Bristol

I am in Bristol, UK for three weeks co-teaching a class called "Co-Constructing Spacetime" with a collaborator at the University of Bristol. It's awesome! My collaborator says Bristol is a lot like Seattle, and I get that; the cities are about the same size, on the water, both with a kind of gritty formerly-industrial now-artsy vibe. But you don't see this kind of thing around a corner in Seattle:

I do a lot of walking here and Bristol is a wonderful walking town. The 40-minute walk from my apartment to campus includes many many steps, called The Christmas Steps, lined with cute little shops.

Turns out they have nothing to do with Christmas; it is a corruption of "knifesmith." There is 256 feet (25 stories!) of elevation gain, which is great exercise, and great views like this one.

As if that were not sufficiently picturesque, there was also a Balloon Fiesta yesterday.