A last look at Chester - for a while!

We decided to enjoy another couple of days in Chester last week, before heading south on the Shropshire Union. We adore this city, such a friendly, welcoming feel to it.

Barry captured some more delights …

Such a tiny house - maybe dolls really live here??

He had a walk around when I was off the boat visiting my daughter and grandsons Friday to Saturday afternoon. Along the way of course there's The Albion Inn, described as a 'Classic Victorian corner street pub' (it'd be rude not to drop in if you're ever passing by!).

When he arrived, the pub was packed with people, many dressed in tuxedos. It was a Friday night, he thinks they were dressed up for a posh 'do' at The Grosvenor Hotel. Within a short time of him arriving, everyone left! I'm pretty sure he'd had a shower in the morning, and hopefully wasn't wearing his 'holy' jeans, so it's unlikely he was the cause for the evacuation - but you never know! 

Good for the bank balance though, he only stayed for the one pint after that before walking around the wall - again! I think we've both done it three times.

The Albion Inn

Lots of little ice-cream kiosks line the river bank

Even the weir looks like it's had a bit of a clean up

Loving the abundance of daffodils, such a British tradition

The side of Chester Castle along the wall

Crocuses are another mainstay of spring in UK

On the Saturday night we went to some friends for a delicious chicken curry. They're both looking fab, shedding the pounds through Weightwatchers, so the meal wasn't calorie laden as curries can be, which was great for us too. We're still on the 'Fast Diet' where you reduce your calories to 500 for women, and 600 for men, on two days of the week.

When I say 'still on', if you know anything about it you'll be aware it's 'for life'! Barry was unsurprisingly a little alarmed when I informed him of this the other day. Once we've reached a weight we're comfortable with though, we can alter it to just one 'fast' day a week ...

So you may notice us slimming down a little, over the coming weeks! 

Before we left the boat on Saturday evening, we were happy to see our 'neighbours' from Tattenhall Marina moored up not far from us. We could only stop by for a short while before our curry night, but hoped to see them on Sunday.

Luckily we did! We were all ready to move up the Northgate Locks at the same time which was most fortunate. Apart from the fact that we got the order a little awry!

The bottom lock was empty, and I saw that Liz had gone up to open the paddles and fill the top two.

Barry and Andy motored into the bottom lock together, and I duly closed the gates. Retrospectively, that wasn't the best thing to do!

As the top two locks were filling, Liz and I were merrily chatting away. A few gongoozelers were congregating, including a family with a young boy who was terribly excited to be included in the winding up and down of paddles and gate opening and closing.

Looking down at the boys, I realised that they were rising as we were talking - now that shouldn't be happening! By some means, filling the top two locks with the bottom lock gate shut, caused the bottom lock to also fill. So it was a very slow process to get the bottom and middle locks level.

Lesson learnt.

When it says bottom lock empty top two locks full - it means exactly that!

Andy looking chirpy on a sunny Sunday morning

Liz and Andy discuss the conundrum of a filled bottom lock before the middle lock is full - not sure where Barry went ...

Ah well, it'll all work out in the end they smile

We'll mis you guys! Maybe we'll get to moor next to you again later in the year?

Passing the wall again, I chose to walk. This time, after all the comments on our last 'Chester' post, I knew a lot more about this quaint foot bridge across the canal.

As Mike so kindly messaged:

"The bridge in the first picture is called the "Bridge of Sighs", this was built by Joseph Turner (who was also the architect of the Bridgegate and the Watergate) in July 1793 for the sum of £20 in order to prevent the many, often successful, attempts to rescue condemned prisoners in the Northgate Gaol when they crossed the canal cutting to the chapel of Little St. John and the 'apartment made for prisoners' to receive the last rites of the church before their execution." 

The impressive medieval King Charles Tower, dating from the 13th century

On Sunday we I cooked a roast beef lunch for Lisa, Rob and the gorgeous grandsons - making the most of their last chance to have a Sunday dinner while we're only a short drive away.

After lunch we did another short wall walk - though not the whole thing. Strangely enough, Lisa, who's lived near Chester for about 6 years, has never walked the wall. And I discovered she's never walked along by the River Dee either! So we took the opportunity to go there. The sun was shining brightly, and there were hoards of people buzzing around the waterside. Ice-creams were popular - and so was one of the pubs which I think was showing a rugby match.

Blooming marvellous outside Chester Cathedral

Such a fine day

What a glorious day. We'll miss Chester. But the time has come to move out of the area and get trading from The Home Brew Boat!

Descending Chester's Northgate Staircase Locks - not a problem

We've been delving into virgin territory, for us, these past few days. Having navigated around 2,000 miles of the Inland Waterway system in 2009 and 2010, there's not that many routes we haven't done at least once!

The staircase locks in Chester are one of them.

Approaching the locks was interesting as there's work in progress on the towpath, making it inaccessible until just before the top gate. It also meant that once I was off the boat I couldn't read the instructions - which wasn't terribly helpful! So I walked down the staircase, checked there were no other boats ascending or wanting to, and figured the principle must be like other staircase locks we've experienced.

Approaching the locks, skimming past the Chester Wall - the bridge in the foreground is where the condemned made their final walk before being executed 

Instructions inaccessible on foot!

The first one needs to be full of water, the next two empty. Check.

In fact, the second one was so devoid of water you could see the bottom of the lock, which was a little unnerving - you wouldn't want that to happen with the boat inside!

But all was fine. Barry cruised in smoothly, jumped out and took a few photos, then disappeared into the depths!

Into the top lock ...

People often comment that it's generally women doing the 'hard' work of the lock paddles, with the men getting the 'easy' job of driving the boat. Whilst they have a point, in general I think women would rather be getting the exercise and not stuck in a dark, dank hole twiddling their thumbs!

Barry and I do share the doing or driving of locks, but admittedly he does more of the latter than me. And it works fine.

The paddles were rather stiff, and the gates heavy, so it was an excellent upper body workout! Barry and I are currently on the 5:2 'Fast' diet, entailing eating only a quarter of our usual calories on two days of the week. We both need to shift a bit of weight, and the deciding factor is the possibility of living longer and with less health problems by intermittent fasting.

And Monday just happened to be one of the '2' days! So rather than seeing it as hard work, it gave me a sense of accomplishment that I was getting lots of fresh air AND exercise.

On a clear day, the view from the locks is magnificent, with the Welsh mountains in the skyline. Chester is such a fine city, we've loved being here in the north west of England.

Quite a view from up here ...

Amusing passing gongoozlers whilst pumping iron ...

oo-er, you wouldn't want to be down there ...

Get back onto the boat now Barry, she's going down ...

Into the second lock ...

All done - hello up there!

We moored for the night opposite the historic Taylor's Boatyard - one of the oldest complete working side yards in the UK, dating right back to 1845. The 48 hour moorings before the boatyard appeared to be inhabited by a number of boats looking most unlike temporary visitors! It'll be interesting to see if the same ones are there when we return - about 72 hours after passing through.

Monday was a fairly balmy evening, with the spring sunlight dancing happily on the water and surrounding buildings, so Barry and I strolled around the area, then sat peacefully on a bench for a while, making the most of experiencing the changing season.

Some rather nice new developments in the basin

And a plaque commemorating L.T.C. Rolt, born in Chester, 11th February 1910

The historic Taylor's Boatyard ...

… with two delightful working boats temporarily moored

Areandare looking happy in the evening sunlight

Look at that blue sky! Gorgeous 

Another view of Taylor's Boatyard

The lock leading out onto the River Dee

A 'roving' or 'turnover' bridge, originally built  for horses pulling narrowboats to change sides

I love new beginnings, the excitement of watching fresh life emerging in spring, and looking forward to longer, lighter days - and more warmth and sunshine! However, I'm also aware that ...

"If we had no winter, the spring would not be so pleasant: if we did not sometimes taste of adversity, prosperity would not be so welcome." ~Anne Bradstreet

Next stop Ellesmere Port - another first ... 

Thank you Tattenhall Marina - Haere Ra (farewell) - we'll be back!

It was rather sad to say goodbye to the friendly folks at the marina yesterday. Our first venture into marina life was a great success, and we're thankful we chose Tattenhall for many reasons, including:

• Clean, well-kept grounds in the beautiful Cheshire countryside.
• Glorious sunrises to behold looking out at the distant hills, with Beeston Castle on the horizon
• Stunning sunsets to watch behind the workshop.
• Plenty of parking (for those with cars, or us when we had a hire car)
• Scott's Bar - open every day for hot drinks and food, and most evenings for drinks and socialising.
• Camaraderie amongst the boaters is very evident, we experienced lots of helping each other out in a myriad of ways (the lovely Mike even took Barry out on a day trip to Wales when I was at my parents recently, photos to follow).
• Chandlery and workshop on site - with a competitive rate for hull blacking.
• Minutes from a bus route to Chester and Whitchurch.
• A short walk to the Cheshire Ice Cream Farm - a fantastic play park, farm shop, farm animals, soft play, ice cream shop and indoor games area.
• A rather precarious walk to a delightful village, with a Post Office, Chinese, Thai, Indian and English restaurants; great cafe, three pubs (one we loved loads and it felt like our 'local'), hairdressers, butcher, library,in fact everything you could wish for really!

I'm sure there's more assets I haven't mentioned, forgive me Scot and co if I've missed out anything important! I did ask Barry what he loved most about the Marina, to see if there was anything I hadn't thought of. His reply? Rather predictable really - "The bar"!

 Sandra's face seems to say "Do we really have to leave the home comforts of the marina?"

 Some of the motley crew lovely people we've met during our stay

A couple of the team who keep the wheels turning, Tom and Scott - 'Dodgy' (not sure why they call him that?) Dave escaped before we could get him in the photo! 

 Crew Areandare outside Scott's Bar

The Chester Day Boat on possibly it's first run of the new season from the marina

Scott's photo of us leaving, copied from the Tattenhall Marina Facebook page

That's it then! We're back on 'the cut'. And it's not too bad - so far! In fact it's quite lovely.

Our plan is to go up to Ellesmere Port this week, and return to Chester by Thursday evening so I can get the bus to my daughter's on Friday. Checking our Nicholson's guide today, we got a fright as it said the National Waterways Museum is only open weekends from November to March which would've scuppered our best laid plans (which hinge around friends and family as well as us!). A phone call later and we're relieved to discover they're open 7 days a week - phew! That's the disadvantage of relying on a 2009 waterways guide!

While we're in the area, we'll get to socialise with a few lovely people. Mike is the husband of a midwife who was my mentor in the late 1980s when I worked in the community. He works in Ellesmere Port and will come to the boat on Wednesday for lunch. Wednesday evening we're hoping Lisa's brother-in-law and nieces are coming to visit. Then on Saturday we're going to Elaine and John's home, right by the canal approaching Chester, for dinner and board games!

What a wonderful life we have.

Loving the calm and serenity back on the canals - first stop overnight at Christleton Saturday

Our first locks since August held no challenges for us today, and the rain was mostly kind - only a few light showers.

Sandra's all wrapped up and back into locking - as if she's never been away!

I'm a little apprehensive about the doing the rather deep staircase locks in Chester tomorrow. We watched a boat descending when we visited last summer, and last Friday evening chatted to a couple with recent experience who explained the concept (they're all slightly different!).  It's like a lot of things in life I expect, so long as we read the instructions first, and follow them, we're unlikely to go wrong. At least that's the theory ...

Waterways World feature once again, and a wonderful weekend

We're currently feeling a little like 'Retiring Afloat' pin-ups having appeared as the feature photo in two consecutive Waterways World articles! When we sent in six photos of 'retired' boaters, we didn't imagine them using the ones of us, especially not such large ones lol! 

It's quite disconcerting to see ourselves staring back like this ...

January waterways World article - featuring Richard, Rivka, Sandra and Barry aboard Areandare

The lovely Pam and Terry from NB Rooster's Rest appear once again on the contents page. Sadly they didn't publish a few other photos of 'mature' couples on boats that we sent in (Sue and Vic from NB No Problem were one). Maybe another time.  Once again, the photo was taken with someone else's camera, this time Richard's from New Zealand - now he really IS officially 'retired' and drawing a pension!

It was the lovely Helen and Andy who brought said copy of WW to the boat last weekend, when they came to stay for a couple of nights. What fun we had. Andy managed to get two blogs from the visit, you can read them here and here. He took some fabulous shots of Barry feeding our friendly swan (don't show the children!) - by getting him to literally take the bread from his mouth! Yes he is completely crazy fearless!

We had a cracking day in Chester, having persuaded a very reluctant Andy to experience a bus journey (damn the bus driver for being late entailing an uncomfortable wait in the cold and rain - that didn't persuade him one iota of the merits of public transport!). We walked the walls once more, and while Andy and Barry were distracted with their lenses, Helen and I ducked into a quaint-looking pub for a drink. Now Andy, in his blog, suggests that he and Barry talked the landlord into letting us stay for a drink after closing time. The reality is that Helen and I were chatted up, in their absence, and they suggested actually locking the doors so the boys couldn't get in, while the girls enjoyed a pint! Now that would've been a table turning event if ever there was one!  In the spirit of the festive season, we decided to show goodwill to our men, and not torture them ...

A grainy shot from Sandra's iPhone (must clean the lens more often!), Barry, Helen, Sandra and Andy in the very old-worlde Albion Inn

There was a plethora of memorabilia from in the early 20th century to keep us amused - this one below is especially for all the lager drinkers in England and New Zealand - mostly for you Tony Fox!

The Albion Inn, where the landlord has remained continuously for 37 years, and the interior decor iconically captures the essence of the 1914-18 Great War - well worth a visit if you're in Chester

Oh, and to finish, we're celebrating our fourth wedding anniversary today. This year we're off to the local 'Letters Inn' for a couple of drinks, a Chinese meal and to St Albans Church to sing some carols.

Barry and Sandra sign the register 22nd December 2009, Wainui Beach