Wolverhampton - a day in Chester

Tuesday 13 August

Today we had an early start with a train to Chester at 7:41am. Jane drove us to the station and came with us for the day.

 

When we arrived at Chester we walked towards town and saw a lovely Lombard House Cafe where we had coffee to start us on our walking adventure.

 

 Again I was gobsmacked when we turned a corner to see the Eastgate of the walled part of the city with all its stunningly old buildings. 

 

On the way to the information centre we passed the Chester Cathedral and I wanted to go in. Although I had visited Chester in 2006 I did not go into the cathedral then. It is truly a breathtaking experience to be in such an awe inspiring space: stone flagged floors, very high vaulted ceilings, a huge pipe organ and another smaller one, many smaller side chapels, decorative tile floors, old stone cloisters, the list goes on. To experience the ancient links with history is truly marvellous.

 

 

 

 

We then walked down Bridge St towards the river admiring yet more old buildings. Esther had suggested lunch at the Bear and Billet (a 1664 pub) but as we arrived there a bit early we walked along the river front to the Roman Garden then returned via the city wall.

 

 

When we got back to the Bear and Billet we only had a short wait for the pub to open. I had my first English fish and chips meal of this trip. Not bad!

 

 

After lunch we continued walking around the city wall in a clockwise direction past Chester Castle, the racecourse (the first in Britain), the Water Tower (for defence rather than storage) and eventually took a side walk off the wall to see some locks in action on the canal.

 

On again around behind the cathedral and down at the Eastgate for an icecream.

 

 

 

Then we had to decide what to do for an hour before we had to make our way to the station so headed for an area that was archaeological dig site in 2006. It was now open and developed into a roman amphitheatre on the site of the original one. There were centurions and kids having fun in the arena. The ruins were accentuated and used as seating surrounding the arena.

Then we passed St John's church which was being renovated and an amusing man was touting for visitors with cries of free toilets and even coffee and tea inside. This was another magnificent structure and the organ was actually being used by the cathedral organist for practice.

 

Behind the church we were entertained by the squirrels in the park for a while before heading for the station exhausted and happy to sit and wait for a while for our train.

 

Back home again. Kiran had arrived and was busy making dinner for us. We were soon joined by Julia, Kate and John and enjoyed a delicious meal and good company.

Kiran

Julia

   

 

 Eventually we got to bed by about 10pm after ore than 14000 steps.