Helo Wales! 1: Chester

We made our first trip to Wales! Just before crossing the border between England and Wales, we stopped in Chester to see the city's famous Tudor houses and extensive Roman walls.

We took a walk along the city walls. Chester is the only city in Britain that retains the full circuit of its ancient defensive walls. It is said that the Romans originally started to built the walls around 70 and 80 AD while the circuit was probably complete by the middle of the 12th century after the Norman conquest as well as the army of William the Conqueror's arrival.

The River Dee runs through parts of both Wales and England via Chester, forming part of the border between the two countries.

Our quick breakfast spot was Marmalade, a casual cafe on Northgate Street. J's large frappuccino was refreshing!

One of Chester's landmarks, Eastgate and Eastgate Clock, standing on the site of the original entrance to the Roman fortress of Deva Victrix.

Medieval Quire Stalls in Chester Cathedral was beautiful. The 14th century oak quire stalls represent the finest medieval woodcarving in the country according to the cathedral's brochure.

For lunch, we tried a relatively new Italian restaurant called Da Noi. The restaurant focused on Northern Italian cuisine, where the owner couple lived in Turin (Torino) before moving to the UK some years ago. I had oven cooked sea bass. It was simple and nice. J had linguine with slow cooked wild boar ragu. It seemed ok. The restaurant has been getting good reviews. Good luck!

It was time to drive into Wales.

To be continued...