Lately, weekends seem to be going a lot quicker than they should. I literally blink and bam, it’s over and I’m back at my desk again.
I know I can’t slow down time (where’s Bernard’s watch when you need it?) but I have vowed to start making the most of my weekends and travelling around on UK day trips as much as I can.
The first place I’ve started with: the stunningly picturesque Chester.
My Mum told me that I have definitely been when I was younger but I don’t remember any of it, so it was like walking around a whole new city again. I’m not going to lie, I didn’t even realise Chester was a city until we got there and I saw the city ‘hop-on-hop-off’ buses everywhere. ?
Exploring Chester for the First Time
We had a pretty late start as it was a very last minute decision and after missing our first train we had to wait 45 minutes until the next one. After a quick change over a Shrewsbury station, we were on our way.
The first thing we did when we got there was find the signs to the centre as I REALLY needed to find a Boots and get some paracetamol. It was around a 10-15 minutes’ walk, but I think for anyone else it would probably have been 5 as I am pretty slow when it comes to walking.
We walked around the shops leading up to Eastgate and Eastgate Clock, popping into Paperchase, the Disney Store, the cutest little chocolate shop and GAME. The essentials, obviously.
I’d been told to find the city walls so I was so happy when we stumbled on them by accident near the Cathedral, however I decided to leave them until last as I was unsure how far out they would take us and I really didn’t want to get lost and miss our train home.
We spent some time walking around the Cathedral taking photos – my boyfriend’s definitely getting better at taking candid’s – before walking back down towards the main shopping area and Eastgate.
On our way back we came across a man dressed as a Roman shouting pretty loudly. We were a little confused but we followed him (not sure if that’s a bad sign or not?) and he led us to ‘The Roman Experience’. ?
As it was only a fiver to get in we decided to chance it, however we were not overly impressed. I guess it’s good if you’re interested in the Roman age, but a lot of the museum was broken, closed or incredibly hard to see in the dark. I probably wouldn’t recommend a visit unless you’re going with kids.
Following our disappointing Roman experience, we decided to go back to the walls and start walking along them until we got to the river, but we got distracted by the Roman gardens as the blossom looking so pretty.
As we got closer to the river we could smell the food coming from Hickory’s smokehouse and oh my gosh, it was incredible. We planned to go there after we’d finished wandering around the riverfront, but it didn’t take us long before we gave in and made our way over.
I’m going to do a separate review on the smokehouse as it was INCREDIBLE but I’d thought I’d include a sneaky image as a little tease ?
After food, cocktails and churros we got an Uber (not realising how short of a journey it actually was) back to the station and made our way home.
I think the ease of getting to somewhere new by train has made me realise how much I want to explore more of my own country, as well as the rest of the world. Chester, I will definitely be back. ❤️
I think sometimes I take for granted that UK is actually pretty great too.
Kirsty Leanne
xoxo
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