Day 2: Chester, England
We picked up our car and headed north from Oxford. Our overnight stop was in Warrington and Chester was about midway between Oxford. It made a nice stopover for lunch and a relaxing river tour on the River Dee.
According to Historic UK, Chester has the most complete city walls in Britain. It is also home to the world-famous Rows, two-tier medieval galleries of shops.
Chester was originally settled by the Romans in the first century AD and called Fortress Diva, after the River Dee upon which it stands. With its imposing city walls – you can still see some of the original Roman structure – and its massive harbour, Deva rapidly became one of the most important Roman settlements in Britain.
We wandered the shopping streets, but we are not shoppers, so while it’s a lovely area and we enjoyed the old architecture, we moved on to head down near the river. Mike had discovered a BBQ restaurant he wanted to go to. The owners spent time in the States learning about all the different types of BBQ. Hickory’s Smokehouse is located on the river and Mike enjoyed the BBQ. (I’m not a BBQ fan.)
After lunch, we headed to the tour boats for a short river tour. It was a beautiful day and the scenery is lovely.
There are so many gorgeous gardens and homes. I’m sure there are stories behind many of them, but I don’t always listen to the commentary on these tours.
I couldn’t help but grab a couple of reflection images as we cruised by.
After the boat tour, we wandered over to the site of a Roman Amphitheatre. The Roman amphitheatre at Chester was the largest in Britain.
It was a lovely stop on our way up to Warrington. We arrived at our hotel with plenty of time to relax. Me with my book and a nice glass of wine and Mike headed to the pool for a swim.
If you’d like to learn more about Chester, visit their site.
