Day Trip – Chester
Last week we had a very beautiful day in the historic city of Chester. As it was only a day trip there wasn’t time to see everything, but enough to enjoy the vibrant atmosphere of the city. In essence, Chester carries very big amounts of history in its topography and architecture as it was founded around 2000 years ago by Romans (http://www.localhistories.org/chester.html). So, we started by finding the remains of the Roman Amphitheatre, which was one of the largest Roman constructions in the area at that time and it could seat approximately 7000 people. The site was big, almost overwhelming; as standing in the middle of the area I was imaging myself watching gladiators fight, back then, when this activity was seen as entertainment.
Chester is one of the cities that has a complete circuit of walls built in Roman times and later extended in the Middle Ages to protect the city from invaders. So we decided to take a long walk around the city on the walls. This ‘journey’ took us around one hour and a half as we had plenty of opportunities to take photographs and to stop at different points where we found interesting things to see.
One such opportunity was the Eastgate Clock which dates from the Victorian times and it happens to be the most photographed clock in the world – second only to Big Ben in London, indeed! There are photos in the gallery section that presents the clock from different perspectives.
Another key stop when visiting Chester is the Cathedral. The records suggest that in 1092 a monastery was founded in Chester and then in 1541 to become the Cathedral of Chester; it forms the most complete medieval complex in the country (http://www.chestercathedral.com).
We couldn’t leave without taking a walk inside ‘The Rows’ (http://www.visitchester.com/things-to-do/chester-rows-p22731) which are a series of ‘double decker’ black and white, half-timbered buildings, this layout going back to the 13th century. Nowadays the place is populated with a wide variety of shops and restaurants, making Chester a very good option for shopping.
Our day ended with a warm tea and cake in one of the tea Rooms, somewhere in ‘The Rows’. It was pleasant to sit up there and enjoy our drinks while watching people passing by or listening to the street performers.
If someone’s ever thinking of vising Chester, please do it. It is a rich place, colourful and vibrant through its busyness of tourists, students and locals, each of them in the pursuit of their own goals. We are happy that we managed to get to see such a nice place and we hope to go back there as soon as possible.
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