Unfortunately, Ollie doesn’t have time to meet us. She is currently preparing for important exams and needs every minute to study. We understand that, of course. But we head to Bristol anyway. I had been looking forward to a pie from Pieminister and the Wallace & Gromit shop in the shopping centre on the outskirts of the city for a long time. The journey takes us past the industrial estate and large car parks with electric cars from China, which have presumably arrived here by ship. And we drive under the suspension bridge, which is apparently being renovated. Then we are there. We park at the harbour and stroll through the town to get a little hungrier. There are some lively shops by the ‘Christmas Steps’, including a video shop with lots of homemade video memorabilia in the window.

Then it’s time: we order our pies. Gabi eats a Moolin Rouge pie with steak, bacon and red wine, served with mashed potatoes and cheese, I have a Moo Pie (steak and ale) as a ‘Mothership’, with mash, minty mushy peas, cheddar, crispy onions and gravy. Everything is simply marvelous. After the meal, we slowly walk back to the car and head on to the shopping centre.

In the shopping centre, we have trouble finding the shop again. Somehow it’s just not in the same place as it was on our last visit. We search around and finally discover it: tiny and half hidden under a staircase. Wow. Not a good sign, we think. But the employee assures us that it’s only temporary while the actual shop is being remodelled. It will soon reopen in full size. Thank goodness! And even if the selection isn’t that big at the moment, we buy a few things anyway. And we pop into the local Lush store. The chain has reissued perfumes that they launched at the very beginning of the ‘B Never too busy to be Beautiful’ in 2005 – we were there at the opening in London. Gabi can buy more of the ‘Love’ perfume she likes so much.

We are invited back to Catherine, Dee and dog Mickey for dinner. They prepared baked potatoes and nacho chips with various toppings. This reminds me a lot of our language school days in London, when we often ate baked potatoes. But they were never this delicious! Catherine and Dee prepared chilli con carne, minced meat, sour cream, a homemade ranch sauce and a cheese sauce that they used to eat when they lived with their parents in Texas as children. Yesterday they showed us lots of lovely photos from that time. There is a moment of shock when the oven gloves on the gas hob suddenly catch fire. Fortunately, the danger is quickly averted. After another wonderful evening, it’s time to say goodbye. Tomorrow we are travelling on to London. We certainly hope to see them all again soon.