A very cold, damp day in Chester but still so beautiful and a really wonderful city to spend a leisurely day exploring and walking around.
We started off after a fabulous English breakfast buffet by walking about 7 - 10 minutes over a small bridge to the town of Hoole which is considerably smaller than Chester but so charming. They have a laundromat so I was able to do two wash loads and get everything dry and ready for us to leave tomorrow. The women working there was so friendly like just about every person we've met here since we arrived yesterday.
Although we did have a tiny mishap when, after shopping at some of the charity shops in town's main street, we returned to put the clothes in the dryer and found that the dark wash was completely covered in tissue lint. Mom had accidentally left a tissue in her sweater pocket. But all worked out fine, that nice lady working there ran it through the wash again without charging me and had it on hot which apparently is the right choice for such a situation. When it was all finished the lint was gone and the dark clothes no longer looked like they had contracted some awful spotted disease.
Our little Hoole adventure worked out well for another reason since mom and I hadn't expected to be going on the lovely Cunard Cruise ship neither one of us packed any clothes remotely appropriate for the formal dinners. I have a nice black dress that I can make work most nights but mom really had nothing but today she found 4 new dresses at the charity shops that are all beautiful and look so good on her and they were even on sale so she got them each for around $3.50. Crazy considering the quality of them. She even found a pair of shoes in black that fit her perfectly for only 4 pounds. |
| Ancient Roman Amphitheater Costumed interactive children's performance going on |
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| Kayak club (you can see all the stored kayaks to the right) |
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| Gorgeous hotel with tired garden sloping down to the river |
It was a fun charity shopping day and I think we must have been in and out of about 20 between Hoole and Chester. You just never know what you'll find so it's exciting.
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| Boat Tour |
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| Mom gazing out the window of the tour bus |
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| Famous Blue Coat statue over the former Blue Coat Hospital |
We did the hop-on-hop off bus as well which included a nice 30 minute boat ride on the River Dee. And although it was overcast and a fog was rolling in the cruise was beautiful with huge mansions lining the hillside along the river bank. There was one small section where a row of tiny, tiny cottages (some looking more like shacks) which sit very close to the rivers edge and we were told that this area is protected for some reason I'm not sure of and the owners of each plot and cottage are not allowed to live there except for 6 weeks throughout the year. That didn't seem so strange to me until I found out that the people who own each plot paid around 150,00 pounds for them. That's close to 200,00 dollars for yes, a nice close view of the river (which floods a lot by the way) but not much else. I guess they like to park their boats but still that's a lot of money for that pleasure. I guess if you have it this is as good a place to spend on a piece of property as any other. |
| Eastern Ruins at the Church of St. John the Baptist |
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| Eastern Ruins at the Church of St. John the Baptist |
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| Eastern Ruins at the Church of St. John the Baptist |
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| Eastern Ruins at the Church of St. John the Baptist |
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| Birds nesting on the ruins |
The boat only had a hand full of tourists including us but also a special needs group from a local pre-school with the cutest kids and a teacher for every two. It was impressive to see how well loved and respected the kids are by their nurturing tutors and fun to watch their reactions to what they saw from the windows. Although the teachers were telling them to look for dolphins which would I presume would be a miraculous occurrence had it happened. But I guess you say what you need to to keep them happy and interested.
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| Church of St. John the Baptist |
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| Church of St. John the Baptist |
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| Church of St. John the Baptist |
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| Roman Ruins Park |
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| Roman Ruins Park |
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| Steps going up to the wall |
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| Roman Ruins Park |
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| Walking the wall |
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| Famous clock that you walk under when on the wall |
I also got to walk along the wall which offers incredible views of the city. It's only 2 miles around but they have designated places to stop and read about the city, the wall and it's history so it can take about 2 hours to complete a full circle. I was meeting mom so I just did a small part but certainly well worth a walk around the whole perimeter if you're ever in the area.
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| Mom and the ubiquitous English red phone booth |
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| Dinner |
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| The sun came out!!! |
We went back to Bella Italia for dinner again and it was equally as good and just as we sat down the sun came out so we enjoyed watching all the passersby going in and out of shops or those who simply chose to stand in the much needed sunlight.
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| Mom pointing to our hotel |
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| Our hotel's sister hotel across the street with a beautiful courtyard |
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| The Queens Hotel's courtyard |
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| The Queens Hotel's huge over-sized chair |
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| Mom in the Queens Hotel's over-sized phone booth |
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| Queen Hotel Lobby |
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| Mom with the bust of Queen Elizabeth done for her 60th Jubilee celebration last year. There were 60 painted by different artists all around the city in 2012 |
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| Stained glass window near our room |
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| View from our room. Not pretty but quiet |
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| View from the lobby library lounge in our hotel |
