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Bristol, United Kingdom

Bristol is the largest city in the south-west of England, with a population of nearly 400,000 people. It is situated near the Bristol Channel, and along the River Avon, which runs directly through the city. Bristol is often considered to be the capital of the south-west of England, and is conveniently situated less than two hours away from the centre of London by car, or around an hour and a half by train. 

During WWII the city was heavily bombed due to its extremely busy port and docks area in the middle of the city. Since then much of the city has been rebuilt with some buildings having survived the bombings. The ports and docks closed in 1962 when they were moved to the edge of the city on the Bristol Channel at Avonmouth. 

Much of the city's history was established through the manufacturing of goods. It was an excellent city for manufacturing with its expansive port and good transport links with the rest of England. Bristol was once home to many tobacco factories, and has played a huge role in the manufacturing of aerospace products. The iconic Concorde aircraft which were produced for British Airways were manufactured just outside of Bristol City Centre at Filton Airport. Airbus now use the site at Filton for component manufacturing before final assembly of aircraft in Toulouse in France.

Bristol is home to many famous landmarks such as the Clifton Suspension Bridge - built by Brunel, the St Mary Redcliffe Church, and now permanent home to the SS Great Britain, and Concorde G-BOAF. Each year the city hosts the Bristol International Balloon Fiesta, which is the largest hot air balloon mass ascent in the whole of Europe attracting crowds of up to half a million people over the four day event. 

In 2008 a state of the art shopping centre (Cabot's Circus) was opened in the centre of Bristol featuring over 140 new stores including designer names such as Harvey Nicholls and Zara, with high street chains such as House of Fraser. Cabot Circus is also home to a Cinema De-Luxe, several restaurants and bars, and is cleverly integrated with the existing Broadmead shopping centre and the Quakars Friars area of the city centre. Cabot Circus has been designed to compete with The Mall at Cribbs Causeway in Bristol, and other major cities, such as Manchester and Birmingham to offer the best choice of shopping facilities in the country.

Tourists to Bristol today can enjoy a wealth of historic information and superb sight-seeing. As previously mentioned, shopping facilities are plentiful, but if crowded malls are not your scene, then why not take the time to browse around Clifton village with boutique stores and excellent architecture. On an evening the waterfront area comes alive with many bars, restaurants and nightclubs, allowing you to enjoy all that Bristol has to offer until the early hours of the morning.

The city is conveniently situated near the M4/M5 motorways, Temple Meads Train Station, Bristol Parkway Train Station, and Bristol International Airport (Lulsgate), making it easily accessible by any means of transport. Click here for pictures.

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