Tuesday 10th September

We seemed to be well organised and were ready for the off to Chester.  Why Chester you may ask, well it’s on the way to Morecambe and a city that neither of us had visited so it seemed a good idea. Local advice was to go through Bristol town centre as it would be relatively quiet at that time of day. It was indeed but the road works seemed to confuse the sat nav and she told me to turn right when I should have gone straight on! Due to the road works it was quite some time before we were able to get going in the right direction again and this time I ignored her directions and went straight on. All plain sailing then and we were soon on the M5 going north. Due to road works round Birmingham we took the road via Shrewsbury and arrived in Chester about 2pm. We’d eaten a packed lunch on the way so we were able to start looking round as soon as we parked the car. We were staying at the Travelodge in Pepper Street right in the centre and parked the car close by. We walked along part of the wall and then went and looked round the cathedral. Such a magnificent and imposing building. I’m always struck by the amount of work, over generations, that went into building these edifices. I have read The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follet, a novel about the building of a cathedral and that really brought home to me the skill and time taken to complete these structures. Then a stroll along Eastgate to marvel at the old black and white houses and shops before having a welcome rest and coffee before going to the car, collecting our belongings and checking in to our hotel. Our room was pretty near perfect, quiet, comfortable and spacious enough for an overnight stay. We’d done a recce of the local eateries and had decided to eat at Firejacks just a short stroll from the hotel. So dinner over and back to our room after a successful day.