Chester, December 2014

After giving up on the idea of going away for Christmas itself we decided to go to Chester (in the west of England) for three nights for Christmas-associated activities. It was somewhere I had always wanted to visit. Aurore was keen to go to the Christmas market but this turned out to be rather dissapointing. Luckily the city itself and the other activities were all wonderful. The horse-racing course gets turned into a winter wonderland and Emma was able to feed reindeer and try ice-skating for the first time. Luckily there was a penguin to cling to...

But an hour later and she was really enjoying it and she wants to do more! There's one in Stirling so we might visit soon.

We went on a little train after the ice rink.

Chester Cathedral had a The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe exhibition (with the Christian symbolism rammed down your throat on the information boards. But the displayes were great and Emma loved it. The cathedral itself was also rather fab.

Dead Aslan with animatronic mice eating through the ropes.

The beaver's house.

Emma walking through the wardrobe.

I was keen on doing the city wall and fortunately Emma enjoys such things. She even complained that we didn't do it all - we did 3/4 of the 2 mile circuit! Here she is telling me where we are on the map and how far we had walked.

Fantastically atmospheric cafe in a medieval cellar - if only they would learn how to use the coffee machine properly (a common problem in the UK)!

After booking the trip we discovered that Emma was due to be an angel in her first ever play so we had to leave Chester at 6am, getting her to Dollar Playgroup at 11am for her 11.15 curtain-call. It all worked out but as we happened to drive through a storm with high winds, with advice to slow down to 50mph which we didn't have time to do, it was looking iffy for much of the trip!