A Day in Chester

On Saturday night, my lovely housemate Nicola and I spoke of the trip we wanted to venture on and that very night decided to head to Chester on Sunday for a quick day trip. The drive takes 35 minutes from downtown Liverpool without traffic. We got in Nicola's little Ford Ka went through the Kingsway Tunnel and hurtled down the M53 to Chester.

After finding a spot close to the center we parked the car and walked into town. Arriving a little early we had time to kill before the Chester Cathedral opened for visitors so we headed to Nero for some hot beverages and to people watch in the cute little city.

 Chester even has its own Liverpool store.

We finished our yummy baked goods and hot drinks and headed off to find the Funky Aardvark. A shop showcasing the works of local artists that I wanted to check out.  What is cool about Chester is that there are plenty of staircases off the main roads leading up to another story of shops along what they call "rows." After doing a spot of shopping we walked to the Roman Gardens which is a small garden near the Ampitheatre containing a number of Roman ruins and artefacts gathered from around Chester. There are plenty of signs around the gardens explaining things about the ruins.

After leaving the gardens we climbed the walls and walked along the walls beside the River Dee. There seemed to be some sort of kayaking in rapids on the other side of the river. It looked like a lot of fun. 

We walked to the Amphitheatre next and explored it. The amphitheatre is Britain's largest known Roman amphitheatre . The amphitheatre would have been able to seat between 8,000 and 12,000 spectators. It's hard to imagine such an amount of people being able to sit as only the outline of the building remains. Leaving the ruins, we walked back towards the Cathedral to do a bit more shopping and have lunch at Bella Italia. I had the Prawn Gamberoni, it was not as good as Marcello's but it was pretty tasty..

Chester Cathedral dates from around 1283 to 1537, mostly replacing an earlier monastic church founded in 1092 with the Cathedral being established in 1541. The Cathedral is very large and very beautiful with high ceilings and stained glass windows.

After walking through the Cathedral, we said goodbye to Chester and headed back to Liverpool. I had a really great time in Chester and would love to visit again. It's a really cute little city with lots of shops and has a great atmosphere to it.