Thurs Dec 1: I went to the Chester town center but I got there earlier than expected and nothing was open for another 20 min so I thought I should find a supermarket or convenience store to buy some food, but there was nothing!! There was one local convenience shop but prices were hella expensive so I killed that noise. The cathedral opened at 9 so I went in and did another audio tour. It was real impressive inside, the choir seats had really great wooden carvings, and one of the arches was original from the Romans. At 10:30 I went on a walking tour of the town. It was just me and two ladies from new jersey. It was actually quite awesome cause the guide took us to a shop on the rows that was the most completely original out of all the shops. He normally doesn't take his tours there cause they are too big usually, so we got a real treat! So walking around was good, we went to the Roman amphitheatre as well. Then we ended at st john the Baptist church which he gave us a tour of as well. So our tour went over by 1 hour! But I didn't mind, I was really enjoying it. Then I went to the grosvenor museum and saw Roman tombstones and a few local exhibits, as well as a Victorian house, just like the one in derby. So I stayed till it closed, then went to 2 fine art private studios. One had a sign saying there was cheap art downstairs so I went down (not that I was looking to buy anything) and i didn't see anything cheaper than like £300. Good grief! So after those I went to the shopping center to take pics of the xmas decorations and I saw another gallery so I went in briefly. Then I went to a pub, a real old one, and had a cooked meal there. Then I went back to the hostel and extended my stay for that night, and was alone in the room again :-) I went to bed early cause I wanted to see the Roman wall and a few other sights before the museums opened the next day. Friday Dec 2: I got up a little after 7 am and walked pretty much the whole perimeter of the wall, went along the canal for a bit, checked out the amphitheatre and Roman gardens in more detail and tried to go back to the church but it was closed. Then I went to the heritage and culture center in what used to be st Michaels church (and I learnt on my tour that Lewis carols dad was a preacher at that church so he dragged Lewis to the services when he was a youngin but Lewis got so tired of hearing the same sermons that he would just wait outside and its believed that the idea for the chesire cat came from one of the grotesques on the church exterior, because the original Alice in wonderland book had a drawing of cheshire cat that was a spitting image to the grotesque! ) and I went to a small exhibit on the local history. Then I went to this cafe that had Roman remains inside, we had gone there on the tour but we only stayed for a few min so I went back to see it better. Then I tried to go to the Roman experience but it was booked out for a group of kids. So I went back to the grosvenor museum. I went to the natural history section and another Roman exhibit but Omg there were school groups EVERYWHEREEEEE!! They drove me absolutely insane. It's like I avoided one exhibit cause 5yr olds were in there being annoying, so I go to another exhibit, but there are 9yr olds in it!! There was no escaping the brats! Luckily they didn't go upstairs to the natural history section so I was at peace there :-) so around 3ish I left the museum to start making my way for malpas. I first visited a few xmas shops on the rows to lift my spirits :-) so then I started walking towards lance, I stopped off at an olde sweet shop and bought a snowman chocolate pop :-) then as I'm walking I see a man on top of a mechanical life size hippo, riding it thru the streets, wearing pilot goggles, as some lady was in front of him with a bucket and sweeper. And as he was steering the hippo down the street, a Santa jazz band was marching down the same street!! That was definitely the strangest encounter I've ever witnessed. So I got lance and rode back to the hostel, picked up my stuff and headed towards malpas!! I had to use the a and b roads yet again cause it was already dark by this point. So leaving Chester time was 3:46 pm. The route wasn't too bad, I was on the sidewalk for most of the way so as to avoid the cars, esp on the b roads cause there was no light! And it was cloudy so no moon to light my way. And its a shame too cause malpas would have been the perfect place to use my sky map! So yeah it was annoying that I was in darkness the whole way, but as I got into the real farm country I saw a really pretty xmas decorated house!! So that made it all worth it :-) so anyway I didn't get lost until I actually got to higher wych. I called the b&b but was going in and out of service so that was a bit annoying, but I was only just down the road. So when I arrived I got my typical surprise look when she saw I was on a bike. My arrival time was 6:40 pm, rode 17.82 mi (including the little bit around Chester), max 20.5, avg 7.5. I think I was the only one staying there that night cause the woman asked if I wanted to join her in the living room. So after I booked my next move, I went downstairs. Her husband had came back home so it was the 3 of us. They were quite a nice elderly couple, running this b&b together and also doing filming on Englands canals for retail. So the man told me about the canal route from wolverhampton to Birmingham. Apparently in the summer they get a lot of bikers stopping over that do the john o grotes to lands end route, but I said I was doing sight seeing, not long distance biking. They are a part of separate charity clubs, so the man was telling me that his rotary club does traveling Santas grotto around malpas and the nearby areas. How fun, I would have liked that as a kid! So I talked with them for a bit, the man showed me the mechanics to their grandfather clock, its from like the 19th century and still works and boy is it loud!! Good thing I didn't need to take a #2 at that time it struck 11pm, or else their would have been a mess on their couch, and unlike most old people, they didn't have plastic coverings on the upholstery! So back in the day, the mechanics for this clock didn't know how to drive 2 hands, so there is just an hour hand, so you have to guess what the actual time is! The man showed me the weight that pulls the chain that runs the whole thing and he put it in my hand and I nearly dropped it on my foot it was so damn heavy. Ok I think that's enough talk about the clock..so I went to bed after that. Saturday Dec 3: I woke up and had a great breakfast!! I was so full that I left 2 pieces of toast cause I just couldn't fit anything else in me! So I quickly set off and was heading for shrewsbury but I wanted to check out whitchurch first. The couple had left me some brochures on places to see on the way to shrewsbury and one of them was a whitchurch self guided clock tour, what the town is famous for making. So when I got there (it was only 2 mi from higher wych) I went to the history&heritage centre to see if they had anymore info on the town but there were xmas markets going on so I just asked where tourist info was and the lady didn't know, so who did I end up asking!? Well Santa himself!! And he set me right. So I went there and got 2 more self guided brochures around town! One called "history on the spot" that pinpoints info boards on buildings, and another about Edward German, the composer who was from whitchurch. The info center also had a small exhibit with memorabilia from local people and businesses and also a few excavated artifacts. There was also a little room on randolph Caldecott and Edward German (born German Edward). Ok well I should hit the hay now so sorry to leave you in suspense just as my tale was getting juicy but I will have to continue tomorrow!!
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