Chester revisited in 2017

Twenty years ago Jo and I visited Chester at Christmas on our ill fated holiday. We celebrated Christmas with an orange and a chocolate bar atop the old city walls so it was very interesting to return twenty three years later.
The weather made it difficult to get into the city for a look around as it was raining several days when we arrived back into the hotel but one evening it cleared so I went in after tea for a look around. I had memories of the old clock at the entry to the town and I was not disappointed.  It still looked commanding.
It was built to celebrate Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee in 1897 and is one of the most photographed clocks in the country.
I wandered around the main streets and walked through the rows. It all looks a bit tidier than I remember. 
The Rows are unique to Chester. They are two tiered medieval shopping galleries with distinctive black and white architecture. They  are over 700 years old and give Chester a distinctive heritage style.

The buildings here are so interesting as the original buildings have two to three levels,the lower one being the warehouse stores and next up for selling and the owners would live on the top floor. Many of the buildings in the timbered style date back to the thirteenth, fourteenth century. A lot have been restored but the dates are displayed on the buildings. The old pubs and Inns are beautifully maintained with their hanging baskets and traditional name plates hanging over the doors.

The history of the town goes back to the Roman invasion who ruled here for three hundred years.
Chester  was an old Roman town called Fortress Dewa and built to keep out the Welsh tribes from across the border. The ruins date back 2000 years  and there are still some old Roman ruins to be seen. You can see the old Roman Gardens from the city walls and there is an amphitheatre nearby  but I did not come across it on my travels. It is the largest as yet uncovered in England and seated 7000 spectators.

The Cathedral was established by William the Conqueror a thousand years ago and remains a landmark in the town. They did have a reversal of fortune when they backed Cromwell over the Royalist army and we're under siege for two years until they surrendered and made to pay.

I visited the Cathedral and memorial gardens for the Cheshire Regiment and walked the walls down to the River Dee and the old Bridge gate leading out to Wales.
The canals lead past the old industrial areas and riverboats were moored along the banks,once this was the largest port in the north west until the River Dee silted up and trade was rerouted elsewhere.
Our hotel in Chester was called The Queen and in a handy position across the road from the Railway Station. It was a comfortable place but it had some bizarre adornments in the corridors hacking back to its namesake. We were all intrigued by their tastelessness and no desire to replicate any of it.