A well loved well known icon and the Clifton suspension bridge

Today started really well bright but cloudy. Porridge and banana, with syrup and milk, to start me off, and a couple of sandwiches stuffed with ham. Margaret waved me off and out I set into my first proper rush hour traffic. Slightly annoying, but nothing like Southampton! And then the best bit - flat road for mile after mile, all the way from Bridgwater to the Mendips - total heaven on earth, well maybe not, but great nevertheless after the last few excruciating days. The Mendips really were a bit of a rude shock to the legs and lungs, not to forget the way my head feels like it might explode or boil from the heat build up, as I exert so much energy climbing another hill in gear number 27 (that's the easiest gear on the bike by the way!).
I got to Bristol in quite good time, and could see the suspension bridge way off in the distance, and knew it would be rude not to visit. I got there in time for a spot of lunch and a walk across, and then set off for my next host in Painswick, just to the north of Stroud. In my mind, I had placed Stroud nice and close to Bristol, and thought I had lots of time. How wrong could I be! Twenty six miles later with a very sore behind (I am going to upgrade my shorts tomorrow to some that have inch thick padding and an air bag!), I reached Painswick.
Painswick is a proper picture postcard town, with a beautiful church that has 14 real bells in its amazingly tall spire. I was given an up-close-and-personal tour of the bell chamber, and shown the principal of how to ring a bell so that it has beauty of sound and doesn't sound like a clanging shambles. It is very clever, and apparently quite special to England and Wales, having around five and a half thousand bell-ringing churches, out of the total six and a half in the whole world.
John and the other churches in this area have an amazing series of coordinated youth work projects happening - churches truly working together! This collaborative project is known as PSALMS.

Monday 6th July - Fifth Day

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