Visiting SS Great Britain

Owain Clare and I drove to Bristol today to visit Amanda and celebrate her birthday with a trip to see SS Great Britain in Bristol Docks. We were living in Caerphilly when this great ship made her grand re-entry to the dry-dock where she'd been built. Five years later we returned to live in St Paul's Bristol, but the eight years we lived in the city that followed I never made a visit, although I imagine the children must have made school visits there. So for me at least, this was a first time experience, and a most impressive one.

The ship's interior and top deck have been beautifully restored to reflect the way she was in her heyday as the first great transcontinental ocean liner of mid-Victorian times. She is surrounded by only a thin sheet of water, to give the impression of being afloat. Beneath the artificial water-line the hull sits on terra firma in the dry dock with amospheric humidity controlled zealously to combat the deterioration of her cast iron hull plates, oversaturated with decades of sea salt.

The visit begins by going down to hull level, where one can walk around the entire ship at ground level, then it continues with a walk through history exhibition, before ascending to the sea deck, overlooking the harbour and the steep streets of Hotwells, just across the water. From there, one can go down below deck three levels, and see where passengers lived, both rich and poor, and where those who served them and the ship's crew, and livestock were accommodated.

What's remarkable is just how wheel-chair friendly the entire visitor experience turned out to be, with lifts conveniently placed near staircases. A very positive experience for us wheeling Amanda around in her chair.  Although she's improved a great deal, an entire visit on crutches is out of the question for now. After a late lunch and stroll along the quayside, we headed back to Amanda's, where I cooked one of my seafood paella specialities for supper, to go with one of Clare's excellent chocolate birthday cakes. It was a superb outing, and we got back to Cardiff in time for Owain to go to a gig, Clare to choir practice and me to relax doing nothing in particular at home.