Livin' it up in Liverpool

I should start by apologising for the awful title of this entry. There are numerous better Liverpool related things I could have gone for but I can't think of them right now.

A second apology for how long it's been since my last entry. Since that entry, I've been to a few places in the UK as well as the Czech Republic. Unfortunately, I forgot to write something at the time and am not convinced I'll write a good entry several months later. The most recent trip I made was at the beginning of this month so I'm hoping the memories are still fresh enough to get something vaguely interesting for the blog.

I went to Liverpool with my family as it was my Mum's birthday. Since Liverpool was the Capital of Culture a few years ago, she's always wanted to go and see the city so it seemed like a good destination for a short weekend trip.

On our first day in the city, we found a free walking tour to join. It was free in the sense that you didn't have to pay but you were expected to put in a donation at the end depending on your level of enjoyment. We had a three hour walk around the key sights of the city centre along with some interesting stories. Obviously The Beatles formed a big part of the stories but there was also a lot of interesting history stories about Liverpool's role as a key port during the British Empire.

Statue of Prince Albert and a slightly scared looking horse

Eleanor Rigby statue

short John Lennon statue outside the Cavern Club

On our second day in the city, we covered a few of the museums and the dock area. For me, the most interesting museum was the Maritime Museum which incorporated the Museum of Slavery. It was laid out really well and was really good for a history geek like me. We also visited one of the art galleries and went back to some of the sights we'd covered briefly on the walking tour.

The ferry across the Mersey was the main activity on our final day. Unfortunately, I get sea sick far too easily and the Mersey was very choppy that day. An hour on a choppy river in the cold and rain is not my idea of fun but I guess it's one of the essential things to do if you are in Liverpool.

In May this year, I have another trip to Japan planned. After my last trip (featured in earlier blog entries) I felt there was more to see so persuaded a friend to join me for a return trip. Assuming I don't forget again, I'll try and write a blog entry for that trip. Hopefully, it will be a bit more exciting than this one!

York

2014 so far has been a bit of a stressful and eventful year for me. Without boring you with the details, I will try to give a quick summary. On the negative side, my housemate lost her job and we may have to move on from the flat we currently share sooner than originally planned. On a positive note, she's found a new job starting this week which may mean we could stay on until November when our contract ends anyway. Not quite any certainties but a great deal more reassuring than the update I could have written a couple of weeks ago which I've probably already told you about in great detail if I have spoken to you in the real world recently. To have a bit of a break from all this drama and stress, I agreed to go on a short break to York with my friend Robbie. 

We got the train up on the Friday morning and arrived in York by the early afternoon. We started off by having a wander around the city. Neither of us are good at map reading so we found ourselves exploring several of York's old streets more than once as we went around in circles. After seeing the same pub a few times on our wanders, we stopped in for some dinner. It turned out to be York's most haunted pub - the Most Haunted team had apparently been there and everything. Luckily for me, we didn't see any ghosts and the food was actually pretty nice. 

The next day, we went over to York Minster. As the minster is visible from most of the city, we thought it would be the best place to start. We decided to go inside and have a look around. It reminded me a bit of Canterbury Cathedral - there was a lot of stained glass and chapels off to the sides.

 Outside York Minster

Stained glass window inside York Minster

After that, we went onto Jorvik Viking Experience, considered one of the key places to visit when in York. I'd been before when I was younger but found it a bit less impressive this time. It consisted of a small exhibit with not much information then a ride around a recreated model village with robotic vikings and weird smells. Not sure I'd go back again!

We carried on the museum theme by heading over to the National Railway Museum. Being a little bit of a geek, I enjoyed this museum a lot more. The added bonus was that it was free so we didn't have to feel like staying for longer than necessary to get our money's worth!

The next day, we decided to take it a bit easier and explore the city walls. There are about two miles worth of city wall around York to wander around and we ended up covering all of it. The walls were really interesting to walk around although some parts were quite high up and didn't have railings on the edge which made walking past people going the other way a little scary. During our walk around the walls, we also went up the remains of York castle. This featured some spectacular views of the city but meant climbing some steep and narrow spiral staircases to get there. 

Once we had explored the walls, we visited the York Chocolate Story. Apparently York was the centre of the chocolate producing industry for a while with companies like Rowntrees and Terrys based there. The tour included a good amount of free chocolate and some fun chocolate based facts. It was probably aimed at a younger age range than us though as everyone else on the tour had young children.

Having covered most of York's key tourist attractions, we left this morning and got back to London before rush hour. 

Coming up - I am going to Malaysia next month to meet up with Megan (my sister and writer of a much more interesting blog http://megs-meanders.blogspot.co.uk/ ). I will try to add some updates about our trip once I get back.

To Cardiff!

It's been a little while since I last added an entry. Mostly as I haven't left the London area and don't have much to say about an area I spend most of my time in.

For the Easter weekend, I took a trip to Cardiff with my housemate. Due to parking concerns, we elected to go by coach. For £20 each return, it was cheaper than both driving and going by train so it seemed like the best plan. Unfortunately, everyone else was going to Wales on Good Friday. Instead of the scheduled three hours, our coach took six hours to get from London Victoria to Cardiff Central. A long and slightly uncomfortable journey for all concerned.

When we eventually got to Cardiff and found our hotel, we were worn out from all the travelling and decided to get an early night. A true sign that I am getting old.

My housemate's main reason for going to Cardiff was to visit the Doctor Who Experience so on Easter Saturday we walked down to the Cardiff Bay area. It was about a 45 minute walk from our hotel but fortunately the weather was sunny for a change. We explored the area around the Millennium Centre and Roald Dahl Plass first. Apparently this area was heavily featured in the Doctor Who  spin off Torchwood.

The Millennium Centre

 

We then joined the queue for the Doctor Who Experience itself. Considering it was Easter Saturday and school holidays, we didn't have to wait for too long. The exhibition starts off with an interactive experience where essentially you all get to pretend to be the Doctor's new assistance. You go in the TARDIS, defeat some Daleks and see some other villains before saving the Doctor's life in some manner. Pretty good fun, even for someone who isn't so much of a Doctor Who fan. After this, there is an exhibition featuring aspects of the series throughout it's history. There were costumes from all of the Doctors and many of the assistants. There were also recreated TARDIS interiors and most of the villains were featured too.

 

A collection of Daleks, scary

 

 

In the evening, we went for a night out in Cardiff town. Being Londoners, we found ourselves pleasantly surprised by the lower alcohol prices and had a good night out. Despite it being the evening after a larger rugby game in Cardiff, the town wasn't too busy and we found ourselves in a 90s themed night club to finish the evening off.

 

The following day, we decided to get a bit more cultural and visit Cardiff Castle. The castle was only a short walk from our hotel which also helped persuade us it was the place to go that day! Like with the Doctor Who Experience, it wasn't as busy as expected but this made wandering around much easier. For the entry price, we got a free audio tour which was pretty interesting. My favourite part was climbing up to the top of the Castle Keep where I could see the city and surrounding countryside.

 

The Castle Keep

 

View from the top

 

I think two days was enough to cover most of Cardiff's major sites and I really enjoyed my second visit to the capital of Wales.