Museums: Cheltenham and Bristol

February 2, 2026 / fgrtommo / Leave a comment

We are currently in Edinburgh for the second of our annual, month-long, winter stays to continue to build our affinity with the city and, this time, spend some time with a new addition to our Edinburgh family. In the days before we left for Edinburgh and all the excitement there, I visited two museums – in Cheltenham and in Bristol.

*^{Winter Near Our Home – But With Snowdrops Emerging}*

I demonstrated a hint of senility recently as I bought the wrong trousers online. That error led me to a rare visit to Cheltenham via foot, bus and train. There, I could exchange the trousers face to face rather than go through another online and postal exchange which I would probably have messed up. Having completed the exchange, and given I was under no time pressure, I thought I would take a look at the The Wilson Museum which I only became aware of through a recent advert in our local culture listings.

The museum is in a smart modern building but was founded over 100 years ago around the collection of the Wilson Family including Antarctic explorer, Edward Wilson. The museum has undergone some recent restorations and re-organisations and has a pleasant café, educational play areas for children and a few good-sized rooms for permanent and temporary exhibitions of art and artifacts. Given how good and wholesome it was, I felt negligent in not having visited before.

The highlight was a room containing art and furniture from the Arts and Crafts movement. I’ve loved seeing exhibitions of work of this type in the past in London (and especially the William Morris Museum and Thomas Carlyle’s House which I had visited in August and September 2019). What I hadn’t fully appreciated until now was how important the Cotswolds were as a locus of the energy and talent that drove the movement. Many of the main protagonists such as Ernest Gimson, the Barnsley brothers and William and Eve Simmonds, lived in villages and homes we have walked though or past many times in recent years.

*^{Arts And Crafts At The Wilson Museum, Cheltenham}*

The exhibition was well laid out and had a good combination of very high-quality luxury pieces and very plain but beautifully designed furniture that still bore the hall marks of the movement but was for families with limited means. The latter showed how the movement aimed to bring great design and well-made things to the working population in the face of increasing industrialization and mass production.

Then, on the day before our trip to Edinburgh, Jane and I stepped up to manage Second Grandchild’s (SG’s) trip in and out of his nursery while his parents attended a funeral and worked in London. Seeing SG is always fun and it was interesting visiting his nursery for drop off and pick up and lovely to see him waving us off so happily.

In between, I walked into the centre of Bristol while Jane returned home to get a haircut. My primary aim was the 2026 iteration of the Wildlife Photographer of the Year exhibition which was on tour from its home in the Natural History Museum in London and on show at Bristol Museum & Art Gallery.

I love this competition and exhibition and have seen it many times in London. It was a treat to be able to weave this year’s viewing seamlessly into my local schedule of retired life while helping Second Son and his partner. Plus, there was the bonus of visiting another relatively local museum for the first time.

The Photographer of the Year exhibition didn’t disappoint. Unfortunately perhaps, my favourite photos were the very first I saw. These were aerial drone shots of the tundra by Alexey Kharitanov that contained incredible colour. The remainder of my wander around the exhibition was not exactly anticlimactic but many of the animal shots were, maybe inevitably, rather similar in style to those from previous years and, so, less memorable. One excellent thing though is that all the exhibition is available online and so there was no need to fiddle around with picture taking of the best.

'Taiga Tapestry' By Alexey Kharatanov — *^{‘Taiga Tapestry’ By Alexey Kharitanov}*

The rest of the museum had interesting rooms, exhibiting a wide range of art since Medieval times, a large natural history collection, and an exhibition demonstrating the long history of ceramic production in Bristol before it was overtaken by The Potteries in Staffordshire. I saved some areas for another time and look forward to an opportunity to show SG the excellent collection of stuffed native birds and animals.

Bristol Ceramics — *^{Bristol-Made Ceramics, Bristol Museum}*

From the museum I wandered towards the city centre and had a ‘smashed’ burger from a street food vendor (Boigers) who do occasional pop-ups at our local village pub. It was another first for me and the burger was pretty tasty though, I suspect, nutrition-light.

My final trip element before heading back to pick up SG, was a brief visit to Bristol Cathedral. This wasn’t a first time visit but it has been over a decade since my last one which I snuck in while working briefly in Bristol.

*^{Bristol Cathedral From The Old Monastery Garden}*

It is, of course an impressive building. A helpful and patient gentleman gave me a summary of the history. He outlined how the building has almost continuously evolved over the last 1,000 years and especially since it was taken apart by Henry VIII as he closed the Augustine Monastery that had been at the cathedral’s heart. I had a very pleasant wander around and was impressed with the way the light and airy nave had been extended so sympathetically in the late 19th century to echo the Medieval parts of the building.

Jane and I had a last lovely little dose of SG while starting to receive more photos of the arrival of Third Grandchild in Edinburgh. What a full and exciting day it had been. More excitement to follow!

*^{Early Glimpse Of The New Arrival in Edinburgh}*

Art in Bilbao

October 29, 2025 / fgrtommo / Leave a comment

The attraction of the Guggenheim Bilbao Museum was the main reason for us choosing to visit Bilbao. It is certainly the main tourist magnet in the city and a centrepiece that dominates views downstream from the Old Town and from the slopes to the north of the city. We visited it straight after breakfast on our first day and, after a quick wander around the amazing building, were ready for entry at opening time.

Fortuitously and a little randomly, we went straight to the top floor with a plan of working our way down. That avoided the initial rush of visitors and enabled us to visit Yayoi Kusama’s ‘Infinity Mirrored Room’ before any queue had built up. Jane knew what to expect but I didn’t and when we got inside the room containing the work, I was taken aback. Unfortunately, I then spent more time posing for a picture of the two of us in the mirrors than understanding what I was looking at before we were ushered out with our visiting time having expired. Our visit made for an interesting photo though….

After that rather helter-skelter experience, we were able to take our time perusing the top floor. It became clear that some of the permanent collection was not on show at this time. While that was disappointing, there was plenty to see.

*^{Views From Inside, And Of The Inside, Of The Guggenheim}*

Much of the space on the first floor was taken up by an exhibition custom-made for the Guggenheim by American artist Barbara Kruger called ‘Another day. Another night’. This was dominated by multiple words and phrases stuck to the walls, ceilings and floors. These were in Spanish (not unreasonably given we were in Spain!) so I absorbed the overall effect rather than the meanings. Elsewhere there were video artworks that probed the ambiguity of word meanings and one of these was a rather timely and captivating analysis of the words (and their imagined alternatives) in the US Constitution.

Another temporary exhibition by Sky Hopinka called ‘No Power’ was also a series of videos but I confess I didn’t stay to the end.

Better, I thought, were the large spaces devoted to variety of artists’ works from the permanent collection though none really gripped me. The flower sculpture, ‘Puppy’ by Jeff Koons at the entrance to the Guggenheim was undergoing renovation but another of his works was inside alongside art by Jean-Michel Basquiat and a number of artists I hadn’t heard of before. There was also a typically large painting by Anselm Kiefer who is one of my favourite artists (though this one was a rather dull compared to others I have previously enjoyed).

Familiar Territory - Anselm Kiefer's The Paths Of World Wisdom' — *^{Familiar Territory – Anselm Kiefer’s ‘The Paths Of World Wisdom’}*

The best exhibit for me was the huge composite sculpture by Richard Serra called ‘The Matter of Time’. It occupies a vast dedicated space on the ground floor of the Guggenheim and was great fun to walk through and around. The balcony above provided an opportunity to take in the scale and entirety of the work while close inspection of the surfaces of the sculpture showed fascinating differences on colour and texture of the Corten (or weathered) steel of which it is made. It’s a highly memorable aspect of the Guggenheim.

As we emerged from the Guggenheim, we experienced one of the periodic ‘fog sculptures’ designed by Fujiko Nakaya. For a few minutes, the water and promenade next to the museum fills with a mist. Walking through this is an interesting experience and it creates some ghostly views of the museum and its surrounds.

*^{Fujiko Nakaya Fog Sculpture At The Guggenheim}*

We then walked along the river bank past one of Louise Bourgeois’s Spiders (see below) and made our way to the Bilbao Fine Arts Museum.

This gallery has a lovely Art Deco façade which appeared to be undergoing some restoration. Inside, all was peaceful and spacious and I really enjoyed the visit.

The entrance hall has a wide variety of work which, most interestingly, contained Richard Serra’s model for ‘The Matter of Time’ sculpture we had just seen in the Guggenheim. It was a little weird to see the same work we had just experienced in the Guggenheim on such a smaller scale.

Bilbao Fine Arts Museum Including The Model Of 'The Matter Of Time' By Richard Serra — *^{Bilbao Fine Arts Museum Including The Model Of ‘The Matter Of Time’ By Richard Serra}*

The highlight of the Fine Art Museum was a large exhibition of work by Georg Baselitz, a German artist. I had only vaguely heard of him before; indeed, I had seen and liked a couple of his works that we had seen earlier in the day in the Guggenheim. Here was a very large collection of his portraits.

*^{Paintings By Georg Baselitz, Bilbao Fine Arts Museum}*

These were mainly of people portrayed either upside down or on their side. Many appeared as figures akin to skeletons. Some had been painted while a disabled Baselitz scooted across the canvas in his wheelchair thereby creating strange tyre track markings across the canvas. This was initially all a bit disorienting – I think that was Baselitz’s objective – but as we walked from huge room to huge room, I got in tune with his paintings and really enjoyed the collective feel of them.

As we left the museum with our culture fix complete, and still two whole days in sunny Bilbao to go, we felt very satisfied with our choice of Bilbao as a city to visit.

Enjoying Fife

August 1, 2025 / fgrtommo / Leave a comment

We have just returned from a really excellent time in Scotland. We stayed with our Edinburgh based family and then gathered them up for a few days in Fife. We then returned to Edinburgh for our wedding anniversary celebrations and a bit more time in our favourite city. This is the longest sustained period we have spent with First Grandchild (FG) (and his parents) and it was a real treat.

We decided to travel to our holiday Airbnb in Fife via The Kelpies. These are huge metal statues of horse spirits that, as legend has it, tempted humans into the river and drowned them. The story may be a bit grim but the monuments, designed by Andy Scott, are very impressive. FG was less enamoured with the Kelpies than we were but walking around them was a useful activity break before the next section of driving to a recommended cafe in Culross on the north bank of the Firth of Forth.

FG’s wife always ensures that we eat very well when we visit Edinburgh and surrounds – either through her excellent and seemingly effortless cooking, or through her restaurant recommendations. The Mercat in Culross was a cafe and homeware shop that Jane had also heard about and the toastie lunch there didn’t disappoint.

*^{Views of Culross (Top One Courtesy of National Trust Scotland)}*

Culross is a very pleasant town. The market square was small but pretty and the buildings along the coast front were clearly historic. They are preserved well enough to, apparently, be used in a lot of period films and television series, some of which we have seen. The old wealth of the town was based on coal. While FG enjoyed the substantial playground, I read up on the innovative way in which the coal was loaded onto ships via a tunnel under the water of the Forth of Firth and then up a lift shaft onto the pier.

*^{Culross And The Firth of Forth (Pic Courtesy of National Trust Scotland)}*

Our holiday home was one of four new, eco-type buildings on the Charleton Estate in East Fife. It housed us comfortably (once we got used to the limited storage spaces and the absurdly steep stairs to Jane and my bedroom) and was surrounded by a golf course and open land we could walk around. In summary, it was near ideal and a great base for discovering other parts of Fife.

I liked Fife very much. We had visited the east Fife coast once before immediately after the wedding of ES and his wife in late 2022. Then, however, Jane was ill and the weather was so poor that we didn’t appreciate the environment much beyond being impressed with the scale of the flooding and the wind velocity. This time, we had warm and mainly sunny weather.

Many of the Fife towns have an interesting industrial and mercantile past often based on coal. The usually pretty main streets of solidly-built Georgian or Victorian houses and cottages indicate a historic wealth. Around these, the landscape is clearly fertile and is dominated by agriculture – mainly potatoes, wheat and attractive fields of manure/ground cover crops such as white radish and phacelia.

The coastal towns near our base were particularly attractive. Anstruther looked a bit touristy but Elie harbour was lovely and we spent several hours there helping FG potter about, make sand constructions, search for ‘treasure’ and paddle.

Even better was St Monans. I love this place. It’s a stop off from the Fife coastal walk – some of which is walkable only at low tide. It has a great, compact, sturdy harbour, many 17^th and 18^th century cottages and several grander old houses. I particularly enjoyed the views of the church (one of the oldest in Scotland) and the walk along the coast to a windmill.

*^{Coastal Walk Route And St Monans Church}*

On the walk I saw and/or heard interesting birds including yellowhammers, curlews, redshanks and oystercatchers. I then passed a huge tidal swimming pool built in the 1930s and still popular with wild swimmers today.

St Monans has a long history of fishing and industry. The windmill was used to pump sea water into buildings with salt pans. The foundations of these buildings are still visible. Using local coal, it seems that the salt industry all along the Firth of Forth coast was huge in the late 18^th and early 19^th centuries until foreign imports became too competitively priced. It was interesting to see the remains of this bit of St Monans’ history.

On top of all this, St Monans has some very good cafes and restaurants including the Giddy Gannet and the East Pier Smokehouse (which provided an excellent smoked seafood stew in a beautiful location).

*^{St Monans From East Pier Smokehouse}*

We also ate very well at the The Kinneuchar Inn in the centre of another nearby, very pretty little town (Kilconqhuar). At all these meals, FG was very absorbed with his pebbles, shells and card games and was so well behaved (with a bit of ‘management’) that we could relax.

While in Fife, we also visited St Andrews. On the way, I was dropped off in Cupar while the others went on to an adventure park and a pick-your-own fruit farm. Like so many other towns, Cupar has a history back to Medieval times and a lot of nice old buildings. However, apart from a nice parish church and a walk along the Eden River, Cupar was relatively unassuming and unmemorable.

St Andrews, on the other hand, was very grand with its ancient university (founded in 1413), its prestigious golf course, beautiful beaches and historic buildings.

The cathedral, built in 1138, is now a ruin but has an impressive location. Within its grounds is St Rule’s Tower which pre-dates the cathedral. Together they are an impressive sight and a big tourist attraction.

St Andrews Cathedral and St Rule's Tower — *^{St Andrews Cathedral and St Rule’s Tower}*

Our break in Fife had all I could have wished for. We enjoyed variety, history, wildlife, attractive British landscapes, pretty towns and great places to eat. That culinary pleasure included a very good home barbeque engineered by ES. Plus, of course, we loved spending quality time with FG. We loved seeing him enjoy the whole holiday whether on the beach, in the playgrounds or learning how to play simple card games. I hope we can do something like it again sometime.

My Retirement Journey

I've Retired! What Next?

Holiday

Museums: Cheltenham and Bristol

Art in Bilbao

Enjoying Fife