Three Aprils ago, enroute London from Lancashire, my husband and I made a stopover at Chester. I simply fancied visiting Chester because I have a friend with the same name. Not a venturesome reason, I guess. But the venture was worth it. The chance drive to this once stronghold of the Romans around 70 AD yielded a part of British history I was not familiar with. This medieval city in the United Kingdom reminds me of the walled city of Nanjing in that the ruins of a long wall barricade the town. The other feature that stood out was the Eastgate Clock Tower flanked by storied shops in black and white Tudor architecture. Sited right at the original entrance to Deva Victrix the Roman fortress, the tower took on greater significance as a four-faced clock was placed atop the tower to mark Queen Victoria's diamond jubilee more than a century ago. It is believed to be the most photographed clock in England after the Big Ben.
And the formidable Chester Cathedral is a massive piece of Romanesque and Gothic monument that you can't miss as you walk along the bridge connecting the city walls. Apart from worship services, the 2000-year-old building is now used for public events such as exhibitions and conferences as well.
After Chester, we stayed in its periphery at the Northorp Country Hall run by the Rotary Club. What a surprise treat to wake up to a completely snow-clothed field from our bedroom window right in spring.
And oh, the endless cookies-and-cream-like stretches of snowy ridges in Snowdonia was simply cinematic.
Since we had ten full days before our flight departure from the UK, I thought we'd simply GPS every UK city that I had always wanted to visit -- from Liverpool, Manchester, Oxford, Bath, Southport, Aberporth, Tenby, Swansea, to the tourist-dotted Lake District. As Cambridge was a little way off, we stuck to our route southward. Apart from sightseeing, just sitting at a supermarket cafe at Aldi and watch the world go by was a fairly pleasant pastime. And yes, I didn't forget to order the beloved English fish and chips to complete the experience.
Comentarios