The Romans, Me, and King Henry VIII.

If you guessed where I went based off the title, kudos to you. In February, I spent a quiet weekend in Chester, England - which was the capital of Britannia under Roman rule and where King Henry VIII attended church after separated from the Catholic church. All in all, Chester was a cute, quaint town filled with history.

Though I had a lot of fun in Chester and I really enjoyed my time there, that wasn't my original plan. In fact, in February I had planned on going to Wales and when I began researching cities to stay in and activities I could do in each of them, I kept coming up short. Finally, I found a day trip to Wales from Chester and thought... yeah that'll work. The same company had a day trip to the Lakes District from Chester which I planned on doing, but it ended up getting canceled. Fortunately, that meant I could spend a day in Chester exploring the city.

February 17th:

I left Hull to head to Chester on what was supposed to be a simple, 3 hour train ride with one change. Hull to Manchester Victoria, Manchester Victoria to Chester. It ended up taking me approximately 8 hours to get to Chester due to severe winds. I went from Hull to Bradford, where I waited for about two and a half hours, Bradford to Manchester Victoria, where I waited for another hour or so, Manchester Victoria to Chester. Fortunately for me, the hotel I booked, The Queen, was across the street from the train station. As soon as I get to Chester, I checked in and made dinner reservations at the restaurant in the hotel.

After finishing up dinner, I headed up to bed because of the early morning that I had on the 18th. One of the things I especially enjoyed about The Queen was it's owned by Best Western, which means I got a full-sized bathroom to enjoy instead of the cramped space I have in my flat.

February 18th:

I was up early to get breakfast at the hotel before heading to my meeting spot for the Wales tour that I had scheduled for that day. You can read about that in my other blog, Wale(s) Watching.

When I arrived back to Chester, I went out to find a place to eat dinner. One thing that I did not consider was it may be hard to find a place to eat in a small town with small restaurants on a Saturday at 6:00. I ended up getting a reservation at the hotel restaurant again and enjoying an extravagant cocktail while I waited for my table.

While at dinner, I took some time to see what Chester had to offer so I could figure out how to spend my day on the 19th. I ended up finding some good things to do, made reservations for a hotel breakfast the next morning, and headed back up to my room.

February 19th:

After another hotel breakfast, I walked two minutes to the nearest bus station and caught a ride to Chester Zoo. It has been a long while since I've been to the zoo, and I've been fairly spoiled having the Asheboro zoo being the closest one to me. The zoo had what you'd typically imagine in a zoo, with some... unique additions. In North America, we have a lot of animals that the United Kingdom doesn't have. It was funny to see animals that I would see out in the wild in a zoo.

I've never been to the zoo by myself before, but I actually had a lot of fun. I could go at my own pace and prioritize the animals that I wanted to see. They had a house with free-flying birds, a butterfly house with hundreds of butterflies, and - the most unhinged one that I can't believe I went in - a free-flying bat house. You had to walk quietly and couldn't speak. Some of the bats were two feet long. It was quite the experience.

One of the cool things that the Chester Zoo has is a free, 10 minute boat ride along. It provides a different angle to see the animals from, and it just generally a pretty relaxing 10 minutes. Aside from seeing the zoo animals, you also saw a lot of ducks and birds that were living in the water.

I spent pretty much the whole morning and into early afternoon at the zoo before getting a bus back to the city center, where I went to explore the Roman amphitheatre and gardens. It was a short walk through the beautiful city to get there. Now, the amphitheatre is used by kids to play soccer or tag and the gardens are a peaceful place to enjoy a walk, but it was still very cool.

I also walked up on the city walls and got to enjoy the view of the city and the river that ran through it. I noticed that there were boat rides you could go on that took you up and down the river, so I headed down to the riverside next.

At the riverside, there were restaurants and cafes, so I stopped and got a late lunch before boarding a boat and getting a 45 minute narrated tour of the houses along the side of the river and the history of Chester. For $8, it was worth the experience. After I exited the boat, I decided to head back up into the city centre to see what I could see. There were lots of beautiful buildings and street performers out, and I found my way to Chester Cathedral, where there was a current art display on.

There were no formal tours happening, but you were allowed to wander around the cathedral and enjoy the different art they had on display. It was a really beautiful building, and I wish they gave tours because when things are that old, you know that there's a lot of history to them. But the art was cool and really enjoyable, and I got to see some beautiful architecture, so I was happy.

After I left the cathedral, I stumbled across Chester Market, which is the new food hall and marketplace that's opened in Chester (I only know this because I overheard people talking about it on the boat). We have established by now that I thoroughly enjoy food halls and markets, so I went in to see what it was all about.

I got myself some wine from the bar and some churros and sat down to enjoy my snack and people watch. After I finished, I went to explore the marketplace a bit and they have a little lego display of the town of Chester. It was very wholesome and honestly, I think that describes the overall vibes of Chester. Soon after, I left the marketplace and headed back to my hotel room, all while watching the sun set over the town.

February 20th:

I checked out of my hotel and headed to catch the 11 AM train back to Hull. The weather was beautiful enough for an iced coffee, which I have been waiting for since maybe October, so I got one for the tracks.

Though the journey back was smoother than the journey there, it wasn't perfect. My train from Manchester Victoria to Hull was canceled and I ended up waiting an hour for another train to come. However, that was the only hiccup that I had and I was back in Hull before it was dark out. Though I had a great time in Chester (and Wales) I was happy to be back because that meant that the countdown to Cam coming to visit me was entering the single digits.

If you're looking for a quaint, peaceful place in the northern parts of the UK to visit, I would absolutely recommend visiting Chester. There's rich history, sights to see, shopping, a zoo, and it has one of the most beautiful sunsets you'll ever see.

In order: Aardvarks Sleeping; Walking Through Chester; Roman Amphitheater; Roman Gardens; Me on the City Wall; Chester Cathedral