Never needing much encouragement to do so, we stopped off, en
route, at Chester. It was a rather wet race day. Colourful, if somewhat under-dressed,
hen party revellers spilt their Pimms, as gusts of wind blew their brollies
inside out. The famous course nestles in a meander of the River Dee and can be
viewed quite adequately for free from an adjacent raised roadside position.
The backdrop is provided by the Roodee viaduct, built to
carry the parallel lines of both the former Chester and Holyhead Railway [opened
in 1850] and the Shrewsbury and Chester Railway [opened in 1846] over the river.
The four-track main line from Chester General station to Saltney Junction continued
through LMS and GWR ownership [respectively] into BR days, before being
rationalised to a two-track set-up in 1979. Singling of the line south as far
as Wrexham followed, a step which has been reversed as part of an up-grading programme
within the last 2 years.
The rain stopped in time for the wedding and the evening celebrations
also went wonderfully well.
There was no red fruit or anything resembling an appetising
croissant in sight at breakfast. While we deliberated over alternatives, we were
joined by one of the hen do parties. Not eaves-dropping was not an option.
There was no diversionary background music. In no time at all, we learnt that
Asians now run their local shop, that If you work in Boots you can’t wear nail
varnish, and that you can change your own DNA with diet and lifestyle choices.
This latest revelation brought a regretful outburst from the girl with the most
tattoos, that if she’d known that she “wouldn’t have had to have 9 operations.”
We escaped to Burton Marshes PSPB reserve overlooking the
Dee estuary. It’s a great setting with a new purpose-built centre and weatherproof
board walks provided between the main hides. The birds put on a fine show just
beyond the centre’s panoramic windows. Three varieties of egrets are perhaps
the most notable current attractions.
Meanwhile, the Bidston to Wrexham diesel units occasionally rattled
past between the reserve and the saltmarsh, on the double track that used to
serve the Shotton steel works with the iron ore trains from Bidston dock.
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