Allie Goes Global

I woke up on this day ready and raring to go. After packing up, I headed downstairs for a nice early-ish breakfast at the hotel. One thing that I thought was nice was, if you ordered something from the menu, you got access to the continental breakfast as well. So I toasted myself a nice crumpet while I waited for my food to arrive.

I checked out, went to my car, and encountered a new driving crisis for this trip… I couldn’t get out of the parking lot. A couple of big vans had parked in the lot, and my car kept screaming that I was about to hit something every time I moved. I can’t tell you how many times I went back and forth, with my car just freaking out constantly. Finally, an employee arriving to work entered the lot and very kindly guided me out. Turns out I had the room and my car was just being a drama queen. Not for the first time, and certainly not for the last.

Shortly, though, I was on the motorway and heading north to Chester. The city of Chester has an oddly special place in my heart. You see, years ago, I wanted to do a study abroad program. There were 4 universities in the UK I could choose from, and I fell in love with Chester from the pictures alone. That whole study abroad thing never panned out, but it definitely had to have a place on my itinerary for this trip.

Given that I was doing just motorway driving, there were no crises on this journey, and I arrived in Chester after a three hour drive unscathed and mostly without panic. One thing to note: if you’re staying in Chester’s city center, it’s a car-free zone for most of the day. There’s no way to drive to your hotel. Being the overplanner that I am, I prepared for this and had already selected my lot.

To go on a brief tangent, this particular lot was annoying. It was nice and spacious, and I didn’t have to fight for parking, but it only allows 24 hours at a time, so I had to hoof it back there to pay again on the second day. On that particular occasion, I also got charged twice because the machine wasn’t working properly. I meant to dispute it, but realized when I got home that the only way to do that was to call, and the international call would have cost more than the parking fee.

Given that I was carrying all my stuff, I went straight to the hotel and left my bag with them, and then I was out into the streets of Chester. The first thing that struck me (and I admit, this is odd) is how regional building materials are in England. Where I was the day before, everything was built of this golden limestone. Here, just three hours away, everything was red brick. I know that this is down to the history of the various areas, but I admit, it still surprised me.

My hotel was pretty centrally located, a block from city hall, and maybe three blocks to the center of old Chester, the Chester Cross. From there, the Eastgate Clock takes center stage, looming over the town.

It was at this point that I decided to go up onto the city walls. Chester has been around in one state or another since the time of the Romans, and there is a wall that runs around the entire old city. In some places, it is more modernized than others, but it’s well worth a wander around. It was through this wandering that I came across something that had shown up on none of my travel guides: the Roman Gardens and Amphitheater.

The gardens themselves were first laid out in 1949 to showcase the Roman fragments that had been found throughout the city. So there are old columns, bits of a Roman bath, and some mosaics. This is also the spot on the wall where, during the English civil war (and apologies if that’s incorrect), a cannon blasted through the wall. It has, of course, been repaired since, but you can still see which of the blocks are newer. It was a lovely, peaceful stop along the wall. Just to the left of the Roman Gardens is the amphitheater. Given the huge number of children playing in it, I didn’t really do much other than read the plaque about that one.

Now, this is where my so-called innate sense of direction screwed me over. I generally know how to get places pretty easily. I can tell east from west without thinking about it. But this trip, and this day in particular, I got lost about three times. Innate sense of direction, my foot.

I had lunch at a bar and grill-type restaurant right across the street from the Roman Gardens (fine, nothing to write home about). Then, instead of just going back up on the walls and going back the way I came, I decided to wander through town to get back to the city center. In retrospect, that was a foolish choice, though I did find some lovely buildings on my wander.

In a display of overconfidence, I never consulted my phone to figure out where I was. I instead believed that if I just kept moving forward, I would eventually see something I recognized. About 30 minutes later, I folded and pulled up a map, only to discover that I had walked well past where I was supposed to be. And then, even after looking at the map, still went the wrong way for a while. I did figure out days later, after once again going half an hour in the wrong direction, that my GPS was slightly off. For example, it would show my little dot on one corner, when in fact, I was on the opposite corner. I can drive. I can read a map. I have a good sense of direction. This trip challenged every single one of my suppositions about myself. But, I digress.

I finally made it back to my hotel and got checked in. I will also recommend this hotel, The Pied Bull. It’s a standard hotel over a pub, but with a nice bit of history. It’s an old coach house, and has been there for the better part of a millennium. My room was clean and comfortable, and the bathroom was incredible. There was a small machine behind the toilet that screamed every time I used water, but after confirming with the front desk, it was supposed to do that.

I genuinely don’t remember what I had for dinner that night, which tells me that I probably ate some snacks and then fell asleep. Either way, it tells me that dinner was forgettable and therefore not worth mentioning. I know it seems like some of my days are very short. What tends to happen is that I allot more time for travel than I need to. So I end up having a day with nothing on the itinerary other than drive and generally explore, and then the next day is doing everything I possibly can in that town. I definitely put in some good exploration time on this day, and tomorrow, I’ll be out and about in Chester again. But this time, with a plan, and hopefully a lot less wandering in the wrong direction.