Despite a very standard, smaller than Giethoorn, and somewhat hard and springy bed – we slept quite well and were rearing to go to the breakfast buffet and make the most of our one day in Liverpool.  Breakfast at the Hampton is nowhere near the standard of the same ‘star’ and price bracket Holiday Inn Express in Rotterdam.  Mind you that is probably a good thing for our waist lines.  It is the standard western spread with a limited selection of cereal, toast, spreads, cold croissants, scrambled egg, bacon, sausage, beans, bacon and potato seasoned little cubes.  The one redeeming extra is a waffle machine which has produced excellent results with me at the handle – to the envy of other diners who cant get fluffy crunchy results like me.  I must have the touch or something ..they taste ok with Nutella, yoghurt and sliced banana.

On rugging up for the day we confirmed our suspicion that we had misplaced one of our uber light feather jackets in Giethoorn.  We had hoped it was in a suitcase but it was not.  Bummer.  I emailed both the car rental and Martin to alert them to our loss and see if they could post it on to Hugo’s grandparents in England – then the kids can use it and bring it back.  So far Martin has emailed back and said its not at the ‘suite’, I hope the car place has better success.

The weather was not conducive to a lot of sightseeing activities – or a trip on a ferry across the Mersey as I had hoped.  We had seen most of what we wanted last time we were over but still wanted to do the ferry trip and a couple of others.  Not only was it about 11-12 degrees the wind was gusting around 35-50 miles per hour which means that people were having to lean against it!  I have never experienced trying to take a photo and being unable to do due to lack of my own stability!  I had to brace myself whilst the blow was on, and wait till a pause and restablise before shooting!

With this challenge we decided to enjoy some shopping which we do not usually spend much time doing on holiday.  A walk outside the hotel, across the zebra crossing to the bus stand with a helpful man pointing us to the right bus – we are sure he was the same man as last time. Its only 2.30 GBP to town, but he suggested we get a walrus card at the shop just inside the airport and for 3.90 on that card we had all day unlimited train, bus and metro travel.  Awesome.  We also tried to get our boarding passes early at the Flybe counter, but she couldn’t issue till the morning so we will do that directly before our trip to the TT at the Isle of Man tomorrow.  Vern needed a pair of good walking summer sandles (his current ones had developed a sore spot) and a pair of light summer trousers for Dubai and European evenings (number one son appropriated his good travel ones and they were not returned in time before we left) and I definitely needed another jacket.

On arriving in town we caved in and bought a SIM card for our iPad as we confess we cant do without being mobile.  We rely on google for searching like where is a Merrell shop? And then google mapping to get there.  20 pounds got us 15GB so that sorted we warmed up in a lovely Italian cafe and had a clotted cream chocolate and vanilla cheesecake (not bad) and a tube shaped doughnut dough filled with ricotta filling like a cannoli with a hint of lemon and chocolate flake – quite nice. Whilst in the cafe I saw Petra was on line so had a little messenger chat – see that’s why you need to be connected! Perched on our cafe stools our view was large historical photo prints on the side of a Marks and Spencer building directly in front of us and to our left was a bit of a square with a water feature with candles and a colorful if not a bit wet and wilted array of flower arrangements placed in a circle in the centre.  We think it must have been for victims of the recent London terror attack in the weekend.

The attack is very much in the news, along with the previous London and Manchester violations.  Terrorists are in the back of our mind, but we are not modifying any plans and giving in and empowering their cause.  They wish to instill fear in others, and the general feeling here is not of fear, but of a desire to do something about it and tackle it head on.  It seems that many of these low life are ‘known’ to the police and political powers and the press and public are calling along with some political fractions to just deport ANY who are on a watch list.  I agree – if in doubt, ship ’em out! (My phrase).  Having tolerance and mamby pamby is just allowing them to kill innocent people.  I find it disgusting to think how they are infiltrating the western countries, living amongst the generosity of the host country and then murdering brutally.   It is war; war against terrorism and too bad if some ‘innocent’ people get sent ‘home’.  Furthermore I feel that the local peace loving immigrant community needs ‘give them up’ to the authorities  – they must know who is involved or something about the networks.  I don’t agree with backlash to all, but they have knowledge that outsiders don’t have and therefore and extra responsibility to their new home country. Just my opinion.  Better than innocent getting slaughtered.

Liverpool central city has a lot of pedestrian only shopping areas and is quite easy and a pleasure to explore.  The friendliness of the locals is evident in the city – probably more so than other cities and in our map reading we were approached  twice by smiling locals offering to help us – and not the scamming type. There are many great shops and beautiful items I could be tempted to purchase but our small mobile and efficient travel bags are already bulging like pregnant goldfish so we have to be very mindful in our shopping.  Now with that qualification we managed to find an awesome pair of pants for Vern, some Teva sandles less than half the price of home, a puffin colored down jacket at 1/2 price and about same discount for me and two Teva sandles – because I couldn’t choose between two pairs and at about 1/3 price of home it would be worth shipping them home!  Nothing like a good shopping expedition.  The lady sales assistant gave excellent service and we had a fabulous time.  Interesting there is no dedicated Merrell store, only shops that stock some Merrell.   I note this as Merrell is a UK based shop (I think as that’s were some items came from a recent purchase I made in NZ via NZ Sale).

We spent the balance of the afternoon wandering in and around streets down to Albert Dock where we had dinner.  We got to the point where the ferry’s go across the river, but the gales remained so fierce a trip was still out of the question.  I managed to get a picture with the famous four, and then it was time for an early dinner and home as despite the new jacket I had reached my cold tolerance.   Inside the modern bistro type restaurant I enjoyed the decor and restored original features immensely.  Beautiful arched brick work, metal pillars – girders,  hooks for lifting and recycled timber with flaky paint blend with modern lighting and comfortable seating around large windows with a water dock view. The food was ok but nothing to sing about; it was more about getting something warm inside and upping our liquids as I was feeling a little fatigued from the long day walking and the harsh elements and only a coffee and cake since breakfast.

Feeling a bit better – we made our way back to Lime street station (its the main one in Liverpool) and got the train to Southpark where you have to change to a bus for the airport. We were pleasantly surprised to see the station cat from last time, still there greeting the commuters and he got a rub from Vern.  Liverpool remains for me a special spot – not for any overly spectacular feature – or the weather – but the people feel like my own.  Love the musical lilting language, the readiness to ‘ave a laff (laugh)’ and ‘yar-righ-luv?’ (Are you alright?) attitude of interst in others – community feel and a natural unpretentiousness .  People are ready to smile, just for the sake.  There is a feeling of resilience too which I see in their revamping and recreating the tone and structure of their city.

Big day tomorrow and an early start – weather actually looks hopeful that it will be fine, cold and breezy but fine!

Old building near Lime

Inside old building

Street shots

King Edward

Albert Dock

More streets

Southpark station

Bus near Speke – airport redevelopment