Saturday, May 25, 2019

Eric Conway: Day 5 of Morgan Choir Tour in Chester, England and Conwy, Wales







































Dr. Eric Conway writes:

Today’s itinerary was action-packed with a tour of the historic city of Chester, England, a concert at the Chester Cathedral, and a drive to the adjacent country of Wales, to tour the Welsh castle in Caernarfon, and group dinner in that country.

Janet Sayers, our guide began a walking tour of Chester, which is perhaps one of the oldest cities on the British Isle.  Chester was once a city in Caesar’s Roman Empire.  Much of the city has been built on top of the Roman structures and roads, however, one could still see remnants of the ancient Roman city on this site including the ancient wall around the city erected for protection of the inhabitants which still stands today.  Tourists can walk around the entire city, which is about two and 1/2 miles in length.   We saw the Chester amphitheater where gladiators once fought, as well as a stronghold room for protection of valuables - much like a safe.  After a thorough tour of the city given by our guide, we quickly changed our clothes to leave for our concert and excursion into Wales.

The Chester Cathedral, another religious structure that was originally Catholic, now transformed to a Protestant church, was the site of our 1 PM concert, over nine hundred years old.  Our concert was well attended for a mid-afternoon Friday performance. The priest on hand thanked the choir for leading him and the community in worship.  After our performance, we drove to Wales, a country to the immediate west of England.

The United Kingdom is made of four different countries:  England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland.  The republic of Ireland, or the southern portion of the Irish Isle, where we had our layover in Dublin, broke away from the United Kingdom in 1922.  The official language of Wales is both English and Welsh, which only twenty percent of the population speaks.  

But despite this, Welsh is older than English which is a result of invasions from mainland Europe.   The population from the Eastern portion of the British Isles that spoke Welsh migrated to the western portion of the island.    All signs seen are in both English and Welsh.  For example, the signs for Police also had the word Heddlu, which is the Welsh word for police.  Our first destination in Wales was the ancient Caernarfon Castle.  This formidable structure appeared as strong and solid as when originally constructed in the thirteenth century.  At the peak of the castle you could see the entire town of Caernarfon.  King Edward I of England (Brave Heart) built many castles to suppress the Welsh.

After the Castle tour, we drove around the Welsh highlands to see beautiful mountainside and countryside.  We then entered the Welsh town of Conwy,  which is Welsh for Conway!  I loved the fact that an entire Welsh city had my surname.  We even saw the Conwy castle, where my relatives must have resided in the medieval times (just kidding).  We had a great dinner on the Conwy river overlooking the Irish sea with candelabras and good conversation. After dinner, we had an hour drive back to our hotel in Chester, England for our last overnight in this community.  On to Shakespeare country in the morning!

Link to Cathedral Performance:

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