Virtual Vacation!
In October 2013 my mum wanted to go to England to visit with an old friend Pat who was not well. I went with my mum to be the chauffeur and to look after my mum who was not at all well. Pat and her family had been close friends of my family since my earliest memories.
My parents met at Birmingham University in Warwickshire, England, Pat and her to be husband Harry also attended Birmingham university. My dad was studying medicine and became a doctor, my mum studied zoology and became a teacher, Pat became a librarian and Harry became (I think) a nuclear physicist. I know that he worked for a year or 2 at a nuclear research facility not too far from New York City in about 1962-63. It might have been Brookhaven National Laboratory as I know they lived on Long Island.
Pat was in a nursing home just outside Chester.
Chester is a fascinating city in northwest England, it started off as a Roman fortress in the 1st century A.D. Chester has the most complete city walls, the oldest racecourse and the largest Roman Amphitheatre in Britain, plus a 1000 year old Cathedral with Europe's finest example of medieval carvings.
My mum and and the tomb of Bishop Pearson (1612/1613–1686) this is his 19th-century effigy tomb, he is on the top, I don't know who the other people are on the sides
This is the nave.
What looked like a pulpit in a side chapel turned out to be a Consistory Court which is where the chancellor ruled on church legal issues such as wills and probate plus libel, witchcraft and heresy and parishioners who did not attend church. It is the only remaining such court in England and was built in the 16th century
Don't we all wish for detailed information on old memorials.
One of the most fascinating and unique parts of Chester is the Rows. These 700 year old two-tiered timber-framed galleries line the main streets of the city, the space includes lots of restaurants, galleries and fancy shops.
A perfumers shop.
These buildings are part of the Rows, the second floor is a open air hallway, where you can walk along the shops, galleries and restaurants without getting wet.
We visited the cathedral and walked through the old city centre, then had coffee with Pat in a quite fancy restaurant in the Rows. I have no idea what the name of the restaurant was, and it has probably changed in the past 10 years, but I can pick it out on one of the photos. These pics were all taken on 25 October 2013 by me, the weather was miserable probably about 7C and nonstop drizzle, that’s why we had to have coffee to warm up.
We didn’t have time to visit the Roman walls, and neither my mum or Pat were well enough to walk around in the cold and drizzle. My mum on the left and Pat on the right, both of them are now dead.
Next time we go to England, maybe next year, Chester is definitely on our places to visit list. We can walk where the Roman Legionnaires marched, where the Viking raiders created havoc and the Norman invaders conquered Anglo Saxons.
