Category: Miscellaneous

 

That’s one of the two large cathedrals in Liverpool, in this case the Anglican one. The photo barely does justice to just how massive it is… 

   

To quote Lovecraft, we’re talking cyclopean here. The ceilings are incredibly high and the amount of detail on the walls and arches and columns is breathtaking. 

 

When the organ was built, it was the biggest instrument in the world. The photo above shows only a quarter of the pipes. As with everything in this spectacular building, it’s mind-boggling! 

 

This may have been the most impressive church I have ever visited. A no-brainer if you’re ever in Liverpool. 

 

Operation Free Blackpool had resulted in two different Liverpool hotels and we switched to the second yesterday. It’s a large and comfy apartment with a good view of the city center. 

 

Around midday we visited The Beatles Story down on the docks. It’s a museum/exhibit with exhausting detail about The Beatles and I thought it was quite good. 

The exhibit has a lot of reproductions and recreations including of the original Cavern Club, as well as a wealth of artifacts and old merchandise. 

 

Being the home of The Beatles, they turn up frequently in Liverpool tourist areas. This for instance is a mural made of jelly beans in the window of a sweet shop: 

 

And this is a pizza store in Mathew Street (location of the original Cavern Club): 

 

It’s all very tasteful 😉

Speaking of tasteful, what do you think of this building? 

 

It looks like a spaceship or missile silo doesn’t it? It is actually the Catholic Metropolitan Cathedral of Christ The King. Notice the crown on top?

This one is only a few minutes from the Anglican one above, and just as massive. It’s also very… unusual and these days feels a little dated. 

   

The light inside is garish from the solid colored glass windows all around the seats. Those face toward the altar from 360 degrees, as if the priest is giving a performance or something. It’s massive inside, and could probably seat over a thousand. 

 

While it was memorable and striking, in the battle of Liverpool cathedrals my money is certainly going to the Anglicans! 

 

Dinner was a treat, in that I had my favourite that I have avoided eating for years! I’m not eating much (or often) on this trip so it was good to have a full belly 😀

It’s early morning now, and Florence recently left for her dawn flight home. I thank her for showing me some of Ireland and sharing this little northwestern England jaunt with me!

I’m off to London today on a first class train, and although I arrive after lunch there should be time for some tourism…

We left Holyhead early on a 4.5 hour train ride (on three trains) to Blackpool via Liverpool. 

 

The first train was comfortable and the Welsh countryside was beautiful. Here’s a station we stopped at not far out of Holyhead: 

 

We also saw lots and lots and lots of sheep! 

 

Eventually, around 2pm, we arrived in lovely Blackpool. Back when KLS, Jim and I visited England years ago this was the destination I wanted to return to the most, and as the destination of this trip I was very much looking forward to it. I’d been talking it up for weeks to Florence; it was going to be great! 

It was awful. 

Without laboring the point, here’s a list of why:
– Our B&B was in a gay red light district
– The B&B was locked when we arrived and we had to phone them to get in
– The owner was a creeper and the whole place made us extremely uneasy
– It was endlessly and heavily raining in Blackpool
– It was extremely cold
– The wind was cyclonic
– (Worst of all?) Everything was closed! We seem to have arrived in an off-season! 

 

That’s the famous Blackpool tower, taken from inside an arcade on the North Pier. The pier itself was closed, as was the central pier and virtually every attraction on the Promenade. And the beaches. 

 

I had purchased an umbrella which broke in the wind less than 2 blocks from the store. If the experience had been a comedy or errors, you’d laugh hysterically! 

So what to do? Well everything had gone wrong, but fixing things would take only time and money and we had both to spend. I ate the Blackpool hotel cost, hastily booked us (on my phone) two nights in a Liverpool hotel and only three hours after arriving in Blackpool we fled on an outbound train! 

There’s more to the tale, including the torture of actually finding our Liverpool hotel (shown above) and getting drenched due to indufficient clothes for the weather but much later that day, as we sat in a warm apartment laughing at reality TV with Blackpool only a memory I think we both felt the day had ended well and the vacation had been saved.

There’s lots to do in Liverpool, and as I write this I can even see a hint of sun outside. I don’t know what we’ll do today, but I know for certain it’ll be better than yesterday 🙂

It’s early as hell here right now, since our original ferry (for today) was canceled due to weather and we’ve had to change our plans to catch the earliest one! Hooray for only five hours of sleep 🙂 

That’s our tour guide for the walking tour of Trinity College in Dublin. We went yesterday to see the Book of Kells, which is a legendary old illuminated bible. The college is ancient and impressive and has a room like this in its library: 

 

Here’s a shot of Florence enjoying the tour: 

 

Dublin was busy and it was cold! I saw this topical sticker on a postbox: 

 

Later in the afternoon we went to the town of Leixslip for their festival… 

Here was my dinner:  

And yes I had a beer… 

 

…or rather a shandy from a ladies glass 🙂

Sorry for the abbreviated post, but we’re in a hurry to get ready for the ferry!