Tuesday in Bristol

Today we enjoyed a short walking tour of Bristol to get ourselves acquainted with the area we'd be working in.  This included a walk past the cathedral where we'd sing later this week.  We couldn't go in because of rehearsals for graduation ceremonies for the University.

The Bristol Cathedral Choir School is shares a history with other prestigious institutions in Britain for having a private school which supplies choristers to lead worship in the cathedral.  There is only one in the United States - St. Thomas (Episcopal) in New York. 

After the tour we split up to explore the city.  A group of us decided to visit the SS Britain, the world's first ocean liner made from steel and propelled with screws.  The ship has been restored and turned into a fantastically realistic museum. 

We took a ferry ride to get to the ship.

We had a great tour of the hull underneath the water:

and a great view of the restored hull up top.

The inside of the ship featured some pretty realistic scenes of what life would be like for crew and passengers of all types - lots of fun. 

After touring the ship we trekked off to find lunch at Lloyd's No. 1 Bar just across the water from the SS Great Britain, where we enjoyed fish and chips, mushy peas and Pimms - yum!

We spent more time exploring Bristol before returning to the hotel to rest up and have a brief rehearsal before dinner - we haven't sung together for almost 3 days!  We are all looking forward to our concert at Bath Abbey tomorrow at 11:30.  Our work begins soon!