How to go
<train>It takes abou two and a half hours from Euston, London.
<bus>It takes about five hours from Victoria Coach Station.
<In my case>I used the train.

By the 9:05 train from Euston, I went to Chester.
Around 8：30, I arrived at Euston station and boarded the train although it was a little early.
Suddenly, somebody said to me "Hello". Her name was Louise. She was a violinist and she said that she was going to go to Bangor because she will play the violin on TV. Maybe, she wanted to ask me to look after her violin so nobody would steal it because she slept late the night before, so she wanted to sleep in the train. I traveled by myself, so I didn't intend to sleep at all. Therefore, I said, "OK" without hesitation.
The dress which she wore on that day was from Laura Ashley and she was a little proud of that. I couldn't react because I didn't know Laura Ashley. However, her words seemed to be repeated in my head many times like some spell. Now I like Laura Ashley's clothing very much.
　　　　　
20 minutes before we were going to arrive at Chester, I stretched out. Louise saw me and said,"Why don't we have a cup of coffee?". She treated me to coffee and a pack of Kitkat. I think it was a token of her thanking me for watching her violin.

　　　　　
　She gave me a piece of advice. "I think you should go to the town hall after you arrive at the station. Buses goes there every a few minutes. You can find a man who tells the news."
　A man who tells the news? What news?
　I didn't understand what she told me, but I found out when I saw the man who rang a bell around the town hall. When the bell rang ding dong ding dong, people gathered around him. Then he began to quiz people. Everybody answered with a triumphant look when he pointed them out. If the answer was correct, he gave a pencil to them. Almost all of them were adults, but everybody looked happy when he or she received a pencil. I think the situation reminded them of their school days.

		According to "Mother Goose Koronda"*,almost all of the rooms on the ground floor and the first floor of these houses are used as shops. People called them "rows". * "Mother Goose Koronda" is a title of a Japanese book which was published by Tokyo Sogensha.

Looking through my pictures of Chester, I was surprised to see so many beautiful scenes. It is a truly lovely city. As I put together pictures for my homepage, I feel I want to visit Chester again at some point. However, when I was there, I made a great effort to visit all the landmarks I wanted to see, so possibly I didn't really appreciate their beauty fully.

left & the middle in the upper line : Chester Cathedral ; rigtht : walls
left in the lower line : Town Hall ; the middle : Grosvenor Museum ; right : Heritage Centre

　　　　　
In addidion, an amazing coincidence happened the next day!
When I was on the platform, I saw somebody waving from inside the train which was arriving.
Unbelievably, it was Louise!
We talked a great deal about our families and her boyfriend being exited by our chance meeting.

The Dee

(2001.11.9)

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Trip to England