Our Chester Stopover

Our next trip is to Dublin, a new place to explore on my 60th birthday. We're currently crossing the Irish Sea which has been sufficiently smooth for me to write this.

We travelled half way to Holyhead and stayed overnight in Chester, a place we visited 10 years ago for a food & wine event Butcher, Baker and Winemaker with Yalumba.

The Holiday Inn Express by the racecourse was a great location. Just outside the city walls within easy walk of the beautiful town centre with it's double storied shop fronts dating back hundreds of years.

 

Caught in a rain shower we took shelter in a Greene King pub in the old vaulted cellars, it had so many hidden rooms and different levels, the perfect sheltering place although reading about the ghosts it hides a ghoulish past.

With blue skies returning we wandered along the cobbled streets, so many shops with frontage on two levels. Hubby had heard about a gone bar ... and yes we found it, The Cavern of the Curious Gnome. On the upper shop row we entered through the wine bar, what a vast selection, but we were hunting beer so ascended another level to a fabulous wooden beer hall. Complete with wooden pews, glass cabinets and a variety of pictures, paintings and Toby jugs it was certainly a cavern of curiosities including toadstool barstools.

The food matched the beer theme, very much like food in Belgium and Northern France. Hubby enjoyed half a chicken with paprika chips, I had ham hockey terrine, bread and chips: absolutely delicious.

We could have stayed longer and will definitely visit Chester again but as we needed to be ready for our onwards journey the next morning we walked back to our hotel passing the Cathedral and along the ancient town walks.

It was the perfect place to break our journey. Chester is an amazing city with so much to explore, we will certainly be visiting again and staying a little longer.