Chester - Day 04 - Friday 26th December 2025 - UK Christmas - Day 04/07 - Saint Stephen's Day
- eusts6
- Jan 11
- 2 min read
Saint Stephen's Day is always a bit of an anticlimax. After breakfast, Sara brought Ivy down south, and I stayed behind with Neil in an eerily quiet house. Later, we took a long walk around Chester with the dogs, Cyril and Rosy, taking in some nice canal scenes.
In the evening, we walked to the city center to find an old-style "Ye Olde" English pub. Our first choice was closed, but Neil found us another pub, which was also very old judging by the architecture and even the smell of the stone walls.
This pub, "The Watergates Bar," actually dates back to the 12th century. Neil had a Guinness, and I had a local IPA followed by a rather bitter lager. A happy lady with a bright red coat with patterns on it came in. This Scouse lady was proud that her coat only cost 10 pounds.
As that place was closing, we found another one nearby called "The Victoria" with loud music and no heating. We didn't stay long, and I abandoned my drink too.
Neil and I arrived at the Opera Grill early, and Neil ordered us all some drinks. Just as I started to sip my Aperol Spritz, Sara arrived, and we moved to our table.
We were whisked upstairs and we took a corner seat next to the bandstand. I decided it was time to introduce Sara and Neil to Saperavi, probably my favorite red wine of all time. For starters, I had Argyle smoked salmon with homemade brown bread and butter from Jersey, which were all excellent. My main course was fish and chips with tartare sauce and mushy peas. The chips were a bit mushy and greasy, so I only ate a few.
After dinner, we went for some gin and tonics in a bar called "Providence Gin." The story is that this bar is haunted, explaining the scratch marks on the walls and why Neil once experienced his drink move on its own. I had a local gin as well as another English gin before taking the taxi home. Our driver was from Bulgaria, so I spoke the two words I know to him!
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