Introduction
Many times I've got on the train to London that comes from Chester. So I thought: I've never been to Chester, why don't I go the other way for a day out? It only takes an hour and half.
Whine
Well, it does if you're lucky. In actual fact, the journey ended up taking about two hours longer (apparently due to some problem with the overhead lines near Bletchley). Instead of the direct train we were directed to some other train to Crewe. Then we hung around in Crewe for ages while neither the scheduled Virgin train to Chester... nor the other Virgin train we should've been on (which turned up eventually as well)... nor the Arriva Trains Wales train (local service)... actually went anywhere. Eventually they made a decision, cancelled the Virgin trains, and everyone packed into the local train which struggled its way to Chester.
At Milton Keynes I'd met a woman who was also trying to get to Chester, so we stayed together and chatted for the journey (and large sections of non-journey). It wasn't so bad (misery, company, etc), but I was annoyed at getting to Chester just after two instead of just after twelve.
Since I made a section headed 'whine' I might as well admit the other things which went wrong. I forgot my GPS tracker, so none of these photos are geotagged. Sorry. And I managed to lose my camera lens cap. It's about £28 for a new one (the perils of buying a hipster camera). Sigh. Maybe if I complain about the delayed train they'll give me a partial refund and I can use that to buy a lens cap?
East Chester canalside
On Wikipedia I'd scoped out the attractions and found that Chester had a surviving shot tower (tall building they used to form perfectly-spherical lead gunshot by dropping molten lead from the top into a water bath at the bottom). Since it was near the station along the canal, I headed that way first.
The whole surrounding area was probably something interesting but is now a tedious new housing development; and the works buildings around the shot tower (which is listed) are going that way too. Still, the tower is pretty neat.
About this point I got slightly lost because streets and paths didn't join up the way I hoped they would (the canalside path was blocked off by the new development). Ended up going in a circle through boring estate before heading back to the older terraces and where I'd started.
I crossed the canal by the main road and walked down the towpath on the other side. There was a bridge over to the shot tower site, which I had hoped to cross earlier, but the entrance on that side was blocked off. It was still open at this side despite not going anywhere: a little girl and her father had walked up onto the bridge just because, and I did too.
The highlight on this side of the canal was a water tower, and it turned out to be a pretty great water tower. Love the way they painted the tank blue.
The road opposite here is actually called 'Water Tower View'. How awesome is that? Only way to top it: 'Power Station View' or 'Landfill View'.
Chester centre
I headed south to a park (where I'd been planning to eat lunch back when it would have been lunchtime at this point). The park was quite nice and included various random pieces of older architecture, relocated as decorations.
The riverside was busy with people; on a bandstand, somebody was singing in a kind of soul/R&B style, with a crowd listening. From the announcer afterward, I got the impression this was some kind of 'Chester's Got Talent' event. I didn't stop.
The city centre is kind of weird. There's almost as large a selection of faceless chain stores as you'll find in Milton Keynes, but they're all done up in mock Tudor. (The buildings date from the Victorian era. You can tell they're not real Tudor because the roofs are straight.)
I had planned to visit the cathedral but by the time I got there (sigh) there was only half an hour before Evensong. I didn't think that would be long enough to see the interior, so I skipped it. Instead I just walked around the outside.
After that I headed to a rather large road bridge over the Dee (pics later). I wanted to walk to Wales.
Should anybody else be tempted to make the same trip, do be warned that there's somewhere over a mile of walking through fairly boring leafy suburb and small town before you get to Wales. But it's still not that far - and what a lovely way to see Wales! Who needs Snowdon.
Croeso i Gymru
I turned off the main road by Morrissons because there was an area that looked interesting.
I ended up returning the same way, more or less.
Bridges
I took pictures of the large bridge on my way back.
Walls
A highlight of Chester is its medieval/Victorian city walls, which you can walk all the way around (except the parts that are under maintenance). I didn't quite do the circuit because I ran out of time, but I made it most of the way.
Canal
Near the point where I abandoned the wall walk, I headed down steps to the canal.
Crewe
I got the train back just before eight o'clock and had some time to wait at Crewe where my connection was, this time, only twenty minutes late. While they repeatedly changed its platform, I wandered around taking pictures of the roof.
