Chester and Liverpool

Our visits to Chester and Liverpool were brief, but we sure crammed in a lot of good stuff. 

After a yummy breakfast buffet at Premier Inn, we took the park and ride into the Chester city centre where we had a quick look at England’s best remaining Roman colosseum and had a ramble along the city walls. Afterwards, we visited the Chester Cathedral where the boys each placed a brick on the enormous LEGO model of the cathedral and which will surpass Durham Cathedral for the largest publicly built LEGO model in the world once it’s finished. Pretty cool.

Before catching the bus back to our car, we also wandered along the Rows, Chester’s really cool medieval double-decker shopping streets and listened to a town crier entertain the crowd. 

In Liverpool, Paul dropped the boys and I near the waterfront and then had to return the rental car. The boys and I stored our bags and then wandered down to the Royal Albert Dock, snapping silly photos of ourselves with the sculptures along the way.

At the dock, we visited Liverpool’s Tate and continued snapping silly photos, and then we met Paul at the Beatles Experience where we learned all about the most famous Liverpudlians. Before boarding our overnight ferry to Belfast, we had a scrumptious dinner of scouse (stew) at the fun pub that had stored our bags.

Stonehenge and Bath

Stonehenge was one of those places I’d always wanted to see. I’d been warned that it was smaller than I would expect and that it would be crawling with tourists. Even so, I was still dying to see it in person, and d’you know what? I wasn’t disappointed in the slightest. The rocks are huge and transported many miles and so perfectly carved into rectangles, and all of this was done with stone and bone tools and without the wheel. How could I possibly be disappointed?

Bath, on the other hand, was a place I really couldn’t have cared less to see. Lord knows that we’d already seen heaps of Roman stuff and many many beautiful historic cities. Well, y’know what I was wowed in Bath too. 

We started out the day with one of Sally Luna’s famous buns with scrumptious cinnamon butter in her original tea house dating back to 1680. Next we tackled the Bath History Hunt and learned heaps about the history of the town and some of its famous inhabitants (including Jane Austen).

After lunch, a play in Victoria Park, and a walk along the river, we decided to check out the famous Roman Baths, which with their amazing museum was a fascinating glimpse into Roman life. Who knew that the baths were as important to the Romans for their business meetings and social gatherings as they were to seek out revenge on those who had wronged them (by sending messages to Minerva by writing the accused‘ name on a sheet of lead and casting it into the spiritual waters).

On our way up to Chester the next day, we made two fun stops. First we visited the white horse of Bratton high on a hill above our BnB. The horse was made for. The chalk hillside nearly 300 years ago. The hill itself as a much longer history serving as a burial ground and then a burial ground for many many centuries.

The second stop was at Avebury home of a stone circle many times larger than Stonehenge, but not as well preserved. In fact, a village was built right on top of part of it. As sad as it was the sight wasn’t looked after over the centuries, it was very cool to be able to wander amidst the massive rocks like they were no big thing. 

Norwich

Really the only reason that we went to Norwich was to meet Paul’s family. Little did I know, it would end up being one of my favourite parts of the trip. I owe that largely to Paul’s Auntie Sue and Uncle Jimmy’s kindness and hospitality. They put us up in their own bedroom with amazing views across a paddock full of horses and cooked us up some amazing food, and pretty much made me feel like a queen.

Their gorgeous backyard garden was the setting for a fantastic family reunion where we got to meet/catch-up with Paul’s cousins, Daniel, Tamsin, Megan, and Phillip, and their partners and children: Rosie, John, Elizabeth, Eleanor, Adam, Jane, Emily and Sean.

While in Norwich, we also visited West Stow, an Anglo Saxon village, with Jimmy, Sue, Tamsin, Elizabeth and Eleanor. We had a picnic, built forts, and pretended to be Anglo Saxons (Dutch, Danish and German people who settled in England after the Romans left and before the Vikings arrived).

As difficult as it was to leave the luxury of Norwich, it was time to travel back to the Neolithic period and check out Stonehenge.

York

Our visit to York was such an incredible history lesson from way back since the Roman times all the way up until the Cold War. 

On the first morning, we took a bus into the centre of town and wandered through the narrow Shambles, visiting the many Harry Potter memorabilia shops. (York has seriously capitolised on the fact that the Shambles resemble Diagon Alley.) At the potions shop, the boys and I sampled some yummy butter beer.

Afterwards, we broke up into teams to see who could spot the most cat sculptures around town. Ollie and I were having a horrible time finding even a single cat so we decided to be cheeky and use a map that we found online. 

We lunched in the York market and then made our way to Dig, an archaeology museum where we got to dig for artifacts and learn about the Roman, Viking, medieval, and Victorian history of York.

We wrapped up the day with a stroll around the city walls and a stop in a watch tower to learn all about the War of the Roses and just how unbelievably power hungry and vicious the royals could be. 

The next day, we continued our history lesson. First we visited the Barley House a medieval house which housed a fantastic exhibit on magic, religion and science and their intersection over the years.

In the afternoon, we visited Jorvik, a Viking museum complete with a ride that took us back in time to see what life was really like back then. I was surprised to learn that the Vikings were known for their cleanliness and vanity; the boys were fascinated by the largest fossilised human poo ever discovered.

On our way out of town the next morning, we stopped by a Cold War bunker. The place was amazing! It has been left just as it was the day they locked the doors in the early nineties when the bunkers were deemed unnecessary. We learned all about the folks who volunteered to man the bunker in the event of a nuclear attack on Britain. Life in the bunker was pretty dreary; there was very little space and absolutely no contact to the world outside the bunker (except for taking reports from satellite bunkers). Should a nuclear attack occur, volunteers were expected to report to the bunker immediately and man the bunker for thirty days without any contact with friends or family. I was happy to be able to leave after 90 minutes. 

We hit the road south; next stop Norwich to meet more of Paul’s family.