I had just nearly finished writing a lengthy, thoughtful description of my day trip to Chester, but I stupidly typed it in the browser instead of Word, and then Explorer decided to shut down suddenly. So, I'm going to try to hurriedly recreate it. Here goes.
A while back, my friend Devon and I decided we should go on a day trip, and we finally settled on Chester, because it's not too far away, and it's a really nice place to visit, and she had thoroughly enjoyed a previous visit there. The ride into Chester took about an hour and a half, I think, by bus and train; both turned out to have rather picturesque views, with lots of farms and frolicking lambs and rolling hills and all.
We started off by visiting a small museum that catered to a variety of interests. There was a Roman exhibit, with, in addition to the usual coins and pottery of course, a bunch of Roman tombstones and other artifacts left over from England's first experience with empire. I opened a sliding-key lock (model), and helped Devon build a round arch for an aqueduct (actual). Several rooms were dedicated to showcasing typical homes from different periods, e.g. Victorian, Edwardian, with clothing, furniture, and items from the time. Attempts to dress in period costume were thwarted by tiny-sized clothing, and the boxes of scents were fairly impossible (carbolic soap apparently smells more bacony than bacon does), but we did manage to guess the uses of various kitchen items. There was a very shiny collection of silver, a room of paintings that spanned at least two centuries, a bunch of minerals, an early naturalist's old collection of animal bones, and even a room of new paintings for sale. It was a nice little sampling of many topics.
At lunch, we sat outside and listened to an electric violin rendition of "Human", by the Killers, and other songs that all seemed to have the same chords.
At lunch, I also found out, much to my dismay, that even the "best milkshake in Chester" is thin, like nothing more a cup of chilly, flavored milk. It WAS Nutella-flavored, though, so it wasn't a complete fail.
Afterwards, we visited the cathedral, which was very light inside thanks to the Gothic arches that allowed for plenty of stained-glass windows. Some parts of the church were built as early as the 1100s, but some of the windows were clearly modern, and there was a very modern sculpture in the courtyard. Someone was actually playing the gigantic pipe organ, too, which was really neat. We actually spent quite a while there, and it was really nice, but there's not always a lot to say about looking at pretty things.
A city boasting a long Roman history would not be complete without a real Roman amphitheater, which of course Chester had. So we sat on the sunny, grassy hillside and relaxed, watching a very boring show with no gladiators. Okay, there was no show. But I probably wouldn't like real gladiator matches, anyway.
This restful (lazy) interlude gave us the strength to face the next challenge: circling the city on the old Roman fortification wall. It was tough: we got delayed repeatedly, watching people playing polo (on horseback!) and looking down at the canal, but we never got lost or injured. Finally, nearing our starting point, we found that the path ahead was blocked off for emergency repair. Actually, I'm surprised it would need repair now, after all these years, but I suppose it could've been fixed up more than once already.
Perhaps because we failed to complete the wall circuit, we headed off to a place where we could watch things going in circles continuously: a sushi bar. Yep, the kind with color-coded plates on a magnetic conveyor belt. I'd never been to an eatery like this before, so naturally it was extremely exciting and completely necessary. I helped Devon overcome her unreasonable fear of seaweed, and managed not to eat twenty thousand pricey plates.
By then, places were mostly closed/closing, and we didn't want to run out of buses to catch, so we headed back to Keele. A good time had by all.
p.s. That wasn't a very good recreation of my previous writing at all, nor even quick. It was much better before.
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