Thursday 24 July 2014

Leaving of Liverpool


Salthouse Dock where we moored was full of jellyfish

 View of the early 19th C Albert Dock from Liverpool's version of the London Eye

 Denise enjoying a half of mild at the Philharmonic Dining Rooms, a wonderful Edwardian pub

On our way home at the Stanley Docks locks.  The massive building by the lock is the early 19th century Stanley Docks Tobacco Warehouse.  When it was built it was the largest brick building in the world, it is still the largest brick building in the world. 

After a week in Liverpool its time to move.  We have had a wonderful time.  The weather has been perfect and the city a real pleasure to visit.  It has successfully preserved the old warehouses, now converted into flats, restaurants, hotels and shops whilst bringing in many striking modern buildings.  There are many museums and gallery's, all of which have free entry.  We couldn't visit most of them but enjoyed the Mondrian exhibition at Liverpool's offshoot of the Tate.

We have had some excellent meals, two of which at Mr Chillis, a Shichuan restaurant in Chinatown, deserve special mention and enjoyed seeing the city's history, particularly the tour of the old docks preserved under the newest shopping centre.  During the latter we were most interested to hear the professional historian's view of Time Time and what really happens when they "discover" a new historical site, in this case one which had been under painstaking archaeological investigation for several years.

However I think what impressed me the most was the atmosphere of the place.  Every day, the city centre was packed with friendly people enjoying themselves.  In the evening it was also packed with people in the numerous bars and restaurants, but there was no rowdiness or obvious excesses, it was just very pleasant.

We will certainly return.

Back to today.  We set off early at 8:30 as we wanted to be at the front of the c0nvoy, in this case one of 8 boats.  Basically just the reverse of last week, except that the weather was very sunny and hot with no rain.  We left the city boundary at 15:30 and moored up soon after in the countryside at 16:15.

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