We headed out at around 9h30. It seems it must have rained a bit last night as it was quite a lot more damp and there was a lot of mist/fog around. The temperature is still around 10 degrees and a different feel to 10 den at home - somehow it’s quite tolerable.
We headed off towards Stratford-upon-Avon to explore Shakespeare’s hometown. We managed to find a parking lot quite easily with the help of the satnav. Stratford is a beautiful town with quaint buildings and a lovely pedestrian only shopping street where Shakespeare’s birthplace is situated. The shops are lovely - Reece bought some playing cards at Magic Alley - a shop filled with wizards, dragons, games and all things fantasy. We finally bought 2 umbrellas as I think they may just be necessary for the Lake District.
Shakespeare’s birthplace in a lovely pedestrian only shopping street
Magic Alley - a magical fantasy filled shop - Reece bought some reproduction old playing cards.
A gorgeous Christmas shop...just my thing!
Love these old Tudor buildings! They are actually skew!
We grabbed really good sandwiches at Subway and then left Stratford for Chester. We arrived in Chester after another 2 hours of driving, got a little confused with the chaotic traffic in the city centre and arrived by default at a little kiosk, asked directions and were surprised when it happened to be a kiosk for arrivals for our hotel. We were told to follow a car and ended up right outside the entrance to the hotel, greeted by a doorman and our car was whisked away by valet to be parked who-knows-where!
The Grosvenor is a beautiful hotel in a Tudor building with old wooden stairs (there are lefts too) and lavishly carpeted in cream and gold. There are beautiful Christmas decorations everywhere!
The city itself is fascinating! Beautifully decorated Christmas lights are hanging in the streets and the Chester rows are so quaint! I love the Tudor buildings! But what a busy place with people everywhere frantically buying Christmas gifts! The shops closed at 5.30pm and by 6pm it was amazing how the streets had emptied!
We had a delicious Italian dinner at Sergio’s restaurant just up the road from our hotel towards the Chester Cathedral. Reece had pizza, we all had pasta. Such a friendly place and the food was excellent! After dinner we returned to the hotel to get ready for bed.
I think tomorrow will be a busy day as we will do a bit of shopping before our trip up to Grasmere and we need to get to a grocery store as Christmas Eve will not be the time to go food shopping! Leon has decided that he is cooking Christmas dinner(or lunch?) for us at our cottage in Grasmere. The weather forecast is looking like it could rain quite a bit and there is an outside chance of it turning to a bit of snow.... *whatch this space!*
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