Sleep In Heavenly Peace

After a wet afternoon in Bath we decided to head to Bristol. It was only 20 miles away from Bath. We quickly got settled into the Bristol City Centre Marriot Hotel for a night of rest and relaxation. It was now dark and was raining peacefully. The nice folks at the front desk gave us walking directions through a serene park to the downtown eating establishments. It was a romantic stroll through the park, complete with an ancient ruined abbey in the middle, in the rain.

We found the downtown riverfront area to be very busy. There were so many college drunks really whooping it up. One even screamed very loudly about 6 inches away from my nose. Nice people here. We found a floating restaurant and had to sit in the non-floating part of it. I’m an advocate for truth in advertising. The sign should have read “Half-Floating Restaurant.” We had a great meal and ended the evening listening to distant fireworks. They were celebrating something to do with the harbor. It was too loud and I could not understand the accent to find out exactly what it was.

We took a nice stroll back to the hotel and settled in. The Marriot was nice but was definitely not a 4 star hotel. But as we were too tired to care, we got into bed and fell fast asleep. I was exhausted from my first-day driving ordeal and all the walking we were doing. With the girls in their room and Sheir and I in ours, we were soon fast asleep. Not a care in the world. Fast, fast asleep at the Bristol City Centre Marriott Hotel in Bristol, England. We were so tired and we were asleep. Very asleep.

FIRE! FIRE! FIRE! It was 1:30 AM and the loudest fire alarms I have ever heard went off. As we were on the 9th floor, I was a bit concerned. But being the Americans we were, we called the front desk and asked if the alarm was real. Yes, it was real and we needed to evacuate IMMEDIATELY! We quickly put on our clothes and grabbed our rain jackets. Out into the hallways everyone poured. You cannot use the elevator in a fire so we all packed into the stairwells. There were half-naked fat people, screaming babies, drunk people urinating, wives screaming things at their half-awake husbands, and dogs barking. It was just like roaming the streets of Bath.

We were escorted out of the building and into the parking lot. It was still raining and cold. Some people were panicked and crying. Most were calm but all were wet and some were shivering. And no one knew what was happening and no one was remotely interested in telling us what was happening. We stood out there for an hour. Sheri finally went to one hotel employee holding a clipboard who needed to check our names off a list. “What’s that for?” she asked. “I have no idea,” he replied. “What’s happening?” she asked. “I have no idea,” the hotel employee answered. We felt we were in good hands. Did I mention we were at the Bristol City Centre Marriot Hotel that was not a 4 star as advertised?

This would be a good time to mention something else we observed. The British have a thing about giving people in authority day-glow yellow reflective vests. They love them here! And they are everywhere you look. They make quite the fashion statement and certainly get your attention. Even tour guides inside buildings wear them. They are not just for police, fire and ambulance folks. If you are a go-to person, you wear day-glow yellow.

We had just spent an hour outdoors in the rain in the parking lot at the Bristol City Centre Marriot Hotel from 1:30 AM until 2:30 AM without being given explanation. Then, suddenly, a man appeared with a box. He looked exhausted as though he’d been searching for the box for an hour. Out of that box he pulled day-glow yellow vests and he handed one to each hotel employee. It was then, and only then, that they told us everything was just fine and that we could now safely return to our rooms. Thank God someone found those vests. Otherwise we’d have been in that parking lot all night!

Exhausted and with a big day ahead of us we trudged back up nine flights of stairs, then tried to go to sleep. Yeah right. In the morning when we checked out they wanted to add some stupid 40 pound (80$) fee to our bill even though I was prepaid. I reminded them of our evening romp in the rain and the fact that for one hour I was not in my bed but in the parking lot. They credited my account and let me go free. What kindness. We were off for a full day of site-seeing in Bath. The rain had stopped and the sun was out.