Chester

Started the day with a lovely walk with Bella along the seafront. She's a funny dog -- very opinionated. When she doesn't want to continue in a particular direction, she just sits down. If encouraged, she'll lie down. Until you let her get up and dictate which direction she DOES want to go in. She's also got a lovely doggie smile, so it's easy to be won over.

Then we piled in the car and drove to Chester. Tony and Sue dropped us off (and headed to West Brom) while we had a day to spend exploring Chester. We were dropped off at the Chester Park and Ride -- only about two miles outside of the center of town -- and took a bus in along with lots of shoppers. You had to buy your tickets before getting on the bus -- there was a man in a booth in a little building. We noticed that the machines only sold return tickets, and we needed singles, so we asked him. He said, "Oh, no, we only sell returns. It's a park and ride, you see." So we said "Okay, that's fine, can we have two returns." "Oh, no, you'll have to use the machine." "Okay, great. Can we get change?" "Oh, no, you'll have to use the change machine."

Not sure what that man's job was, really. I should add that he couldn't tell you when the next bus was due to arrive, other than a "They're very frequent."

Got to Chester and had a lovely wander around -- we walked the walls all the way around, stopping off to look at various things, including some time relaxing by the river. Chester is famous for its "Rows" -- double-decker shop fronts. We looked for -- but failed to find -- the infamous stitchery shop that Suz and I visited on our visit all those years ago. And, no, I HAVEN'T finished (or started) the kit... Suz? I also was introduced to the joys of the "Scotch-style egg" -- essentially, a vegetarian Scotch egg (where "meat" replaces the pork). Frankly, the vegetarian "meat" is nicer.

Then we took the train from Chester to Birmingham, and had a "oh, yes, it's familiar" moment. Sadly, we were too late to visit the Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery to see "Dreamers". But lots and lots of wandering around, including a visit to a running store, a lengthy visit to a slightly icky sports store where the staff were pretty useless, and an amusing trip to Selfridges, where they had a huge display of Lucky Charms cereal for the bargain price of L7.49/box.

Then home, where we had a great dinner with the family at Beck's house, and ended up sitting up late with Tony and Steve. He's such a nice guy -- really pleased to have him in the family.

This morning we have had a water fight with little William and Lydia, while Steve and Beck gather their things to go to the wedding venue. It's great that it's so soon!