June 29, 2024 (Day 10): Liverpool, England (or really, Chester)
And we are back in England! Amazing how close all these countries are, isn’t it? This time we were off to Chester and the Roman Walls! Okay, not that we had ever heard of them before. But they sounded fun!
Chester ended up being a Roman fortress built around 79 AD – same time as the Roman Baths! It had such beautiful architecture dating from multiple eras, including original ruins, but also a lot of Tudor buildings from the Victorian era and just walking the streets was lovely. It was one of the coolest things ever to see the black and white Tudor wooden building right next to more ‘modern’ stone buildings. It turns out that after the Great Fire of London in 1666, they banned wooden buildings, so there are actually the old Tudor black and white buildings right next to more modern stone buildings, but they were only built a few years apart.
The highlight, though, of course, was walking along the Roman walls. We couldn’t walk the entire thing, since there are two miles of walls and our tour wasn’t that long, but just the sections we did walk were amazing. Of course, it isn’t the original wall because, well, it’s been like 2,000 years – but they were rebuilt during the 12th century and since then have been maintained, repaired, and, if any sections do fall down, rebuilt. Coming from America, where none of our cities have walls, looking at and walking on 20-30 foot stone walls that were wide enough for several people to walk next to each other was surreal. The fact that they were actually needed is even crazier. And the tour guide was sure to bring us past at least one section that still had original ruins. To say Daniel was quite excited is an understatement!
The other thing Chester is known for is their “rows” – their two-storied shopping centers that line the streets! Their exact history is unknown, and they were quite narrow but brimming with shops, restaurants, and people. It was like walking down a narrow ally, with shops on both sides. But if you went to the shop on the street side, you could see the street from the windows, but you couldn’t actually access the shop from the street. After the official tour through the town ended, Daniel and I went back to the rows and stopped by a cute little Turkish restaurant for lunch and to watch the people hurrying by both on the street below and the row next to us before hurrying back to the bus.
And if you are wondering why so few of these pictures have us in it, well, the cold meds can only stave off so many tired eyes. But all in all, Chester ended up being a delightful surprise.
Step Count: 8,664
Forest Idylls 