Some days you need castles and grand adventures.  And some days you just need good coffee, clean socks and a breather! 
When I had researched where to stay in this part of the world, I was not anticipating that we would have a car. The town of Chester was conveniently halfway between Wales and Liverpool, both stops on our agenda. It had great railway connections. So in my mind, Chester was the perfect pin-on-a-map. I wasn’t expecting much more than that.  In fact, when our B&B host asked us what our next stop was, and we told her Chester, she got a funny look on her face and said that was an unusual choice. When Gracie told her friend who lives here that we were going to be in Chester for four days her response was… Why?
In fact, we have loved Chester. This morning I was craving a good old-fashioned American breakfast. Pancakes or something. Maybe a bit of crispy bacon instead of another pale, questionable sausage. A decent cup of coffee!! I used Google to track down a coffee shop that turns out to have been in the heart of something called the Rows.

Through my research. I knew that there were some Roman ruins in the town of Chester. I knew there was a historical core.  I knew old Roman walls circled the city, and there was a beautiful cathedral. I knew there were “The Rows,” but after the disappointing Pantiles of Royal Tunbridge Wells, I wasn’t expecting much and didn’t even really want to go try to track them down..
Well, that coffee shop put us right back in the middle of them and boy were they cool! Blocks and blocks of wide, cobbled, pedestrian only streets lined with really cool unique independent shops. The black and white Tudor buildings were three or more stories high.  There were shops and eateries on the street and even more on the second level along a second, covered sidewalk. 

 After breakfast, we wandered through a few shops, including  bookstores and where we found the copy of The Hobbit we’ve been looking for.  We wandered into an FC Liverpool shop and Scott walked out with a new team jersey. There were stationary shops, candy shops, more clothing shops than you can imagine. And so many places to eat.
After a couple hours, wandering around in The Rows  and checking out the cathedral, we stopped for a cup of coffee and a mid afternoon break in a sidewalk cafe in the sun, which felt amazing after the cold and rainy day we experienced yesterday.  

While sitting and enjoying our coffee we heard the distant chant of a group of kids.  Around a corner came a “Roman Gladiator” leading a squadron of schoolchildren who hefted shields and little plastic swords.  It was absolutely charming and yet another time that we commented how much the grandkids would love this.
The cathedral was quite the landmark, but imagine my surprise when I realized there was a quilt show called “Threads through the Bible” happening. The artist Jackie Parkinson had spent 10 years and over 25 million stitches to create 44 panels that told the story of the Bible.   Quilts lined the perimeter, seemingly framed by pillars and the stained glass was almost reflected in the fabric artistry.  Some of the quilts were joyful and exuberant, others dark and scary (as the Bible often is!).  I could have spent hours there, admiring every one of those 25 million stitches! It was incredibly impressive. I can’t believe I stumbled upon it.
Between shopping, coffee, and our lovely American breakfast, time was starting to run out and we needed to get laundry done. We had sort of a sketchy MapQuest idea of where we needed to go, but neither of us had cell phone service so we wandered around a bit until we finally found the laundromat, which was an interesting situation. There was a kid who was doing PILES of laundry. There were stacks and bags of sheets, pillowcases, towels, aprons, like some kind of hotel laundry avalanche. So much white stuff!
He kindly shifted everything around for our meager little load or two of tourist laundry and then patiently explained to us how to actually USE the machines.  He made change for us. He even lent us soap – we were woefully unprepared. 

Turns out, it was a good day to take a breather, to have a slow day. Halfway into our “Tour of Merry Old England,” we are discovering not EVERY day has to have a grand garden or a gothic castle – sometimes it is OK just to wander well in the simple places..