10 Bells Ringing

Look at what Adam gave me for Valentines Day.
(The chocolates are from Chaplin)

After eating chocolates, we took the train to Chester. Why this town?
Because we decided it would be like a trip back in time. A chance to visit a town build in the Medieval period, with many of it's original building blocks still around.

Our time travel started as we walked from the train station into downtown, we crossed over a canal and under the great stone wall that circles the town.


here is what we envisioned to see as we walked through the clock gate...
Quiet town life with shops selling pots of potions and home baked breads.



but instead we were surrounded by the thousands of other people that decided to travel back in time to Chester! When I got over the shock of seeing so many people, I noticed the buildings. And indeed they do look just like the old postcards, nothing has changed in their appearance but what's inside the shops certainly has! Rolex anyone?

"The buildings have retained their unique character with some of the oldest shop frontages in the world. The city is famous for 'The Rows'. These galleries with two levels of shops developed because of the shape of the Roman foundations and later medieval structures built on them."
(Does anyone know what the building style in that photo is called? Victorian? Tudor?)

Of course such an old town would have an old Cathedral. The history of this Cathedral started 2 thousand years ago. And what better way to approach this Cathedral than to have the Bell Tower's bells ringing! Not just one large bell, but 10 bells all ringing together.

This is just one small portion of the Cathedral, but my photo gives you a good idea of what it looked like...Old, Gothic, Medieval, beauty! And it made me think, why did so much perceptible effort and money get put into building grandiose Cathedrals?

As dominant as the Liverpool Cathedral is on the horizon, this Cathedral has distinguished stardom that can only come with being centuries old. I mean this type of work - you just don't see that from the past 500 years do you! :-)


Ancient words long-forgotten were spoken, " Speak friend and enter."


against the wall are sandstone coffins.

This passage way is the South Cloisters of Chester Cathedral
The coffins that line the wall were discovered in different areas in the Cathedral grounds, and over time moved against the walls. They are very old, from the 1000's.

The cathedral garden lies at the heart of the Cloisters of Chester Cathedral.
WOW!

The wall picture behind me is made up of tiny tiles pieced together. Like really tiny, smaller than a stamp. How did they do it? I don't know. I asked Adam to take a picture of it, too bad he took one from so far away! And why am i in it!



Vaulted ceiling above the Choir.
I know mom will appreciate this photo, she has talked about the extraordinary details in some of the Cathedrals she visited in Austria.

While we were looking around in amazement, the choir was rehearsing.
The choir stalls date back to about 1380.

My true love Adam, my sunshine Chaplin and I had an remarkable Valentines Day didn't we. Oh and all that time travel made us hungry, so we had fish and chips for dinner when we got back!

Quick recap of today.
Have you heard of half term? I haven't until now. It means Spring Break.
And that means more kids! We couldn't get into the drop-in, but who cares - we got to join in an older art class and Chaplin drew a family of Macaws.

Chaplin really wanted me to put his Art up next to some of the paintings on the walls.
I should have brought white tack and put it up!
If you want to own this artwork, you can put a comment with your address and Chaplin A. Boyd will mail it to you. We like having things to do!


Stopped and watched some 2010 Olympic coverage.
I then sang Oh Canada as we walked home knowing we had won a gold medal.