A break from the car today as we spent the day walking around the very picturesque town of Chester next to the Dee River. We booked accommodation only 15 minutes walk from the town, a sensible decision as it would have been quite hard to park. Lots and lots of photos today.
The town has a central area surrounded by Roman (and added to ongoing) city walls. You can walk the entire circuit around the top of the walls. Except for the bits closed for renovations and surrounded by scaffolding. It's about 2 miles in total and everywhere there is a gate there are stairs up and stairs down - I only just made it! The great part is that you get a preview of the town as you walk all around it from a higher angle, especially things like the racecourse that you wouldn't see from ground level.
On the way around we came across a set of 4 locks on the canal, and had the luck of seeing a houseboat navigating them. We stayed for the first one but it took such a long time - it must be very tedious (and a lot of work to open/close the gates) to pass through the whole system.
Then down into the town proper to look at the buildings and visit the shops. The town centre has buildings called Rows, unique to Chester, where shops were built with two tiers. Generally these are black and white timber structures and very picturesque.
By the halfway point I was flagging, and fortuitously came across a Leonidas Chocolate shop ... time for some low calorie (not) refreshment.
Back to the town for more pics.
Then found a pretty good ... well, awesome ... chocolate shop. The most amazing range of flavours available.
After my first visit to a Marks and Spenser Food Hall (amazing, SO many quality ready-made meals including fabulous salads for dinner) we headed to the Roman gardens, where a furry friend came out and wanted to investigate my purchases.
Then down to the riverfront to cross the bridge to come home. Temperature hovering around 16 degrees ... boats, ice cream stands and open air seats all conspicuously unpatronised. Even the ducks had shut up shop.
Probably a 'driving' day tomorrow to visit some sites outside of Chester.
The town has a central area surrounded by Roman (and added to ongoing) city walls. You can walk the entire circuit around the top of the walls. Except for the bits closed for renovations and surrounded by scaffolding. It's about 2 miles in total and everywhere there is a gate there are stairs up and stairs down - I only just made it! The great part is that you get a preview of the town as you walk all around it from a higher angle, especially things like the racecourse that you wouldn't see from ground level.
On the way around we came across a set of 4 locks on the canal, and had the luck of seeing a houseboat navigating them. We stayed for the first one but it took such a long time - it must be very tedious (and a lot of work to open/close the gates) to pass through the whole system.
Then down into the town proper to look at the buildings and visit the shops. The town centre has buildings called Rows, unique to Chester, where shops were built with two tiers. Generally these are black and white timber structures and very picturesque.
By the halfway point I was flagging, and fortuitously came across a Leonidas Chocolate shop ... time for some low calorie (not) refreshment.
Back to the town for more pics.
Then found a pretty good ... well, awesome ... chocolate shop. The most amazing range of flavours available.
After my first visit to a Marks and Spenser Food Hall (amazing, SO many quality ready-made meals including fabulous salads for dinner) we headed to the Roman gardens, where a furry friend came out and wanted to investigate my purchases.
Then down to the riverfront to cross the bridge to come home. Temperature hovering around 16 degrees ... boats, ice cream stands and open air seats all conspicuously unpatronised. Even the ducks had shut up shop.
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