20240526 Sunday, May 26, 2024: England’s Lake District to the North Coast of Wales

Ben was glad to find most of the roads from the Lake District to the North Coast of Wales were more or less modern with a painted centerline, and eventually, they merged into actual motorways, which are Britain’s interstate freeway equivalent.  Instead of cloverleafs, they have roundabouts at all major intersections.  In the larger cities, they sometimes have traffic lights combined with traffic circles.  In England, a yellow light comes on towards the end of a red light to give you warning to get off the brake and onto the gas pedal.  

We chose to bypass Manchester and Liverpool since we had visited Liverpool by cruise ship in the past, driving directly to Chester, a smallish city on the border between England and Wales.  More importantly, Chester has a Costco Warehouse, in addition to a historical downtown.  Gas and Diesel run £1.45-£1.55 per liter ($6.95-$7.50 per gallon) through most of England, but this Costco had it for £1.39 ($6.71/gallon).  Still not exactly cheap by any measure, but well worth the stop. 

 

We arrived about 10:30, at which time the gas pumps were open and they do have diesel.  The warehouse didn’t open until 11am, and a huge line was building up outside the store waiting to enter.  We waited for the line to dissipate before we headed in.  Most of the merchandise is similar to what you’d find in the US but some brands are different.  The food court offers “Jacket Potatoes” which are baked potatoes with your choice of baked beans, cheese, beef Chile or tuna.  They also have a double chicken fillet sandwich for £4.29, and the Costco hot dog and soda for £1.50 ($1.90 US).  They also had 2 scoops of gelato in a waffle cone for £2.79 ($3.54 US).  We wished we could get that gelato in the US.  We were disappointed they didn’t have fish and chips, or bangers and mash.  

The bakery had real carrot cakes and still does custom sheet cakes.  They also have something called Victoria Sandwich Cakes, which are yellow cake layered with strawberry jam and whipped cream.  They also had mixed dozen boxes Krispy Kreme donuts as well as plain frosted dozen boxes.  Interestingly enough, they were sampling both a wide variety of gins and tequilas, so it was possible to walk out of there with a bit of a buzz on.  

We headed into Chester’s old town core, which is situated within ancient roman fortress walls.  Most of the walls are gone, but a few bits and pieces remain.  There is a large amphitheater that has been excavated at one corner of the city.  

Odd coffin inset high on an Abbey ruin wall.

We strolled through those ruins and the nearby church and Abbey remains.  It is notable that when Henry VIII decided to punish the Catholics for not granting him a divorce, he did so by removing all the lead sheeting from the roofs of catholic Abbeys and Cathedrals.  This caused the roofs to rot and that is why England has so many ruins of previously magnificent Abbeys and Cathedrals.  We did tour the intact Chester Cathedral while the choir and organ were rehearsing, so we got to hear more heavenly music and chanting.  

The two main crossing roads in Chester’s old town are called the Chester Rows for the preserved architecture which allowed for rows of stalls on either side of these streets protection from both sun and rain.  Unlike in York’s shambles, these buildings were quite far apart, with plenty of room for two lanes of traffic and side walks.  They say the architecture has been preserved, but most of the storefronts are chic clothing and jewelry stores or fancy restaurants and bars, rather than butcher shops and fish mongers.  As we walked through the Chester Rows, the rain began again.  It had let up on us while we were at Costco, and for the first hour or two of our visit to Chester.  

We drove on to our destination for the night, The Beach Hotel, situated on the water in a small coastal town of Prestatyn on the north coast of Wales.  This is a small beach resort city.  The hotel is right on a wide sandy beach looking right at a large wind farm off shore.  There are also container ships at anchor beyond the wind farm.  

We checked in to our room at about 3:30 and had a spot of tea to restore us.  We then drove to the nearby Conwy Castle, a little west along the coast.  This castle has a suspension bridge with a chain design built by Thomas Telford in the 1800’s.  It was interesting to see another chain bridge design after seeing the Széchenyi Chain Bridge in Budapest and the Marlow Chain Bridge, both by William Tierney Clark, and then this one by Thomas Telford.  

Chain bridge design seems to have been all the rage at that time.  We were able to park for free along the road approach to the bridge and walk across it to the Castle.  The Castle was closed by the time we arrived, but appeared to be mostly unrestored when viewed from the outside.  We also walked around the town and adjacent harbor, which were protected by the castle walls at some point in time.  Mussels are an important seafood harvested in Conwy.  

We drove around an ancient copper mine called the Great Orme on a peninsular with a circular drive around the outside.  It was one of those one lane roads with two way traffic on the first half that was a bit nerve wracking, especially because there was sheer cliff drop on one side.  There are gondola rides down into the mine at the top of the peninsula but that was all closed down by the time we arrived, so we just took the scenic drive.  Fortunately, the second half of the road was one way only. 

We drove back to the hotel in time to grab a quick take out fish and chips from a nearby place (“Crispy Fish”, would not recommend to others), and then had a Zoom meeting in our hotel room with our kids.  Tomorrow, we’ll get up early to walk on the beach before heading south to Bath.