trail at Ashton Court.

I had originally thought I'd be doing about 20 miles with the 3 trails, but after finding all those other trails I stayed out all day and biked many more miles.  All the trails were lined with blackberries, which of course made for a delicious ride!

In the evening I headed out to North Street, which is the happening street just 3 blocks from my street.  They were having a beer festival with live music, so I stopped by for a bit.  On the way home, I passed by a street party.  The neighborhood had closed the street to have a bbq and a fire right in the middle of the street.  They were all sitting around the fire, campfire style, and roasting marshmellows

9/13/15

Today I mainly worked on my project, but I took a ride in the afternoon and discovered a couple more single tracks around Leigh woods.  Also biked out towards Pill on a nice little bike path.  There are just miles and miles of paved and dirt cycle paths around here that mom and dad would just love. Bristol is known as the green city of the UK b/c of all it's bike and walking paths.  But if you have to be off the bike paths it feels kinda of sketchy to me b/c the roads are so narrow, curvy, so many strange turns, and all those roundabouts.  The cyclists here are crazy aggressive and would certainly get honked at, flipped off, or even hit back home.  But this is a bike friendly city, so the drivers don't seem to get too upset.  Some of the big roundabouts are too busy and confusing for me (given the whole they drive on the left side of the road thing), so for those I usually dismount from my bike and use the pedestrian crosswalks to get through them

9/14/15

Got to experience typical bristol weather for the first time.  It rained all day.  I'm fairly prepared for the rain in that I have a rain coat, rain shorts (in FL you cut off the your rain pants to make them rain shorts since you're always wearing shorts and if you wore rain pants you'd get wetter from sweat than from the rain), and a rain cover for my pants.  But unlike in FL, I'm wearing shoes not sandals, so the shoes get pretty wet.  I don't know what the bike commuters here do about that other than probably have a dry pair they store at work. There's a somewhat long and sustained steep hill from the river up to the university.  I'd say about twice as long as the road from High Drive up to my parents' house and similar steepness (or for those in GNV, 3 times the length and same pitch as the steepest road that comes up from the hospital and ends at campus police/biology).  Everyone here complains about how steep the hill is and won't even walk 1/2 way down in during lunch to where they say the best lunch spots are.  They also told me to not be embarrassed to walk up it with my bike b/c most people do.  But in the end it's not really that bad, just a good hill to get the heart pumping and warm up in the rain.  It's funny people's different perceptions of hilly depending on where you live.

9/16
Today at lunch was a Memmott lab celebration as one of her lab students finished and passed her "viva" which is the last oral examination that students in the UK have to pass to become a PhD student.  So there was fancy food and even champagne for lunch.  Jane's lab has 14 girls and 1 guy (poor Alfredo).  I told him Alfred, you are lucky to be working around so many ladies, and he said in his Chilean accent "No, not at all.  Have you ever even worked with 2 girls in lab together?"

Buying a train ticket, and I love how you have the choice of choosing "Lady"

One of the many unpaved bikepaths or greenbelts in Bristol

view from the greenbelt

the estate mansion

red deer

The entrance to the Ashton Court Estate Trail

tasty snack