Liverpool part one...

I write from the comfort of a superkingsize bed with fluffy feather duvet and large cushions. I have never ached more. As my good blog friend T warned me; there's a lot of walking in Liverpool!

People seem to spend a lot of time complaining about the train services in this country but we only found it to be a good experience. It was a little busy at times but it is half term; lots of small children visiting lots of big museums.

All our trains were on time. All were clean. All the staff were helpful, friendly and polite. Not all the passengers were a delight though. The worst being a badly behaved 5 year old who only had to stamp his feet for anything he wanted. One of the things he wanted was an overpriced KitKat from the buffet trolley which was given to him without a wrapper to prevent the chocolate melting all over his hands. Since his spatial awareness was non existent we had to quickly move magazines and belongings from the table to prevent a sticky disaster, and what did the Mother have to sort his hands out with? One tissue. Useless. Surely everyone knows wipes are an essential piece of survival kit with children until they are at least ten!

I last visited Liverpool with Ella when she was seven, which was eight years ago. Since then they have built Liverpool One which can be seen in the photos below. An architecturally stunning shopping area which I imagine is even nicer in sunny weather as it is a sort of indoor/outdoor type thing with some grassy areas incorporated. It was nice lit up at night too.

Whilst the shopping area was unrecognisable the dockside hadn't changed at all and we were able to identify the spot where Ella was photographed at seven years at Albert Dock with a big ice cream in her hand.

Beatles attractions don't seem to be promoted by leaflets in Liverpool which is a bit of an oversight since we didn't learn about the magical mystery tours until we were there and had already planned our itinerary. Mind you, tours on coaches or open top buses are useless for me unless they have a printed version of the audio commentary.

It was perishing cold for the entire trip which meant we actually purchased a thermal layer for Ella. Even so it was a very bracing walking alongside the river from The Beatles Story to The Fab 4D Experience. You cannot walk anywhere in Liverpool without seeing a Lambanana. Don't ask me what these are all about, it passed me by last time too! (4th photo)

On the subject of cold again, you can see Ella in the final photo wearing a fleece all in one (a onesie) as she defrosts in our hotel room. She was so cold out walking that she announced she was going to buy one of these and wear it on top of her ultra cool clothes just to be warm, thankfully she waited until after a hot bath!

It was a nice chance to have some quality Mother/Daughter time. We played a card quiz game one evening and laughed our heads off. We did face packs another night and laughed even harder. Mainly though, we read our books and savoured the lack of disturbances that the men and dog usually provide!

I will post some of our Beatles related snaps in the next post.