Chester 24th-27th May 2011

We have just had a few very pleasant days in Chester area staying with Julie's parents. The weather was slightly cooler than recent days and there were a few showers plus quite a wind, however we were able to get out each day. We also spent some time looking round Pat and Peter's (Julie's parents) well looked after garden. Our first trip out was to Chester city. We travelled on the park and ride bus that started from close to Chester Zoo.

The streets of Chester are full of life

The Rows Chester

Chester is a delightful, vibrant, city. The thing that struck me most was that there were numerous shops that were unique to Chester. Most cities/towns these days are almost carbon copies of each other but not Chester. The Rows, which are a system of walkways that form continuous covered galleries that are above one level of shops, contain an upper level of further shops have a huge variety of shops. This form of galleries originated in the 13th and 14th centuries although the Chester Rows can be traced back to the Roman occupation of Chester. There are lots and lots of Roman remains in Chester and you can usually find at least some archaeological investigations going on somewhere.

The River Dee at Chester

We walked down to the River Dee and found that many of the facilities in the area of the Band Stand were being spruced up and it all looked clean and tidy and ready for the many visitors expected in the summer. One of the pleasure trip boats was running and for £6.50 you experience half an hour on the river. We declined this offer in view of the changeable weather.

The Carousel at Bridgemere

On the next day our hosts took us on a visit to Bridgemere Garden Centre. This garden centre is billed as Britain's largest and most spectacular garden centre and this is no exaggeration. It's located on the borders  of Cheshire, Staffordshire and Shropshire. Apart from the garden centre this part of the world is well worth a visit for the beautiful and largely undeveloped countryside. The garden centre covers 50 acres and is one of the largest garden centres in the World. It has 6 acres of themed award winning show gardens, I particularly enjoyed the raised bed vegetable gardens. The nursery grows nearly a million plants a year! As well as the 'normal' garden centre things there's a beautiful carousel and a number of huge shops. For example 'Hobby Craft' and 'Lakeland' have shops here. A shop called 'Nauticalia' was of particular interest as it sold a wide variety of high quality items that varied from electronic 'toys' to collectables of all types.

One of the award winning show gardens at Bridgemere

Many thanks to our hosts in Chester