The Cavern Liverpool

 

Another lovely day in Liverpool although it did cloud over for a bit late morning . The picture above is of Salthouse docks and you can just about make out Inca on her mooring in the far corner to the right of the giant Swans.

We had this film crew turn up behind our mooring and they were filming in front of Albert docks . We didn’t recognise any stars although someone did say that they were filming Peaky Blinders.

When in Liverpool there’s one place you have to visit and that’s The Cavern which of course is where The Beatles started out back in the early 60s.

It’s surprising how far under ground it is as we had to go down several flights of stairs.

Once there you can soak up the atmosphere with all the old Beatles memorobilia on display and every brick you can see has a name or message on it.

This guy was very good . He was called Tom and he did a couple of sets and even took requests.

Carolyn sat next to an original poster from The Cavern back in 1961.

Carolyn just hanging around outside.

Now for the disappointment……… We got back to Inca after a good day out and said to a fellow boater that we had been to the Cavern . He then said “you might have but not to the original one”.

The original Cavern Club opened on Wednesday, 16 January 1957 as a jazz club, later becoming a centre of the rock and roll scene in Liverpool in the 1960s. The Beatles played in the club in their early years.The original Cavern club closed in March 1973 and was filled in during construction work on the Merseyrail underground rail loop. Focus were the last band to play the original Cavern a few days before the club was shut down.The Cavern Club re-opened on 26 April 1984 and was rebuilt using many of the original bricks, to the original plans.

In April 1984, the club was taken over by Liverpool F.C. player Tommy Smith in association with Royal Life. It was re-built with many of the original bricks .The new design was to resemble the original as closely as possible. This was a difficult period of massive economic and political change in and around Liverpool and the club only survived until 1989, when it came under financial pressures and closed for 18 months.In 1991, two friends—schoolteacher Bill Heckle and taxi driver Dave Jones—reopened The Cavern. They still run the club today and are now the longest-running owners in its history. Anyway at the end of the day we enjoyed our visit and would recommend it to anyone else.

Carolyn made a point of walking back through L1 which is a massive shopping complex in Liverpool. I made a point of passing this store at a good pace. With this being one of the best shopping centres in the country . Needless to say Carolyn is in retail Heaven .

Liverpool ONE has significantly boosted the local economy as well as lifted Liverpool into the top five most popular retail destinations in the UK.  Also as well Liverpool ONE is the largest open air shopping centre in the United Kingdom and the 5th largest overall. Each store was created by a different architect, thereby leading to quite stark differences between some buildings, and this is one way in which Liverpool ONE differentiates itself from other shopping centres.

The majority of the development was opened in phases on 29 May 2008 and 1 October 2008, during Liverpool's year as European Capital of Culture, whilst the final residential units opened in early 2009.The cost of construction associated with the project was £500 million, with a total investment value of £920 million.

Tomorrow we have a couple of museums we want to visit , but on the condition that there’s plenty of time for Carolyn to visit Liverpool One.

                                                                                                      Happy Days

Out and about in Liverpool

 

 

Out and about in Liverpool and there are bikes to hire just like The Boris bikes in London . If Carolyn thinks she is going to get me on one of those she can dream on.

After a walk along the Pier we decided to visit the Museum which we had passed under when we entered Liverpool .At Pier head there is the Liverpool Museum which shows all of the history of Liverpool . Above is a picture of Lion which is one of the oldest surviving railway locomotives in the World. Built by Todd Kitson and Laird of Leeds in 1938, it ran on the Liverpool and Manchester railway. It didn’t last long and was taken out of service in 1857. Lion was then sold to the Mersey docks where she became a stationary pumping engine . In 1927 Lion was rescued and restored and now takes pride of place in the museum.

The Museum of Liverpool, is the newest addition to the National Museums Liverpool group having opened in 2011 replacing the former Museum of Liverpool Life. National Museums Liverpool intention is for the new venue to tell the story of Liverpool and its people, and reflect the city’s global significance. The museum is housed in a new purpose-built building on the Mann Island site at the Pier Head.It cost £72 million to build and provides 8,000 square metres of exhibition space, housing more than 6,000 objects and best of all it’s free and well worth a visit.

This sculpture is called Wish you were here. It captures the cheeky spirit of the seaside in the 1950s , well that’ what it said.

The three Graces from a window on the top floor of Liverpool Museum.

Can someone please explain this machine to me . You put a pound coin in one slot and a one pence coin in the other . The machine takes your money and you then turn the handle . It then returns your one pence piece which it has flattened and keeps your pound… What the point ? . If I want to flatten my one pence coin I would hit with a bloody great hammer and be a pound better off……

The Isle of man ferry leaving the dock.

So there are 5 Beatles . I never knew that they were so tall.

You just can’t get away from The Beatles and here is another picture of them made out of Jelly Beans.

You just have to have a Yellow submarine in Liverpool .

And a sinking Titanic . We are so loving this city , what an absolute delight . With so much to see and do I don’t think we will get a lot of chill time . Never mind there’s plenty of time for that later ..Carpe Diem !

                                                                                                                     Happy Days

Liverpool

 

After a couple of nights at Litherland we pulled pins at 09.30 and with Narrrowboat Copper Dragon we made our way towards the top lock at Stanley Locks. It was about an hours cruise so after arriving we had a bit of a wait for Canal and River Trust staff to come and lock us down the flight of 4 locks at 13.00.

At last it was time and we started dropping down the locks on our journey in to Liverpool . I think we both might be just a little excited.

At the bottom of the four locks we get instructions from Canal and River Trust in how to get to the next lock safely. Luckily for us Allan and Sandra have done this trip before so we decided to follow them.

We are now ready to drop down the last lock before entering Stanley Dock.

Here we go ! We have to head towards the clock tower and then hang a left towards all the tall buildings.

The view from behind and where we have just come from  The impressive building on the right was the old Tobacco Warehouse which is now being converted into 476 apartments accompanied by businesses, cafes and retail outlets on the ground floor.

The Stanley Dock Warehouse is a grade II listed building and is the world's largest brick warehouse. It is adjacent to the Stanley Dock, in Liverpool, Standing 125 feet high, the building was, at the time of its construction in 1901, claimed to be the world's largest building in terms of area.The 14 storey building spans across 36 acres and its construction used 27 million bricks, 30,000 panes of glass and 8,000 tons of steel.

There’s the tall buildings . It’s also handy that we have NB Copper Dragon to follow.

Through Sid’s ditch.

We reached Princes lock which is right in front of The Liver Building with no problems and were told to enter and wait for the CRT staff to come and lock us down

We now have a few short tunnels to go through before reaching the final lock which will drop us down in to Canning Dock.

Passing the Three Graces (buildings) as we head in to Liverpool. The buildings are The Royal Liver Building , The Cunard Building and The Port of Liverpool Building.

Then under the Museum of Liverpool to Canning lock which is on the other side.

Nearly there as we head through Albert dock and then in to Salthouse Dock and then onto S8 which is our pontoon.

After a great trip in we chilled out on the pontoon with travelling companions Allan and Sandra. We had a bottle or three of red wine and some Prosseco for the ladies.

Now are Liverpool adventure begins . We have a done a bit of research and can’t see how we will fit everything in for the time we are spending here. Then I suppose if we really like it we could always come back again .

                                                                                                             Happy Days

Boat names

 

A few more funny and odd boat names for your perusal .

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

                                                                                                                    Happy Days

Bandit country (again)

 

We pulled pins from our mooring at Parbold at 06.25, yes I know it was early but a fantastic day of weather was forecast so not being one’s to waste the day we thought we would make the most of it. The plan today is to try and get to bridge 9 on The Leeds and Liverpool canal by 14.00 which is the time that the swing bridge is operated by Canal and River Trust staff . They then drive ahead and also operate swingbridge number 6 it’s then a 1 hour cruise in to Litherland which it seems is a safe place to moor. We have been told that it is bandit country and not safe to stop anywhere all the way in and if you are going to moor before bridge 9 the safest place is back at bridge 10.

We stopped off for water on the way at the rufford  junction which is where we will be heading when we come out of Liverpool as we have booked The Ribble link to take us up onto The Lancaster canal.

An early morning miserable Angler . I don’t know what more us boaters can do to make them happy . I slow down to tick over and keep in the middle of the canal . Yet as we pass there is no eye contact or a hello or anything. Carolyn still always makes a point of saying hello to every single one of them , it’s funny sometimes to see their response.    Come on Anglers give us a smile and a wave.

After a good cruise and plenty of swing bridges but no locks we arrived at Swing bridge 9 . We arrived at 13.30 so had half an hour to spare which was pretty good going.

As CRT staff operate the bridge we are told not to stop and keep going and they would be at bridge 6 to meet us . This is a very busy road and one of the reasons they operate it for you is in case an emergency vehicle wants to pass over .

This is one place I’ve always looked forward to passing on our boat . It is Aintree racecourse and this is the Canal turn fence. Unfortunately the view of the course from the canal is hopeless and I was a bit disappointed ,anyway at least we saw it.

After passing through bridge 6 it was a 1 hour cruise in to Litherland and the safe moorings . We were surprised to see Sid and his mate Paul the CRT guys standing on most of the bridges on our way in and asking if we were OK . It turned out that a couple of days before a boat had been stoned from one of the bridges by the local Scroates and as we were the only boat going in they were concerned for our safety.

We eventually arrived at Litherland after a most enjoyable nine and a half hour cruise .We were locked in the compound which is also the CRT services and their work yard and office, There are cameras and a fence that surround the area. After mooring Sid came down to check we were OK  and said he would be back tomorrow , a great service from CRT we thought. We have a day off tomorrow so we will do a big shop in Tesco which is the building in the back ground and get ready for our trip in to Liverpool.

                                                                                                             Happy Days