Chester, England, United Kingdom
It’s Sunday morning, and we finally get a little time to
sleep in, mostly because the hotel restaurant doesn’t open for breakfast until
8:00. Well, Jody got a little extra
sleep in, I on the other hand had a bit of an acid reflux attack last night
after a day of eating badly and two days of forgetting to take my acid reflux
medication. Lesson learned, I should be
fine for the rest of the trip. After
yesterdays long time on the bus, it was a relief to know our first activity was
only a half hour away.
Our first stop was a little town called Windemere, cleverly
located on Lake Windemere and home of Beatrix Potter. We had some time to get coffee and do a
little exploring before getting on a boat for a cruise down Lake
Windemere. The weather was beautiful and
there were even swimmers and boaters on the lake. Lake Windemere is really a resort town in the
lakes district, where discerning Brits come for a little R&R. There are lots of small sailboats, even
small electric rental boats, and everyone here seems to be having a great
time.
At 66 degrees, it’s a little cold
for our Florida blood, but the English seem to think it is some sort of summer
heat wave!
The boat ride was relaxing, though Jody rode downstairs in
the warm comfort of the closed in space, where I rode in the open upper deck,
with the hardier should to get some good pictures. It was worth it though, as the pictures on
the lake are great. The ride was only
about 30 minutes though, but it left us off at the Haverthwaite Station where
we were able to ride in our own private Victorian era coach. I always love a good steam engine ride, it’s
just that this one was over too soon as it only lasted about 30 minutes. I don’t care, at least I was able to ride a
steam train again, one of my favorite things to do. I thinks it’s just the “engineer” in me.
By now it was noon and time to get back on the bus to head
for our next destination, the home of the Beatles, Liverpool. The time passed quickly, as the scenery was
not particularly spectacular, so I ended up nodding off and on until we were
finally at the Albert Docks in Liverpool.
While the old Albert Docks were once the center of trade, the warehouses
became too small, and the dock itself too small for the modern ships of the 20th
century. But the warehouses were
virtually indestructible as they were built of brick, stone and cast iron, with
no structural wood making them fireproof.
After WW2, they fell into disrepair, but in the 1980’s, they were
revitalized and are now the site of shops, hotels, restaurants, museums, and
housing. It is now the number one
tourist attraction in Liverpool.
We were supposed to be taking a guided tour of historical
Beatles locations since all of the Beatles grew up in Liverpool, but Liverpool
is a happening city. Last week there was a Taylor Swift concert, with some of
the remnants still visible, and this weekend there is a Deacon Blue outdoor
concert in one part of town and an African Oye concert in another. With 60,000 people expected for the Deacon
Blue concert alone, many of the streets we would have visited have been closed,
or are hopelessly blocked by traffic.
But our local guide Margie was determined, and managed to
take us to most of the places where the Beatles were born or brought up along
with several sites that were either directly mentioned or were the inspiration
for many of the Beatles songs. She also
pointed out some of the general sites of Liverpool, enough to get us to
understand that there is a lot of fun to be had in Liverpool! Our final visit was to stop and get out of
the bus on the famous Penney Lane so that we could take a picture in front of the
street sign. It was certainly a fun
afternoon, and we did manage to stop at the Fab4 Shop that seemed to have every
t-shirt and memorabilia you could ever want.
There certainly seemed like many other places to visit in
Liverpool, and it would have been great to have dinner in some of the
restaurants in Albert Dock, but the concert guests were arriving, and there was
even hundreds of cheerleaders arriving for some sort of competition, so we
hopped on the bus and headed out while we still could.
Luckily, our final destination in Chester was
only 30 minutes away, and we arrived at about 5:30, just in time for dinner.
The hotel tonight is another of our favorite kind of historic
hotel. The Queen Hotel in Chester was
originally built in 1860, across from the Chester Railway Station. Though it is now thoroughly modern, it still
retains a lot of the charm of the original structure. Each of the floors is designated for a group
of kings, and our room 1408 is located on the 4th floor designated
Italian Kings, and our room is the Maximilian I room.
Tonight we are on our own for dinner, and we wanted to get
away from eating in the hotel dining room, so we thought we would venture into
town. Within a couple of minutes we
found a couple of pubs, a couple of Indian and a Thai restaurant, but ended up
at an Italian place called The Yard with a menu that changes every couple of
weeks. This not the spaghetti and cheese
kind of Italian, but more the seafood and cream sauces type. While trying to expand our tastes and still
avoiding the squid, clams and mussels, we both decided on a roasted chicken
breast with gorgonzola gnocchi and wild garlic oil, and we both agreed it was
the best chicken we had ever eaten.
Our
waitress was a lovely girl from Wales, and did great though we barely
understood a word she said.
After dinner, we headed back to the room, only to find our
charming hotel had a not-so-charming toilet that wouldn’t stop running. We could have lived with the noise by closing
the door, but the reason it was running is that it wouldn’t fill, so it also
wouldn’t flush. I went down to the
front desk, and they checked with maintenance who said they would need to call
a plumber to break into the wall, so all they could do was move us to a
different room. Sow now we are on the 7th
floor Emperors, and room 1708 Septimus Severus.
His toilet works much better.
Tomorrow we will tour the old city of Chester in the
morning, getting on the ferry for Dublin in the afternoon. We’re looking forward to dinner in a real
Irish pub!
2025-05-22