Chester

Yesterday evening we got absolutely soaked in a torrential downpour in Chester, so much so that we needed a complete change of clothes. Today was much better. 

We went and found a cafe for breakfast, settling on Chalk Coffee for poached eggs on toast. Then we walked along to the city walls and the canal. We walked along to the basin. 

From there we headed back to the Northgate Locks, and on under the Bridge of Sighs and by the converted mill buildings. 

By the lead shot tower there are new flats and bridge.

Opposite is a new Waitrose and a hotel. We walked back through the city to the river side and round some more of the walls to the Eastgate clock. 

It was getting towards lunch time, so we went and got the car and picked up my dad to take him out for lunch. We had a pretty decent roast at the Cheshire Cat. He likes to go for a ride in the car, so we drove down to Grindley Brook, where we knew there was a cafe with a car park near the lock. There were several boats coming up, and we spent a while watching them and then having tea and coffee at the cafe. 

We returned via a different route, and dropped my dad off again. As we’d had a big lunch, we got a few bits from a supermarket, and walked down across the river and back across the footbridge. 

We sat on a bench and had a picnic, before returning to our hotel.

Another staging post

A drive up to Chester today, but we stopped off on the way, at Alrewas.

The reason was to see Helen and Andy on Wand’ring Bark  and the Jam Butty. It was really good to catch up with them, and Helen provided a very nice lunch. When we left them to walk back to the car, we made a slight detour along to the lock which goes down onto the river section, where a boat was just coming in. 

We walked across the walkway over the River Trent — river to the right, up to the canal on the left. Then we walked across a field back to the car to continue our journey.

Staging post

We spent last night in London after a Drake Milligan gig, and came up to the boat today. Adrian came via Langley, where his car had been parked, and I came up after work to Milton Keynes. In the evening, we met up with Catherine, Nigel, Grace, and Matthew for dinner at a The Plough at Shutlanger. Very nice food, pleasant staff, and highly recommended. It was also lovely to catch up on all the family news.

Just the one night on board, because tomorrow we drive to Cheshire. 

Crick boats — the winners

The August Canal Boat is out, and includes the first part of my Crick Boats review.  This one features the winning boats: narrowboats from Kingsground, Stone Bespoke, Braidbar and Boating Leisure Services; and the widebeam by Bespoke Boats.  Somehow, they managed to have a joint third for the narrowboats, but because of the small number of widebeams this year there was only a winner rather than a top three.