Tourists and Sundays...

Phew, I'm back! Today I went to the city of Chester. Since with 25 miles away it's only a stone's throw away and the weather was great I went by bicycle - it's healthy, good exercies, dead nice and it's free! Well, not completely, since the Queensway Tunnel restricts bicycle access to certain times but that's another story...

Tudor style houses

One thing quite significant in the city centre of Chester is the attractive architecture of many houses: they are built in the so-called Tudor style - half-timbered black and white. The abundance of these Tudor houses makes the appearance of the city totally different to that of Liverpool...

City tours in a historical bus

Ancient ruins at the Roman amphitheatre

Speaking of old buildings, one of the oldest structures that can be seen in Chester are the remains of the Roman amphitheatre - according to the signboards the biggest one in Britain. There I should mention that Chester is a city of superlatives: the biggest Roman amphitheatre, the most complete circuit of defensive city walls in Britain, one of the oldest horse racing courses, you name it...

Grosvenor Park - it's marvellous...

The next superlative is of personal nature, namely the Grosvenor Park. According to my taste it's the most beautiful park I've seen so far in Britain - even the glory of the big parks of London fades away when compared with this one. That's a personal opinion of course... each his own, eh? And the best thing is, the whole day I didn't encounter a single scally or dodgy looking person, no, the Cestrians all looked quite friendly and happy on this nice Sunday.

Quite a lovely city




And a lovely river: the River Dee (the border to Wales!)




But no bird flu yet. Thank goodness! :)




The 'rows'




View from the rows on the street




The shopping area is two-storied

Another thing that Chester is famous for, are the so-called 'rows', elevated, roofed walkways that seem to be already part of the houses but still accessible by the public, making the streets of the city centre two-storied. A most peculiar architectonic feature!

Chester Cathedral

I then paid the Chester Cathedral a visit, the next peculiarity. For me, not for the British, for coming from Europe, I picture something quite different in my head when I hear 'cathedral', something like Notre Dame or the cathedral in Cologne. This architecture - especially with the England-flag fluttering on the top - looks rather like a castle to me... beautiful though, in it's own way.

City walls from the perspective of a defender - from the top




The Roodee - one of the oldest horse racing courses in Britain

Next thing I went for a walk around the old city centre on top of the city walls which you can do for free and at a leisurely pace within a little less than an hour. It rewards you with a few really nice views on the city inside and outside the walls and on the moat and its vegetation. When you circle the complete city walls, you also pass the Roodee, one of the oldest horse racing courses in Britain - and also a peculiarly shaped one, it's one of the few horse racing courses you can overlook completely without using binoculars...

A nice pedestrian area - something Liverpool can't keep up with, despite it's size




Tame squirrels at Grosvenor Park - they even eat out of your hand when you feed them!!

And then the day was already drawing to a close and after one more quick walk through the Grosvenor Park I returned to my bicycle and started on the return journey. Summarising I'd say, if you like ancient structures, old buildings and cities with a really nice and friendly appearance overall, Chester's a really good place for you to go. I'll go again, definitely!

Our 'Merseypolis', photo I took while waiting for it to become 9pm -
the time from which cyclists are allowed to use Queensway Tunnel again on a Sunday...