Travellers' Tales...

Chester & Daresbury

This weekend has been lots of fun, spending time with the family and chilling out to celebrate Jasmine's birthday. We left Manchester at 10am yesterday to travel to Chester for a day wandering around, shopping and perusing the Christmas markets (which, granted, weren't quite up to our home city's standard!). We took the park and ride bus into the centre, and much to Dad's dismay, had a spree in Primark before stopping in a Wetherspoons for some lunch. I had a chicken burger with bacon and cheese on it, with fries and onion rings, and a pint of cider - about two days worth of calories!

After lunch we went for a look around the cathedral, which was really pretty with all the Christmas decorations up, and there was a The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe exhibition on with mechanical characters and scenes from the book which was fun to have a gander at. After a tad more shopping we caught the bus back to the car park and drove to Daresbury, where Lewis Carroll, author of Alice In Wonderland, is originally from. We stopped for a coffee at the Ring O Bells there, which is a gorgeous old fashioned pub with a few knick knacks to theme it to the famous children's book.

We then drove on to our hotel, The Daresbury Park, which we had got on a Groupon deal. We got a three course meal there (granted only a carvery and buffet for starter and dessert) the room with access to the pool and sauna facilities, and a bottle of wine for just £59 per room - a crazy bargain. We were also offered the chance to pre-order wine at the time of booking for half price a bottle so got one each of white, rose and red - forgetting that we got a free bottle with the rooms too so ended up with 5 bottles!

We drank (some) wine in the bar after eating, and then went to bed before midnight as we were all pretty shattered!