In the run up to Eurovision ‘23, me and Kathryn paid a visit to the port city of Liverpool. We love it here! This is a field blog, I am having a patch of bad sleep and setting to in documenting what happened. But, it is shaping up to be a grand break, thanks!
We came here by train, on Sunday – the trains were terrible until you left Yorkshire. Northern Rail are not fit for tender, really and it is a good advocate for the re-nationalistion of the railways. Manchester to Liverpool Lime Street was a joy, on the other hand 🤚 so I have to give credit where credit is due…
We are staying in a Vrbo apartment – so, the owner have gone on a break, and we have their flat for the week. I means we are not tripping over each other. It is a great flat, built probably the late eighties? Plenty of modern features and the host was more than welcoming – the bed is very creaky though, but is solid.
Sunday saw us walk down to the waterfront and then pop to Ma Boyles for a couple of pints. Beer good, food better.
Monday
Monday we scaled The Liver Building in a breeze and Kathryn’s hair went mad. It really was blowing a gale up there, it took your breath away.
We shuffled for cake before a walking tour. I used to think I was quite fit for my age – but a senior citizen took off on the tour and showed us who was boss; on the tour, the interaction was great when we got speaking to each other, but we dragged at a rate of knots from point to point. We were broken by the end of it.
Curry night at Mowgli’s – an Indian Street Food restaurant in Bold Street. Far, far to hot and now me and Kathryn are suffering from Gandhi’s Revenge. Still, it is one for experience; plus it was Kathryn’s choice of restaurant. The dishes were well cooked and delicious, just far, far too spicy.
But, I have The Jazz Show on from the weekend and all is rosey; poor choice of tea (Typhoo) and a well-lit room. Today, we have a bit of culture planned; so I hope to blog about that at a later date.
Tuesday
We walked to Hope Street to take in god. First call was the Anglican Cathedral, mighty and imposing.
Then it was the inspirational building that is affectionately known as Paddy’s Wigwam, Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral – the Catholic cathedral on Hope Street. We both really liked the Christ The King, we found it to be an inspirational place, a prayerful place.
It took a while to walk it but we made it back to the centre of town (around 40 minutes. The wind was biting, my knee and foot hurt and Kathryn needed a bite to eat. We called in to a place for coffee and cake and then got caught out in a monster hailstorm; ice shards, 1cm in diameter were bouncing up off the pavement.
We walked through this to try and get to Saint Georges Hall, an item Kathryn really hoped to see. But, their card machine was broken and they insisted on guided tours. We could not find the cash so we went to the Walker Gallery; Hockney, Monet, Degas, Rodin & Lowry (plus some really impressive pre-Raephalites) were all in store for us.
There is one thing I am massively impressed with and that is how Liverpool is tackling its colonial past. There were gallery exhibits dedicated to the subject of slavery and the town is taking active measures to confront its heritage. It is after all a town that started of as a port for slavery.
An example of these measures are that, a few months ago, Bristol started tearing down statues of slave owners and defacing others. Well, Liverpool is of the belief that you can’t gloss over history but, instead, you have to hold it up to a new, enlightened light.
The City Council hope to put signs up on the statues of slave profiteers so that people know what they did and how the town got its money and who benefited. After all, you can’t hide from your past….
Wednesday
AAAAAAAARRRGH! Pain!
Woke up and couldn’t stand due to the swelling of my feet – a few hours of elevation and I was right to take on Tate Liverpool.
Really, really enjoyed the Turner Prize exhibition and also the Ideas Room.
We had seen some of the works when we visited The Tate in London, 2018. There was a heavy emphasis on colonialism and the sins attached, the plight of migrants and then there was the sheer genius of the Turner Prize Exhibition.
We had a potter around and then ate a massive Italian meal – sharing each dish. We were well looked after.
Thursday
I am writing this on Thursday morning, having woken up quick sharp. We are catching a coach to Leeds at 11am due to rail strikes; there is a lot of, just, bile being spilled over the Tories handling of the public sector.
Hopefully, some rub-a-dub tech wizardry will let me embed some photos from Flickr that I have taken of our trip here. All of these images were taken and edited on my phone. So, click the square and see the full image…
Reply