Liverpool Today

This week was Liverpool. It is only an hour drive from
my place to downtown Liverpool, but this was my first
visit.  It is a European Union City of Culture for 2008.
This city has had its ups and downs over the past 800
years or so. The last down started after WWII and they
are still trying to recover from it.  The drive in went
by a lot of boarded up houses and buildings.  The city
has painted the plywood to make it look better,
but it is very noticeable.  Downtown seems to be on the
upswing with a lot of new construction and some restoration
work going on. The heart of the town is the water front.
I spent most of the day around Albert Dock.  Once used
for shipping, this area is now restaurants, shops, museums,
and marina.  I visited the Beatles museum (had to) and
the maritime museum.  Afterwards, I had a
beer and sandwich in an Irish-American pub on the waterfront.
The Beatles museum was what I expected and they got 12.50
($25) out of me.  The maritime museum was free and I spent the
better part of two hours there.  They had several sections,
but the ones I enjoyed the most concerned the White Star Line
(think Titanic) and the RBN in WWII. To top off the morning,
racing yachts from around the world were in port.  These are
identical sailboats with volunteer crews (novices they train
to sail).  There were about 10 of them tied up right there
in Albert Dock. After lunch, I wandered through the pedestrian
part of downtown.  It is a big area (many square blocks)
with no motor vehicle traffic.  I ended up the day at the
World Museum.  This received a really good write up in the
book I use, but it was a little bit of a let down.  It was
not wasted time, just not up to the write up. I drove home
and spent the rest of the day and night watching the
Wimbelton men's finals.  What a match!  Next week will find
me once again in northern Wales.  I will be doing a 23 mile
day hike on Saturday with a group of friends.  We will end
the day in a great town called Barmouth.  Michelle and I
really enjoyed our visit there last February.

I hope this finds all well where your are.

DWR