Manchester/Liverpool

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Our flight from Hong Kong to Manchester with Lufthansa was a day flight so we didn't need to sleep too much. Although Hannah's body clock was confused and she slept absolutely anywhere she could and at times was a wlking zombie. It was a 747 plane but didn't have any inflight entertainment like Air NZ, it did have radio and movies on a big screen. Hannah watched The Tale of Desperaux, Night at the Museum 2 and Confessions of a Shop Aholic The German hosties were very friendly, although their English was not to brag about, talk about eat, they fed us with so much food we couldn't eat the last meal, and the booze was flowing very freely as well. Robert enjoyed a couple or three beers - "Wersteiner" very nice he said, more than once.

It was great to be able to just walk from the airport through a 1.5km long sky bridge tunnel to the Raddison Hotel where we stayed for one night. Hannah had a swim in the indoor pool the next morning (this is one of her missions while on holiday, that is, in every hotel that has a pool she has a swim in it). We had a beautiful buffet breaky and off to pick up the hire car back at the airport. Robert was surprisingly pleased with the Ford Mondeo, manual, diesel. All our luggage fitted in the boot yeah............

We drove to Liverpool. The roads are FAN TAS TIC. 2 laned "dual carriage ways" as they call them and if not 2 they are 4 laned motorways, well sign posted and very easy to travel on. Robert found driving the Ford very easy. The GPS Navigating system is absolutley priceless, it takes all the stress out of navigating with a map, in the dark, in a strange city, we fully recommend them to anybody. The speed limit is 70mph (113kms) and people pass you like you were standing still.

The Premier Inn at Albert Dock is great. We checked in and had a quick look around and then off to Blackpool to check out the Blackpool illuminations and what was happening on the piers. We drove the length of the Golden Mile and then found a park in the middle and then we walked, and we walked and we walked along th prominade. We had fish n chips down on the beach front, then walked to the Central Pier where Hannah and Robert went for a ride on a large ferris wheel, they said it was very tame. Marion enjoyed playing on the money sliders and walked away with a 2p profit but went back and spent it later. Then we walked to the Blackpool Tower but unfortuantley it was closed so we couldn't ascend it. Then we walked back to the car enjoying the lights. It was 10pm by this time.

Driving back to Liverpool Marion couldn't get the GPS going so we had to navigate ourselves a wee way until she realised she had to push a button to get it through to the next level - LOL. We got home and poured ourselves into bed at about midnight.

The next morning we SLEPT IN till 9.30 and breakfast was to finish at 10. So we had to get dressed quickly and go down and have breaky before we had our showers. Another yummy breaky.

Spent the day doing touristy things around Albert Dock. Visited The Beatles Story which is right next door to our hotel. It was great, very comprehensive, with lots to see and buy. Half way around the complex the fire alarm went off and we were ushered out to the street - they thought there was a fire - two fire engines arrived and checked things out but there was no fire so we were allowed back in about 10 minutes later to carry on.

Got caught in the rain later in the day as we were walking and were quite a long way from our hotel. Spent about an hour in the Liverpool One shopping complex. It is huge and has untold shops and department stores, shoppers delite really.

Late tea, just finished now and we are off to bed, hopefully we wont sleep in tomorrow.

As for photos still working on that...............

Bye for now

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Comments

[Wayneo]

HI Team. GPS is good but not as much fun as watching the navigator read the map and asking every fue seconds "where are we now??!" some pics would be nice. boys thought might lose bar tab being away so long so have been keeping it active, ta. ( Trev thought it was a really good idea ) Seb up to fitting now put jig in today painting tomorrow ( Sat ) can I use your new Mig Welder untill you get back ? arrived today with the rest of the tools. Have Fun !!!!!! Wayne