One last day in Liverpool

Anglican Cathedral, Liverpool

The morning of our last day in Liverpool was overcast but the outlook sounded good. We set off for the Anglican Cathedral. While it is the biggest Cathedral in England I found it rather gloomy after the vibrancy of the Metropolitan Cathedral I'd visited a few days earlier. For me the redeeming features were some of the stained glass windows, the children's chapel and the lady chapel. The latter can be viewed from upstairs but I also went down to take a better look.

Inside the cathedral there is a shop and cafe. There were some school parties in taking a tour and doing some kind of dance display in the big space between the entrance and exit. They seemed to be enjoying themselves. You can go up the tower for a small fee but having already been to the top of the radio tower we didn't do that. This was a brief visit for me. I didn't find the atmosphere here I'd experienced in other Cathedrals.

By the time we came out of the Cathedral the sun was out. Also as the wind had dropped I suggested that maybe we should try and go on the 50 minute ferry trip on the Mersey. It was now or never really. So we booked our tickets and killed some time in the cafe there (there is also more of The Beatles Story here but I didn't go to look at it). Our ticket included free admission to the U-Boat Story across the water at Birkenhead. This had been on my list of places to see but due to the weather and running out of time I didn't think we would make it. Suddenly it all came together. We set off leaving the Liver Building behind us to the sound of Ferry Cross The Mersey blaring out of speakers and went down river. In the distance was the Irish Sea. We turned and got a view of New Brighton. The first stop was near a science museum and then came our stop. The U-Boat Story is in the ferry terminal. It's small with an indoor exhibition of the story of U-Boat 534 which was raised. Finds, including personal possessions, are on display and you can hear survivors talk about what happened. I was interested to read that a lot of Germans chose to serve on U-Boats because the diet was so good! Also on display is an enigma machine and a periscope where you can see how many ships you can find.

Towards the Irish Sea

Outside are sections of the U-Boat. Behind glass you can see the rusted remains of the different parts. There is information about what each part would have looked like as it's hard to recognise much after all the years of what being underwater has done to it. But you can see the hit it took that made it sink. It must have been very scary, even though the men had trained for such an occasion. Five men were trapped in the engine room but managed to get out. However only two survived.

Enigma Machine

One of the cross sections of U-Boat

The hit that sunk the U-Boat

Display of finds from the sunken U-Boat

An hour later we caught the ferry and crossed the Mersey back to Liverpool. There was one more place I wanted to visit that day and luckily it was close to the ferry port. The Museum of Liverpool is a modern building next to the river and is over three floors. It covers archaeological finds and life through the ages from stone age times. It shows how Liverpool has changed, the different immigrant populations, the two world wars, the coming of trains, the docks, occupations, suffragettes and activities right up to modern times. There are films, hands on things and displays.

The Museum of Liverpool (Old overhead railway serving the docks)

First World War Medals

Outside as we were leaving we saw the Dazzle Ship designed by Peter Blake. It was in dock behind some steel gates. We managed to get cameras through the gap but you can't see much of it. It was in the old dock yard once used to repair slave ships.

A whole of Lambananas

Dazzle Ship

Old Great Western railway serving the docks

Earlier in the day we had checked about our return to trip to London and were told that the work on the line had been completed earlier than thought and we would be be able to board the train from there rather than have to take a replacement coach to Runcorn. So the next day we waited out our time in the Holiday Inn Express lounge/bar overlooking Albert Dock until it was time to leave and get our train. It had been a packed few days.

I found the people of Liverpool immensely friendly and helpful. There is so much history there, the classic buildings which survived the blitz in the war, the Mersey Beat sound which changed music in the UK and now it it thriving as regeneration is still taking place. It's a year-round destination for tourists. Liverpool is busy even so early in the year and I loved our hotel! Oh and all the museums and Cathedrals have free entry. Extras - The Beatles Story and St John's Tower.

View from the lounge/Bar over Albert Dock

Breakfast