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Published: August 8th 2007
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Emma had a need to get her new passport quickly, so decided to take the Thursday off work and go into Liverpool to get this. Having pre-booked an appointment she headed off early, and I had a more lazy get-up - found the train station by myself all right, and enjoyed chilling out on the train, enjoying the view… vaguely noticing what at first site appeared to be a Portaloo, then I realised was Dr Who’s telephone box as I headed for Manchester Oxford Road for change of trains!
There’s so much work going on in Liverpool I got slightly confused as to where I was, but then got my bearings and headed off to meet Emma - unfortunately we’d marked different places to meet on our maps, but after that slight hiccup (hurray for mobile phones), we met in front of China Town’s gates - nice… and looked bemusedly on as the ‘Yellow Duck Marine’ went past, guessing that they couldn’t be allowed to call it the ‘Yellow Submarine’, but wanted to homage
The Beatles in some way!
We headed for
Liverpool Cathedral - our planned destination for the day! Very gothic style, at first glance it looks like it’s been
there for centuries, but at the blurb near the map notes that it was not finished until 1978, 70 years after it started! With a modern mission to be a centre of worship, learning and hospitality, a large school event focused on hospitality was occurring in the first empty space behind the large doors - where the modern statue gave the first indication that the Cathedral would have many modern aspects. After a bit of a vague wander around, we decided to use the audio-guide (which apparently has only existed for 6 weeks, and was created by
Centrescreen, who Emma used to work for). We bought a combined ticket with a visit to the bell-tower/roof - one way to see Liverpool in a day, and with such beautiful weather we could see a long way! Took far too many photos - be glad that only a fraction of them is below - picking out the
Roman Catholic Cathedral, the
Liver Buildings, and the
Albert Dock. The walk up to the tower was a bit of a jelly-legs experience (which could make my plans for the
Sydney Harbour Bridge later a bit scary, as apparently the bridge itself is fine, but the bit to get across is
rather scary…) - as was, unsurprisingly, the way down. The embroidery gallery had some interesting objects, and the views from the gallery were pretty good. On the way out, we considered the iconic red telephone box (more commonly seen in “Britain” in Orlando, than in many areas of the UK), designed by
Giles Gilbert Scott, who also designed Liverpool Cathedral (now marketed as “The Great Space”) - as they note “Scott’s smallest structure in his largest building”.
After a relaxing piece of cake, plenty of things to see in the rest of the Cathedral, and plenty of interesting information coming through the headphones. A mix of modern art, and traditional-style cathedral-alia, in some ways reflecting the different times over which the building was built - interrupted by wars, including the Lady Chapel - the first bit to be built, and as large as many churches, had its windows blown out by bombs and were replaced by new designs. A number of details to look out for, and a good mix of interactive material (after the dodgy sound-effects on the “this Cathedral is big enough to fit in 5,000 Minis”, or some such), was finished of by an opportunity to walk across
a bridge and look at the Cathedral from a different perspective. A thoroughly worthwhile few hours (I’d expected it to be a quick visit, but am learning to take things slower and enjoy them, rather than dashing through - right - that’s the Cathedral done!).
Back out into the dazzling sunshine, past
Liverpool John Moore’s University (some nice buildings!), noting the number of skyscrapers still on the horizon, we headed back towards the passport office, stopping off in ‘the Cavern area’ for a quick bit of Beatles tourism, and then headed back that way towards the train station. The Wall of Names around the
Cavern Pub is pretty amazing - although there’s many names I don’t recognise on the wall, that may say more about me, than who manages to get their name on the wall.
On the train on the way back I kept a good look out for Dr Who’s telephone box, but only managed a very blurry picture - although a quick pic of the
Hacienda apartments, on the site of Manchester’s famous nightclub, seemed to come out well. Back through Bolton to load up the car, drop Emma off for her weekend in Whitby (I still gotta go
there someday), and a long, but thankfully uneventful, drive back to the wilds of Suffolk.
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