Journey to the Isle of Man TT - Liverpool

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May 31st

So tired after flying for 14+ hours that I sat at the bus stop waiting for an hour for my shuttle before I realized I needed to call the hotel to send the shuttle! My room at the Hilton wasn't ready so went to the restaurant for something to eat.



The waiter was extremely clumsy and spilled my G&T all over the table. He almost spilled the soup as well. All is well as my drinks were complimentary. I guess my server needs to work on his acrobatic serving skills?



Finally got in the room showered and crashed. I did wake up in time to watch the IOM TV specials at 9pm ITV4. This would become important tomorrow...





June 1st

Picked up my VW Golf rental which was brand new with only 10 miles on the odometer :-D Started driving on the LEFT side of the road. I'm glad the car rental parking lot is located on a quiet road giving me time to acclimatize to shifting with my left hand... but the pedals are still in the correct place. As with last time I drove on UK roads I have to keep saying out loud "left, left, left!" Unlike last time when I was riding a motorcycle and the controls are familiar, I found it hard to center the car in the middle of the road and would drift towards the curb occasionally.



Downtown Liverpool traffic got a bit dicey looking for the hotel so I opted to park and walk there to scope out where was the parking entrance. I booked the accommodations but made a mistake and book for two nights instead of one. The effects of jetlag and losing a day traveling has impaired my judgement :-(



I got keys to the room but it wasn't ready so I left my bags in the room and wandered out to the old Port Albert a UNESCO world heritage site. Took a bunch of pictures, had cod & chips for lunch and planned where I was going to visit tomorrow, little did I know.



Back to the hotel for a nap which turned in a long sleep and woke up in time to catch part of the TT coverage on TV. As I was booking a 9pm reminder to watch coverage nightly I realized I needed to be at the ferry in 4 hours! I had confused the 3:15am sailing time for Saturday morning not Friday morning!



Quick shower and down to the port for a three hour queue to get onto the Steam Packet Ferry, a modern catamaran called HSC Manannan.

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