This is really delayed, but Chester was lovely.  I love the atmosphere that Tudor architecture gives to a place.  Sadly, the only place my group got to visit was the cathedral, but it was breath-taking.  I've never been a religious person, so I've never really had much interest in churches, until now.  But I'm fascinated by the ones we've seen so far in England, and this one was definitely my favorite so far.  There's just so much history in an old English church.  You don't really get that in America because we're such a comparatively young country.  They have this majestic, almost ethereal quality about them, which is rather befitting for a church.  It puts the "fear of God into you," so to speak.  However, I do find it unsettling when I see tombs or tombstones in a church.  I have been to my fair share of funerals, and I have seen my fair share of dead bodies, but I'm not used to graves being so close to where people have their church services.  Usually back home you have to actively seek out a grave, but here sometimes it seems you can't take a step without standing on one.  But I guess that, since the U.K. is such a small tract of land (in comparison to the U.S.), they have no choice but to put them wherever they can find the space.

We ate at the Rectory, and I had my first taste of real English tea.  I was surprised, though, at the lack of variety they had.  When I asked for tea, I was expecting the woman to bombard me with brands I'd never heard of, until finally, in my ignorance of the subject, I just picked one at random.  But all she asked was "Regular or herbal."  I went with regular, and was handed a generic tea bag.  They didn't even have Earl Grey.  I guess the English aren't quite as uptight about tea as I thought they were.