Hi there all of you lovely international students! This is Dr Chill reminiscing about the River Cruise. It was a beautiful summer’s evening (yes that’s right, England can have beautiful summer evenings: it’s the England football team that is dodgy!) Dr Chill had spoken to Head Office requesting favourable weather and his request seemed to have been heard.
The boat was built for fifty and we all boarded her on time except for one guest who was waiting at the other end of the Watershed, but she made it in the end!. The Bristol docks area is quite fascinating. As a young lad Dr Chill remembered Bristol docks as a fully functional working dock. The main cargo was bananas from the Caribbean islands. The company was called Fyffe’s and the banana boats were painted white. Cruising along the docks, we passed the artificial cut. This was constructed in the early 19th century by French prisoners of war captured during the Napoleonic Wars. The cruise took us past the back of Temple Meads and a derelict concrete 1960s office block; I remember it being built and opened. Then out into the suburbs, the fishermen and ducks. The ducks seemed to be interested in us when the food was served. There was much jollity and waving on board when we passed other boats coming in the opposite direction. One boat that we passed appeared to have had a champagne party on board.
We cruised along the rural part of the river, where we passed some wonderful houses that looked onto the river. Some people were having a bbq and watching the England World Cup match. The journey was three hours long, and I think we all enjoyed it and thought it was definitely worth the money. It was Hazel’s birthday and we sang happy birthday and applauded and gave her a present.
One of our guests was on another cruise the following day, from Bath to Bristol, so our River Cruise was used as a preliminary training ground for the big trip the next day. Well done E, I hope you made the Bath trip on time!
