The city of Chester is located about 35 miles from Manchester and our travel there by train and bus took us just over an hour.  We enjoyed riding National Rail on our previous trip to England and things were as we remembered.  The UK trains are amazing with comfortable seats, big windows, and even electric/USB outlets available in each seat.  The ride is smooth and quiet.  Honestly the train ride adventure was probably as much fun for as was our time in Chester.

Chester was founded by the Romans in AD79.  The biggest draw there is the remains of a Roman Amphitheatre and ancient city walls.  There are also many Tudor buildings.   If history doesn’t interest you, there is shopping galore and plenty of restaurants.   We had lunch at “The Eatery.”  I opted for a traditional British breakfast for lunch: egg, ham, sausage, toast, beans, tomato, and hash browns.  Frankly, with the beans and roasted tomato, it felt more like lunch than breakfast anyway, so it was a good choice.  Jackie went with quiche and chips (French fries for you Yanks).  It was all very good.

While shopping Jackie found a few items for our flat, so not only did we get to do some sightseeing, we also picked up a few needed items.  The weather was just about perfect, making our wanderings a real pleasure.  After we got home it started raining, so we felt pretty good about picking this day as the one for our first major sightseeing trip.

Our return trip was pretty much the reverse of our morning journey except that the train didn’t stop at the station closest to us.  We rode the bus about 45 minutes back to one of our local stops.   Just for fun we went to the top deck, front, so we could enjoy seeing the city.   It really is amazing to experience how the drivers navigate the narrow streets in the big buses!