England (North West)
Trip Start
Apr 15, 2008
1
3
60
Trip End
Apr 01, 2010
Windermere, England, United Kingdom
Saturday, April 26, 2008
We have spent a great couple of days with our friends, they were perfect hosts and the memory foam bed was wonderful Dave! Great breakfast too Gill! Thank you.
Lake District
A somewhat fleeting visit, we were hoping to do some walking but the heavens had opened and the mist had rolled in so we had to make do with a driving tour. Having arrived at Lake Windermere we headed across to Wast Water, voted Britain's Favourite View. We decided to take the scenic route across two passes, Waynot and Knotts Head,.Despite the awful weather the scenery was just breath taking, the roads were very narrow and very steep! After a couple of hours we finally made it to Wast Water, and I can see why it won the votes, just stunning and just to top it off at the head of the lake there is a Inn selling heaps of home brewed ales! Well I could come all this way without trying a pint!
Liverpool - 2008 European City of Culture.
We parked up at the newly regenerated Albert Docks area, took a walk around the docks, an array of shops and restaurant set around the Quays. The Pier Masters House was really interesting, the house has been frozen in time and depicts how people lived during the 2nd world war. It is a good way to spend half an hour, as is the spectacular Merseyside Maritime Museum which tells the history of one of the world's greatest ports. We discovered Liverpool's central role in centuries at sea as the gateway to the new world, how the Titanic, Lusitania and Empress of Ireland tragedies affected the city and how merchant navy ships operating out of the port have provided a lifeline in times of war and peace. On the 4th floor of the museum you can take in the history of international slave trade too. From the dock area you can get some excellent shots of the Liver Building topped by the two famous Liver Birds, did you know these birds are the same height as a double decker bus? They don't look that big! After a pub lunch we walked through the matrix of building sites, and there are lots, there seems to be a mass building boom going on in this neck of the woods, I'm sure it will great when it's finished. We were on a mission to find the Cavern Club, well we couldn't come to Liverpool without seeing it. After a fair amount of wandering I gave in and asked a local, only to find to our embarrassment we were about 20 feet away!, well it's not well signed. There are actually two entrances, they had to move the original club a few feet up the street after it was deemed unsafe due to the multi-storey building they had built over it, they have done a great job in recreating the club by using the original bricks.
