So here we are once again on our next adventure with our first stop Dubai. Even though it’s only a short two hour break for a change of aircraft, the golden rule will be to keep our feet firmly in our shoes. Those of you who read my last blog about our stay in Dubai will understand the significance and importance of this cardinal rule.
Flying direct to Manchester from Dubai in order to avoid the crowds in Heathrow, we headed straight to Chester for a few days to get into the holiday mode. To ensure we were prepared for the up coming challenges of the next few weeks, Jean booked our accomodation 2kms outside the city walls thereby ensuring that by the end of our short time here, the walking training was well and truly under way.
We are staying in Hoole, which is a little out of Chester and would once have been a small village, but it has now been enveloped by the inevitable urban spread of its bigger neighbour. It does however still have its “high street” with half a dozen pubs, a fish and chip shop, the occasional tattoo parlour and of course, a Costa Coffee and Sainsburys along with a smattering of other sundry shops
Two full days have given us ample time to explore Chester, a very delightful city, made even more enjoyable by perfect walking weather, both days around 22C and clear skies.
Ringed by 3.5kms of continuous city walls, built by the Romans, strengthened by the Anglo Saxons to repel the Vikings, further fortified by the Normans and finally breached by Oliver Cromwell, they are reputed to be the most complete city walls in Britain and form a rectangle enclosure surrounded on three sides by a bend in the River Dee.
The area within the walls is laid out in a grid pattern, with two main streets running longitudinally, intersected by a series of smaller streets and lanes making it a very relaxed place in which to aimlessly wander. The main streets are lined with the classic look of black and white Tudor buildings, some original and others restored during the Tudor revival in the late Victorian era.
The Chester Races were on when we were here and the city was awash with race goers of all shapes and sizes, and I mean sizes, most of which left little to the imagination. While the races themselves are said to be the oldest in Britain, the fashions off the field, both young and those who thought or wished they still were, were something else.
Properly rested and fully sated after 3 days, we are off to Holyhead on the northern tip of Wales to board the ferry to Dublin for the start of our self drive tour of Ireland and Northern Ireland.