Chester
Chester is a marvellous city – full of history, excellent shopping and on a small enough scale to explore with ease. The walls of the Roman city make a pleasant promenade, presenting the river and city in turn, and more of the Roman amphitheatre is being revealed year by year.
Chester Races are a sports and social occasion combined. The Roodee racecourse is barely half a mile from the city centre, and is actually sited on the old Roman harbour. (Some have it that ‘Roodee’ is a corruption of ‘Rood Eye’ or Isle of the Cross, while others think, more prosaically, that it derives from ‘Reed Eye’.) Ladies Day is a fanfare of frocks, while the serious racers concentrate on up-and-coming horses getting their first showing for the Classics. Either way, Greenlooms B&B makes an excellent base for followers of the turf.
Chester Zoo is just 7 miles from Greenlooms Cottage, but it’s a million miles from the Victorian idea of a zoo. These days the zoo is all about conservation and education, and runs many innovative programmes all around the world. There are thousands of animals to see, of course, but there are also themed gardens, including a recreation of Roman and Andean gardens.