Allie Goes Global

I woke up on this day arguably too early. I mean, I set an alarm and woke up when I was intended to, but there was the slight issue of nothing being open yet. Such is life. I started my day with my one planned Full English Breakfast of the trip. It’s a ton of food, and definitely not something you could do every day.

My review, if you want it, is this… this is the kind of food I was made for. Beans with breakfast? 100%, I’m on board. Mushrooms? You could throw mushrooms into anything and I would happily chow down. Black pudding? Shockingly, I loved it. As in, I stayed in a hotel later with a full English breakfast buffet and was solidly disappointed that it didn’t include black pudding. I know what it’s made of. Doesn’t change the fact that it was delicious. Slightly less of a fan of British bacon, but I don’t like American-style bacon either, so I’m sensing that’s a me problem.

A pound of breakfast heavier, I went out to go explore Chester. I seemed to be up and about before most people, so the streets were mine. At this point, I will mention, it was like 9am. I’m not talking 6am. I don’t know where all the people were. But I’m not complaining. I did have a set itinerary for the day, but everything kind of went off the rails. Not in a bad way, I just didn’t stick to my plan.

My first official stop was the Chester Market. Indoor or covered markets are exceedingly common in the UK, but were a new thing for me. Unfortunately, when I stopped in, almost nothing was open yet. But still, I wandered around and took some pictures. It kind of worked that I was there before anyone else, because it allowed me to see some of the neat little details that were hidden around the space that I probably would have missed had it been packed with people. For example, I went around a corner and found a hidden TARDIS (which was, sneakily, a water bottle refill station).

One of the interesting features of Chester is the Chester Rows, which are a line of shops located above street level. There’s an open walkway all the way around, which presented great opportunities to take photos of the streets while not being down in them. Basically all of the buildings around the Chester Cross have these open walkways built into the second floor (or first floor, by UK standards).

My original intent was to go to the cathedral first. However, I noticed that I had the opportunity to join a tour if I went later, so I opted for that. This left my morning free, and I was able to dip into some of the optional activities I had listed on my itinerary. With that in mind, I set off to go find Chester Castle.

Not, this is where a minor amount of research would have been helpful. See, I thoroughly researched every item on my main itinerary, but the optional activities didn’t get nearly the same coverage. If they had, I would have noted that Chester Castle isn’t open to the public except on very special occasions, and that’s because the place is mostly ruins inside. Still, I hoofed it out of the walled part of the city and into Chester proper, through a school parking lot, and found the castle. Unfortunately, there isn’t much to see through the locked gates except the corners of some brick buildings. A kindly security guard (working for the school) told me if I walked down a bit, I could see the outer wall of the castle.

After that, I walked around the corner to see the Grosvenor Museum, which details the history of the area from Roman times until now. If you, like me, are a history nerd, I recommend it. There has clearly been a lot of work put into it over the years. However, if you’re expecting something flashy, the Grosvenor is not it. It’s a small, local museum with very knowledgeable and friendly curators. For someone like me, that’s high praise indeed.

At this point, I walked back through town, taking pictures along the way. The architecture of the area is incredible, especially if you like Tudor-era half-timbered buildings. What I enjoyed the most were all of the little details hidden around.

It was about time for lunch, so I decided to stop back into the market for lunch. The place was packed now, and it took me a while to figure out what I wanted and wade through all the people to get it. I settled on a chicken tikka masala wrap and a mango lassi from Guroma in the market. It was delicious and very worth the wait.

Now I was in a weird pickle. I had to be at the cathedral at 2pm, and there wasn’t time for another activity, but there was far too much time for me to show up and wait. I went back up on the walls and looked around a bit, but this was the part that I had already seen. I took more pictures of street art, went into a pretty little courtyard area behind the cathedral, and sat on a bench for a while, but I still was not killing the kind of time I needed to. So, in time-honored tradition, I decided to grab a cocktail. And this is where Cozy Club comes in.

It’s worth noting a couple of things here. Firstly, I didn’t know it was a chain restaurant until much later. But secondly, I’m not that averse to chain restaurants in general. I noticed it because it was up on the second floor with an entire glass wall, and I thought it might have some good views. I went up and ordered a cocktail (something pink and gin-based, I don’t know). What really struck me was how incredibly nice the staff were. The place was pretty busy, and yet I still had two separate bartenders asking me about my trip and how I was finding Chester. They made suggestions of things to do and see. I wasn’t exactly homesick, but I think I had been missing talking to people a little bit.

Anyway, with a modest amount of gin in my belly, I went off to go do my tour of the cathedral. Our guide had been doing these tours for years, and he was a lot of fun. The main nave was gorgeous, but what really struck me was the amount of detail put into all of the little antechambers and prayer rooms. It was hard to find a single spot that wasn’t embellished in some way.

The quire (and no, I’m not spelling that incorrectly) was the most ornamental area. Every place you looked, there was some kind of intricate carving or statuary. I had a particular love for the eagle podium. Quite frankly, it felt very Hogwarts. I should point out that the tile work is from the Victorian era, which was, across the board, pointed out with some disgust.

The rest of the day was pretty chill. I went back to the hotel and had a pint in the bar, and then waited out a little rain. Finally, I went back to Cozy Club for dinner… I am who I am. Again, my server was over-the-top nice. I had something called Spanish Chicken, which was incredible, and then sticky toffee pudding for dessert, which was not for me. I had kind of a running list in my head of traditional British foods I wanted to try on my trip, and this checked a box, but I don’t think I’ll be having it again. I called it a relatively early night, prepared for my trip to York the next day.