Roemin abit

No screeching seagulls this morning but we still had an earlyish start to do the local Albert Dock attractions before we headed home. Katie informed us that the Echo arena over the road from us was giving away tickets for a free concert by Paul McCartney in the Cavern club this afternoon. So close and yet so far again! We started the day with a couple of hours at the Slavery Exhibition in the Maritime museum, it was not long enough. Liverpool was the centre of the British slave trade and most other trade at its peak. Then over to the modern Liverpool museum which was hosting a John and Yoko Dual Fantasy exhibition on the top floor and it had a small interactive Viking camp on the ground floor. It was also interesting to see the big part Liverpool played in cane sugar manufacturing. Tate and Lyle was the city's biggest employer in the early 1900's until sugar beet took over in East Anglia. We did not have time for the Beatles Experience in the basement below the hotel o...

it had to be done The Beatles music from below finished about 7:00pm and it was a quiet, cool night until 6:00am when we awakened by screeching seagulls attacking the restaurants wheely bins below our window. We had an early breakfast and caught the first Mersey ferry cruise of the day along the waterfront and then across the river to the Wirral. We got off at Woodside for an hour to look at the interesting U boat exhibition. There were massive queues for the later boats so we were wise taking the first one. the underground cavern entrance We took some photos with the fab 4 on the pavement at Pier head before catching the hoho bus to the Cavern Club. The original club was demolished years ago but a replica was built using the old bricks and is now a free entry attraction during the day. Unlike the original it has a bar so we had a cool shandy while the live music performer gave his rendition of some Beatles classics.  Quick snack at Greggs and a walk to the Liverpool L...

the dock by day and at night We took the train to Liverpool, travelling via Birmingham and Merseyrail to the Holiday Inn Express in the Albert Dock. Its a welcome 10 Deg cooler up here while Mark and Katie are melting down south. We walked down from the station via the Liverpool One shopping centre and have a second floor room above the Beatles Experience in a converted warehouse. It's all brick and cast iron like the rest of the listed buildings around the dock which are now hotels, shops, restaurants and apartments. We decided to buy a 24hr tour bus and ferry pass and spent an hour on the last but one bus to see the highlights. We are ready for a full day hopping on and off tomorrow.  We had dinner in the Smugglers Cove restaurant also in the dock area, nice Mojito and 20% off.

We decided to get away from the Midlands heat and go north for a couple of nights. In all our travels we have never been to Liverpool.