Howdy y’all from Chester in Wales! As I am writing this, it is currently 10:00AM on 6/30 in Chester. Sarah and I decided that after each day of our recon trip, we’ll post updates with pictures and important information about each of our stops. This post is about yesterday’s journey, where we flew into Manchester, and explored CHESTER and LLANGOLLEN.
Currently, PDH, Sarah, and I are staying in The Queen Hotel in Chester, where Rachel will join us later this afternoon. This is also home to our two hotels for July 6th – July 8th, The Moxy and The Mill. We’ll be looking into both of those later today, so look out for Day 2’s blog post for information about those specifically!
We drove into Llangollen yesterday and visited St. Collens Church (pictured below), home of one of our pre-competition concerts on July 7th.
The town is of Llangollen is lovely and walkable with many cute little shops and restaurants (it’s lowkey giving Erding vibes). There is a cute path of eighth notes on the sidewalk that leads from the middle of town right up to the pedestrian pathway into the competition site (if you ever get lost, follow the music brick road!) Make sure you pack comfy sneakers for walking, and WARM LAYERS! I didn’t realize how chilly it would get here until we were on the ground, but make sure you always keep a hoodie or sweatshirt on you just in case. Don’t forget small umbrellas either, because we will run into some light rain during our tour.
The town of Chester (full of many confusing round-a-bouts) has a beautiful walking mall full of shops, restaurants, and pubs, all within close walking distance to both the Moxy and The Mill. We’ll have some evening time for leisure on July 6th and 7th, BUT IT IS IMPORTANT TO NOTE that our stay here OVERLAPS with the competition, so just a pre-warning to those that want to engage with the night life: if it’s a RED or YELLOW day, be responsible!
That’s about all for now! Later today, Rachel, PDH, Sarah, and I will look into The Mill and The Moxy, as well as the Chester Cathedral, so be on the lookout for Day 2’s Blog for more updates!