A Trip North and West

We went north then a bit west a week ago just before Christmas. Our first stop was Greasby on the Wirral where we stayed with friends of our friends Mr and Mrs Brook and their daughter Lin. The friends were very kind and gracious and friendly. They even put us up for 2 nights in their caravan. Very cozy. They also were a mine of information re what to do when it is foggy up that way. So we decided, on their counsel, to visit Liverpool, Hilbre Island and Chester all in one day! Yowzah.

Well, next day, we did Liverpool for about 2 hours and got there via the train. The train dumped us right near the centre of town where we saw this big building (maybe an art museum?) which had a menorah outside - our first sighting this year. But we were starving so we made a beeline for the nearest place to eat. Which happened to be a Sayers - a local institution in these parts it seems. They had good tea, cheese and onion pasties and sausage rolls and cream rolls. It would have been nice to have a big fry up - tomatoes, eggs, bacon and fried bread but we DIDN'T HAVE TIME. So, we walked around Liverpool a bit. 2008 is the Year of Culture for Liverpool. Not sure what it means but there were tons of cranes building, rebuilding, renovating. So it's all good. Liverpool is 'edgy' but I liked it. Lots of character. Didn't see Macca or Ringo in our travels. The statue is of Lord Wellington. The guy who invented or had the Wellington Boot named after.

We wanted to see the Royal Hospital as it is featured on a reality type show which 'some of us in the family' really like! We would have liked to have explored the LIVER Building (pronounced with a hard 'i') a bit but didn't have time so we swept past it on our way to the Mersey Ferry which is immortalized in a song. Unfortunately, it was so foggy we couldn't see anything - but we did hear very clearly the fog horn. Brrrhhh. The ferry took us from the Liverpool docks to the Wirral which is a bit of land that is very nice and very friendly people live there. It is also where our Friends of Friends lived and where we stayed 2 nights.
Anyhow, we set off for Hilbre Island. We wanted to go there cuz it is a birdwatching island and they have a small observatory there. Check out the video! To get there you need to go on the low tide and leave on the low tide so you can walk across. It's pretty close to the mainland. But it all became a moot point with the fog as you can see from the photos. So our trip to Hilbre was a bust but we want to come back. maybe we will even come back with Mr and Mrs Brook and their daughter Lin. That would be fun methinks. We will have to torque about it.

So off to Chester. The only completely walled city in England. It was dark so we have no pictures. There was a great indoor market replete with wool stalls, meat, cheeses, clothing, fish, Dr Who cards and all sorts. We even had tasters of Cheshire Cheese. Yum. There was a mall too. With a La Senza!

Got back to our Friends of Friends and enjoyed a very nice evening meal as well as heard all about the RNLI lifeboats. Our host is a lifeboat volunteer so was very knowledgable. An excellent charity if ever there was one.

Had to leave our new friends the next day and move on to Stone. Before we got there we visited Blue Planet Aquarium. Best part was getting up close and personal with the rays at the Touch Pool.

We were keen to see Mrs Brook's Mum and Dad, the PleasantStones. Got to theirs about 3 PM and had to immediately take off for the tour of the Wedgwood factory. It was good to see that some places hadn't yet farmed the labour out to China. We returned to the house of Mrs Brooks parents, the PleasantStones, and were engaged in non stop chatter on all topics from the fire service, oatcakes, cheeses, the fog, potteries, BOATS, and washing-up by men-folk. Oatcakes are a particular culinary feature of the pottery district. Mrs PleasantStone even packed some up for us to enjoy with bacon, TINNED tomatoes, egg and cheese. We plan to return one summer so we can go on a holiday on a boat with the PleasantStones and Brooks. Mr PleasantStone is going to organize it and start his own tour company!

Next day had to head back to Ramsgate in our trusty car, listening to Radio One in the fog. Flights were cancelled out of Heathrow due to the fog so we were lucky the traffic was pretty much clear sailing....