Today, we drove over to Chester to begin a two-night stay outside the city, at a hotel and pub in the nearby village of Rowton – a 15 minutes drive from the centre of Chester. The journey across from West Yorkshire took around 100 minutes, we’d have cut at least 15-20 off that if the motorways around Manchester hadn’t been so congested. The traffic was the worst we’ve seen for quite some time, although we’ve no idea why that was.
Fortunately, we were in no rush and the glorious weather made up for any minor inconvenience. Having checked in and dumped our bags we headed into the city. We were both a little disappointed by Chester during our last visit together. The city had a down at heel air, with rubbish strewn city walls suggesting neglect of one of its most historic assets. So, on this visit we were relieved to find the place feeling somewhat improved. Oh, it still has its problems. Like any other UK city it has its fair share of vagrancy, shuttered shops and anti-social behaviour, but this was offset by a vibrant atmosphere, with the city centre buzzing with people out shopping, eating or drinking.
As it was late in the day we had little time to do much other than explore and check out some shops for later in the trip. Then it was time to eat.
We eschewed the famous names and food-chains to head for a small Indian vegetarian bistro on Brook St called ‘chai station‘, which had taken our fancy. Chai station has an excellent selection of home cooked Gujarati dishes, many of which are vegan. Dawn and I decided to order the thalis (minimum order, two people) and we weren’t disappointed. The food was really very good. We had time to chat to Bobby, the owner, who is Ugandan Indian, he came to the UK when Idi Amin through out the Ugandan Indian community in the 1970s. Bobby’s wife Anna is Kenyan Indian and does all the cooking. We’d certainly come back as there’s so many other dishes on the menu we’re dying to try.
Having stuffed ourselves we walked back into the town centre to head to an amazing old building which has only been a pub since 2008 when it taken over by Spitting Feathers brewery. The Brewery Tap (originally called Gamul House) has a long history, with parts of the building dating back to the 1500s. There’s few pubs that can boast such an impressive, high-ceilinged interior. There’s a great range of real ales on offer too.
Tempting as it was to try other venues we both decided to call it a day and head back to Bigland Towers in exile. Now we’re having a quiet night catching up on various bits (like blogging!) before a busy day tomorrow.
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Paul Bigland 