A quick post about Chester, with some historical notes.

Well hooray, blogger has resurfaced, on Thursday night I put together the most delightful post ever and then blogger crashed, all my artistic talents wasted, the path of genius is a hard one to travel, especially for one as modest as I. But here is a quick precis:-
It was all about Chester, our favourite city,

This clock commemorates Queen Victoria's golden jubilee, she was a game old bird, bless her.
It's the only place I know where the shopping is on two levels,

 one row at ground, or basement, level and the other above them and then living accomodation above that. Most of the buildings are relatively new (Victorian-ish) but frequently the lower levels are medieval and now it's pedestrianised. Even I can put up with shopping here.
Thursday evening we strolled down to Northgate Locks, standing in the by-wash with his eye set for passing tiddlers was
a heron, now Jill is desperate to get a good photo' of a heron, but I had the camera.........

It's difficult to get a shot of the locks as they are under a road bridge and at an awkward angle but this is the one of the bottom gates, doesn't it have splendid foliage?

Paddle gear, it's not as complicated as it looks, the left hand set is padlocked so you only have the other to worry about.

Above the locks the canal runs along under the old city walls, in places through a neatly carved cut

and in others a rough hewn gorge.
Chester is steeped in history going back to the Romans and towering above the canal is King Charles'
tower.

from where, in 1645, King Charles the First watched that arch criminal and villain Cromwell defeat his army at Rowton Moor. Don't thing Cromwell set up our first democracy, he created a military dictatorship that Gadaffi would have been proud of and used it to acquire large quantities of land for his cronies, nasty bit of work all round. Actually old Chas. the 1st was a pretty unpleasant character so they probably deserved each other. End of history lesson.
Finally, as we walked beside the basin an angler was amazed when he caught

a goldfish, just goes to show you never know what is under your boat.

STOP PRESS, as we journeyed back towards Beeston yesterday, just by Egg Bridge in Waverton, Jill took this shot, now I've heard of invasive foreign species

but what if that gets loose? It'll eat all the ducks!