Cato:

Hallo Aunties and Esme

Now you are all back, I can tell you about our holiday day to somewhere called Chester, which is an oldoldold town, with a big stinky train that went from our holiday den right up to Chester.

Chester is hot and big and hard on the paws.  But it was OK cos Mum and Dad carried me some of the way, and we could sit in the garden while Mum went inside the Cathedral and took pictures of boring stuff for you.

This is the train bit.  It was a bit dirty and stinky.  Mum says I should be glad we went by train and not by car, cos it would have been awful spending more time trapped in the car.  I suppose she is right, but trains are very noisy and I had to sit on Mum's lap all the way.

Don't look at my tail.

Mum let us stand in the corner and watch all the humans rushing about.  That was OK but it wasn't nice when Dad went off to do ticket stuff and buy drinks.  That was worrying.  Sometimes he was out of sight!

This is Chester.  Mum says it was builded by Romans.  I've never met a Roman.  I had a good sniff, but I couldn't find any.

We did lots of walking and sniffing to find our lunch.  In a pub.  It was burgers and sausages.  Posh sausages.  And then to find the Cathedral place.  Dad carried me up these steps.  There were lots of them.  And they were very old and propping the wall up.

but then I had to walk again to this street which is by the Cathedral.  It wasn't really this dark.  It only looks dark cos of Mum messing up the pic.

Me and Mum and Tara went and sat in this garden place while Dad went round the Cathedral.  I fell asleep.

This was our old bench.  Tara jumped up, and I had to be lifted up. 

Don't look at my tail.

This is if we looked up and along from our bench

So then Dad came out, and Mum went in and left us, and Dad gave us a nice drink of water while Mum did boring stuff about Mysteries.

 

Mum:

Thank you Cato, I will take over for a bit.  Because there is complicated stuff to explain.

Have you ever heard of the Mystery Plays?  Fascinating stuff!  https://chestermysteryplays.com/

They are ancient religious plays that have been acted by local people since Mediaeval times, and still going strong!  Of course, we turned up to see the Cathedral a few days before this year's event began, which meant that part of the nave of the cathedral was closed off while they built the stage and lighting.  But it was still a stunning cathedral, and I was able to wander about in three quarters off it.  Cathedrals are always built in the local stone, and depending on what that stone is, the carving can either be beautifully preserved, or rather weathered and old looking.  The Chester stone is really hard, so the details of the carving is still very crisp, and the whole place, from the painted ceilings to the mediaeval tiles are more intricate than I have seen anywhere else.  Incredibly beautiful.

This is the nave, with the partially built stage

and look at these stunning mosaics. there must have been 10 panels!

I loved this old clock.  Hope you can read the poem.  Let me know if you can't, and I will type it out.

There was both old and new, with sculptures as well

The plaque (above) is describing the small brightly lit statue (below) 

This is what I meant when I said how intricate everything was - and so well preserved and looked after.  It was a really living Cathedral.

This ceiling was astonishing.  Imagine having to build scaffolding up hundreds of feet, and then paint it all so perfectly?  With all that gold leaf, too

and this carving is over the choir as they sat between hymns.

This is a leggo model of the cathedral, showing the whole layout.  Visitors can buy a Leggo brick for £1 if they like, and the model grows one brick at a time.

More areas that I couldn't explore

And this is the biggest heater/radiator I have ever seen.  It was about 8 feet tall.

And finally, this is the cloister, with a garden in the middle, and 4 corridors around the garden, and stained glass windows all the way around.  So beautiful.

 

Then I went out through the gift shop to find Dad and the pups again.  Dad was nearly asleep, but Cato had woken up and was On Watch, while Tara hunted beetles.