Chester, Liverpool and beyond

We left Bunbury on Thursday and travelled along the Shropshire Union to Christledon on the outskirts of Chester, this is a lovely stretch of canal.  On Thursday evening we went to see if we could find George on NB Syrus, we met George and Kath a few years ago in Castlefields Basin in Manchester.  George was moored just a little way down the canal so we had a coffee and catch up, he then came to have a look around Triskaideka later and we went out for dinner at the Cheshire Cat.  It was lovely to see George again and we will hopefully see Kath later in the week.

On Friday we caught the bus into Chester and then took the train into Liverpool.  We had a lovely day in Liverpool, John has not been back for a long time so it was a real trip down memory lane.  The area around the docks has been transformed and he found the Pier Head unrecognisable apart from the Three Graces.  We saw the famous Mersey Ferry, the Isle of Man Ferry unloading lots of motorcycles.  We had a wander around the new Museum of Liverpool, not all of it is open but what is open is good.  We walked around the Tate Gallery, must say not really to our taste and later wandered around the shopping area.  We were really surprised on how cheap the train fare was £6.45 each return!

On Saturday we spent the day in Chester, again doing the tourist spots, we walked the City wall and visited the River front.  Disappointingly (a sign of the times we think) a lot of the small shops in the Rows have closed, its such a shame as these give the Chester shopping experience character.  On return to Triskaideka we started the engine to give the batteries a charge, there was a crash, bang and lots of alarm bells ringing.  We switched the engine off very quickly, there was obviously a problem so we opened up the engine cover and the belts were off and a pulley missing.  John phoned Neil from Beacon who got in touch with Sam who installed the engine.  Sam agreed to come out on Sunday.

Sam arrived this morning and found the missing pulley and replaced it with a new one, he reconnected all the belts and started the engine and everything was fine.  He had no idea what had caused it.  We have travelled from Christleton down the locks into Chester, used the services and continued towards Ellesmere Port, we are moored by Chester Zoo this evening.  Apparently you can hear the monkeys, we haven't heard them yet!

Shropshire Union

Beeston Castle

Peckforton Castle

Liverpool

Ferry across the Mersey

Locks down onto the Docks

Albert Dock

NB Moorings

Chester

Shropshire Union through Chester

     
Thursday 10.5 miles 6 locks
Sunday 6.5 miles 8 locks