Ireland day 1028. Monday 22 July 2024- NW UK Day 3

Today’s summary	Had breakfast in the hotel then walked across town to meet friends for lunch at their house. Had a good catch up then walked back to the hotel in the afternoon. Met up with the same friends in the hotel for dinner in the evening. Very enjoyable, and good to see everyone again
Today’s weather	Bright and sunny till early afternoon then clouded over with some light drizzle. Moderate south westerly wind. Appx 20c

Today’s overview location (The green mark shows the location of our route)		Close-up location (The orange line shows where we walked) (Click button below to download GPX of today’s walk as recorded, or see interactive map at bottom with elevations corrected): Across Chester and back for lunch with friends

Commentary

(Summary blog only. Last full blog was Day 0368).

When you’re living abroad, you have to make an extra effort to keep up with longstanding friends back in the home country – or else “out of sight” rapidly becomes “out of mind”. So part 1 of our catching up was yesterday, at the wedding reception and part 2 was today. A couple of good friends live in Chester, where we have based ourselves for our three day stay, so we took the opportunity to walk across town this morning, to join them at home for lunch.

(By the way we have a “part 3” friends catch up tomorrow – more to follow).

Chester is one of my favourite towns – it seems to manage to maintain a charming centre without being spoiled by endless drab suburbs surrounding it. So it was a pleasure to walk out into the sunshine the morning for the short walk south from our hotel, across the river, and into Hough Green.

Being a Monday morning, the town centre wasn’t too busy, though the cafés and shops seemed to be doing steady business. Once we got to the Grosvenor Bridge, we had good views over to the racecourse, which was looking freshly-mown and emerald green, ready for the next equestrian event.

We had a very enjoyable lunch at our friends’ house and agreed to meet up again for dinner in the evening. Se we took our leave after helping with the washing up, and walked back to our digs. We had hoped to use the spa facilities, but they were fully booked so instead we had a cup of tea in our room, then a short saunter around town, having a look at the sights.

Once back, we got ready for the evening then enjoyed dinner in the Brasserie restaurant (unfortunately the main restaurant is closed on Mondays but the Brasserie was a good alternative – and considerably cheaper!). So an altogether successful day with our friends, and we’re looking forward to our third and final friends catch up tomorrow, before catching an evening ferry back to Dublin

Today’s photos (click to enlarge)


Setting out after breakfast – the town centre was quiet this morning. But it is only Monday	On the footbridge over The Dingle

A late flowering Wisteria in one of the smart leafy lanes on the south side of the river	In The Rows – curious galleried shops in Chester city centre which seem to be unique to this city



From the Grosvenor Bridge, crossing the river Dee – at low tide this morning