A few weeks ago we decided to continue our exploration of this little island and head up to Liverpool with our most recent guests, Kevin and Martha. We took the train there Saturday morning, stayed in a hostel which was the former Venezuelan embassy (!?), then caught the train back Sunday night. Apparently Liverpool has quite the reputation around England, and most people here were pretty surprised we were going, but said it was good we were taking the train so people couldn’t steal our hubcaps. Our friend at the train station ticket counter asked us why planes won’t fly low over Liverpool, and told us it was because they didn’t want their wheels stolen…ha! That great British whit.
Anyway, we risked life and limb to check out this ‘European City of Culture 2008’ and found some fairly nice and pretty ‘dodgy’ parts of the city. Because the city won this European award, there is a ton of development and revitalization work happening there, and it really will be a totally different place in a year or so. We saw a sea of construction cranes and were constantly going around and through various construction sites.
The main tourist area of the city is around Albert Dock, which is a world heritage site that has been totally renovated into an area of shops, restaurants, and museums. One of the odder things we saw was the H&S Customs Museum, where we learned how to smuggle drugs, ivory, or stuffed mongoose-fighting-cobra statues into the country. They had example of some of the things that people tried to sneak into the country, and it is pretty amazing how much contraband they find every year. The Liverpool Tate Museum and the Maritime Museum were two cool ones too.
The city’s obsession with the Beatles is probably justified, since they kind of put it on the map, but the Beatlemania did seem a bit over the top. It’s got to be the #1 industry in modern Liverpool, with tons of tours, pubs, and shops fueling it all. Everyone tries to relate to the Beatles somehow and I guess it ended up seeming a bit sad, and like the city needs to define itself as something other than ‘the place the Beatles came from.’
All in all we had a great time, but it made us happy to live in Birmingham--and some would say that result alone makes the trip worthwhile. Check out some photos of our Liverpool shenanigans here!
2 comments:
Sigh. I was remembering picking up trash with yinz in Highland Park last year for April Fool's Day.
Love the Beatles pic.
My recent trip to Virginia made me glad to live in Pittsburgh (all that traffic--ugh!)
A hostel that was formerly an embassy--what was that like??
To get the real flavour of Liverpool you really have to go to Anfield, home of the almighty Liverpool Football Club. It was their manager who said "Football isn't a matter of life and death. It's more important than that!"
Oh yes and more bridges please!
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