No boating today – today was a day spent wandering around Liverpool. Nick was a student here back in the 1980s and he kept remarking how much things had changed.
I used to visit Nick quite a bit and there was a great little transport cafe just round the corner from the Queesway Tunnel entrance that did typical truckers breakfasts and large mugs of tea of out mismatched mugs….
Like the Kingway Tunnel this tunnel also has a ventilation system – however this one is disguised as a building down on the water front.
The Walker Art Gallery has several famous paintings in it – the most famous of which is “When did you last see your Father?” but has a lot of other interesting pictures and exhibitions, and is well worth a visit.
Outside the Walker Art Gallery is a square which contains a large monument to Wellington.
Leading down from there you get to St George’s Hall with its statues of Queen Victoria and Albert.
Between the two statues is a war memorial.
Apart from the Beatles Liverpool is famous for its two cathedrals – situated basically at each end of Hope Street. The Catholic Cathedral was originally going to be the second largest church in the world, and the one with the biggest dome, but they only built the crypt before construction was halted by the second world war. The current cathedral stands on top of the crypt and sits well within the boundaries of the original cathedral floor plan.
The Catholic cathedral is basically round with the altar in the middle, and above the altar is a large stained glass “Tower”
Above the main entrance to the cathedral stands what is basically the bell tower.
Heading down the steps takes you to Hope Street which contains The Everyman Theatre, Philharmonic Hall and the “Philharmonic Dining Rooms”.
The “Phil” has to be one of the most ornate, but practical, pubs I’ve been in.
The gent’s toilets are something not to be missed either!
At the other end of Hope Street lies the Anglican Cathedral. Like the Catholic cathedral this was quite a late build and was only actually finished in the late 1970s. Again like the Catholic Catherdal this one is huge and is the fifth largest cathedral in the world but in terms of length is in fact the longest at 207 yards.
The Organ is the largest in the UK and it’s collection of pipes is quite impressive… there are 10,268 of them.
We also wandered up to The Williamson Tunnels – you only get to see a tiny bit of a couple of them but its a fascinating insight into something that is quite big and almost unknown about.
Liverpool also has a rather large China Town and as you’d expect it’s full of restaurants, and like other China Towns it has its own rather impressive gate
