14th October, my birthday I was going on holiday to Chester after a year I’ve had so we needed a holiday. We caught the 10:51 train to go up to Carlisle. While we were waiting until our train arrived, we decided to have some lunch. Soon our train pulled into the platform, we boarded the train and then went to find our seats in First Class which was great as we got free refreshments. We left the train at Crewe and made our way to find the platform where our train would leave for Chester. We got off the train at Chester and walked
to the hotel which was 5 minutes away from the railway station. Once we got to the hotel, we checked in and then took our luggage on to the top floor where our rooms were. We then unpacked our cases before setting off to Chester Cathedral to ring.
We were waiting outside while they were attempting to ring a quarter peal. As soon as that was finished, myself and the other ringers made our way up the tower called the Addleshaw Tower to start the practice. I was really impressed with the size of the ringing room. Bells 1,2,3,4,5,9,10 and the tenor are usually left up at handstroke while bells 6,7,8 and 11 are lowered. They are 24 cwt ring of 12 and they sound really fantastic. I was covering to Stedman Caters, Stedman cinques and plain hunt on the tenor. I managed to ring bob minor on the middle 6. Soon the practice was finished, bells 6,7,8 and 11 were lowered while we stood the rest of the bells at handstroke. I was quite emotional as it was my first birthday without my dad.
We walked back to the hotel and we’ve seen a Paddington Bear bench, so we took a few pictures of it and then we got back to the hotel.
Tuesday we went downstairs to have some breakfast and headed for the railway station to catch the train to Rhyl in North Wales. If you’re interested Trafnindiaeth Cymru is Welsh for 
Transport for Wales. We soon arrived into Rhyl to get a taxi to St Asaph Cathedral where we took photos of the interior of it as well as having some refreshments in tearooms. First time we’ve been in 23 years. I must admit it’s a shame St Asaph Cathedral doesn’t have a ring of bells. We then caught the bus to get back to Rhyl.
As soon as we arrived back into Rhyl, we looked in the town centre. We went and had something to eat, looked around some shops and got a new jacket and a Wales cap. Once we were finished, we headed back to the railway station to get the train back to Chester. We soon arrived back at the hotel after getting off the train, went to our rooms for a few hours and had our tea in the restaurant.
Wednesday we left the hotel to catch the bus to Cheshire Oaks. As soon as we got there, we got off the bus and walked to Sainsbury’s to have some refreshments in Starbucks. Afterwards we looked around some shops before going to Five Guys for a milkshake, went back to Sainsbury’s to get some gifts and caught the bus back to Chester. I wasn’t really keen on Cheshire Oaks as it’s too expensive. We got back to the hotel and we decided to go into the city centre. A while later we’ve seen a bus which was going to a rather amusing destination, quite appropriate for a church priest as it was going to Vicars Cross. We then walked back to the hotel and had supper in the restaurant.
On Thursday, we left the hotel to catch the bus to Liverpool due to cancelled Merseyrail trains. It was a great journey. We left Chester at about 9am and arrived in Liverpool about 10:50am. As soon as we got off the bus, we walked to Lime Street station so we could get a taxi to Liverpool Cathedral. We soon arrived at the cathedral, got tickets to go to the top of the tower where I took pictures of Liverpool. It was so great we had clear sky, I could see the Metropolitan Cathedral from the top. We made our way back down the tower, went to the shop to get more gifts and walked to the city centre. Once we were in the city centre, we went to have some lunch then we walked around Liverpool and I took some pictures of Liverpool Town Hall, which isn’t far from the Liver Building.
After a while, we walked to St John’s shopping centre to get more gifts and then we walked back to Lime Street to get the train back to Chester. Later on, we headed back to the hotel, had our tea in the restaurant and went to our rooms to start packing our cases.
On Friday we packed our cases and went downstairs for breakfast. As soon as we had our breakfast, we went back up to our rooms to get our luggage and headed for the railway station. Once we got there, we found the platform our train was departing from for Crewe. Eventually the train pulled in, we boarded the train and we were on our way back to Crewe. The journey was alright until 10 minutes before our train was due to arrive. There was a fault with the signalling system near Carlisle so the train we boarded was only going as far as Preston which meant we had to get off there.
I’ve never seen Preston railway station so busy. It was very crowded with people as the trains were either delayed or cancelled. A train came into the platform however we were unable to get on it, a lot of people were queue jumping to get on, so we ended up waiting for the next one. 
Eventually the next train approached this time we managed to get on it. Unfortunately we didn’t get a seat because the train was overcrowded with people and we didn’t get any refreshments, the shop on the train was closed. We finally arrived into Carlisle one hour late which meant we missed the connection train to Whitehaven. Unfortunately the train after that one was cancelled so we ended getting the 15:11 train to Whitehaven. I stayed in Whitehaven to go bell ringing. As we were delayed, we got compensation.
