Conwy, Wales to Chester, England

Saturday, June 21

Last night we "googled" Chester and found there was a Midsummer Watch Festival happening today that was starting with a parade at 2pm. With not much idea about the Festival, we decided that, as it was a once a year event, we should make the effort to get there. The distance to Chester is only 55 miles so we headed off around 10am and arrived about 11.30am - too early for our room to be ready at Stone Villa - our home for the next 2 nights, so we left our car in their car park and set off on foot.

Stone Villa

Happily, we found we were only a 15 minute walk to the city centre - and what a city! A large percentage of the buildings are Tudor style with the ground floor being constructed in red brick and the floors above being in the traditional black and white - a real feast for the eye. We walked over a road bridge and saw a large barge tourist boat turning around in a canal bowl. We stopped and watched the driver manoeuvre the barge very deftly - quite fascinating. We continued on into the walled city centre that was absolutely buzzing with people enjoying their weekend in the sun. The streets in the centre are mostly cobblestoned so it required watching our footing as well as looking in the quaint shop windows and also looking at the buildings the shops are housed in - not an easy task without eyes in the top/back of your head.

Clever manoeuvring of a canal barge

 

The star attraction in the shopping area is the famous Eastgate Clock, built to celebrate Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee in 1897. After taking photos from the street level, we climbed the steps to take us across the bridge that the clock sits on for a different perspective of both the clock and the city streets.

The Eastgate Clock

An info board told us about the unique 700 year old Rows shopping galleries that take retail therapy to another level - a very clever marketing pun as the Rows are actually overhanging buildings that create a colonnade beneath thus giving more than one level of shops. Some of the intricate designs on the ceilings of the colonnades are really lovely creating really beautiful galleries that the majority of store owners have taken full advantage of by dressing their windows to suit the style.

Some of the Rows shopping galleries

As it was nearing 2 pm, we made our way to the Town Hall, another very attractive building, from where the parade was to start. We saw floats, "giant" people, dragons, etc. but apart from it reminding us of Moomba in Melbourne, we had no appreciation of it at all. We were handed a brochure that explained that back in Tudor times (the parade was first recorded back in 1498), Chester's Midsummer Watch Parade was renowned throughout the country. It was organized by the various trade guilds in the city - a spectacular street procession, joyous and colourful, to celebrate Midsummer's Eve. The outstanding feature of the parades were the Giants. Chester had a whole family of them - father, mother and two daughters - and there were also enormous beasts - the unicorn, the camel, the dragon and an elephant. Apparently the parades were abandoned in the mid 1600's but revived again in 1989, loosely based on records of the original parade.

Al with Mother & Daughter Giant & a friendly Pirate

We took our places along the roadside and watched a motley array of characters taking up their positions. Some of it seemed quite corny and the outfits amateurish but we couldn't fault the enthusiasm of participants and spectators alike. We saw all the characters and beasts mentioned above but there were also a lot of demons and angels with no explanation of why. We also saw pirate ships and pirates - perhaps because Chester was an important port.

Chester's 2014 Midsummer Watch Parade in full swing

Next stop for us was the Roman Amphitheatre where an info board told us that 7000 spectators could enjoy circuses, festivals, gladiator fights and the public doling out of punishments there. Not much remains today but it certainly would have made a statement for the Romans in its day! A mural depicting what it would have looked like has recently been added to a section of the remains.

The remains of a Roman Ampitheatre - the largest in Britain and the mural along one side depicting how it would have looked

.... and a new victor!

We then walked to Chester Cathedral which is over 1000 years old and very impressive both inside and out. We saw that Evensong was starting in 20 minutes so decided to stay and listen to that. The choir sounded wonderful and we enjoyed the whole thing.

Chester Cathedral

Evensong Organist at the magnificent pipe organ

It was then time to return to Stone Villa and check in formally. There seems to be a lot more to do in Chester tomorrow so an early night is in order tonight.

On our way home, we spotted this sign at a very entrepreneurial coffee shop - very handy for bored husbands on shopping trips!

 

Posted with Blogsy