Stadium, Shopping (oh my!) and the Spirit of Shankly

Day Twenty-six – Liverpool

Today was another day I had marked down in my calendar as a real highlight of the trip – the Anfield stadium tour. To say it more than lived up to my high expectations would be a massive understatement.

The morning was a quiet one, mainly spent sorting out washing, eating and killing time for the tour in the afternoon. We left home about 12:30pm and walked down to catch a bus into the centre of Liverpool. From there we caught another up to Anfield and arrived about 1:15pm.

"He made the people happy"

After taking a few photos outside the gates at the Kop end we went across the road to a local caff as the weather was really quite cold. Proper mugs of hot tea in a dodgy Anfield caff with a bunch of other fans was great. That tea tasted better than just about any other cup I've had since I arrived, even if Wyn and Julie do make a pretty good one too. Tea drunk, we still had some time to kill so we went into the club shop and did some "planning" for the massive raid to come after the tour (more on that later). Soon it was 2:30pm and we were on the tour....

Let me say this up front, EVERY single one of the guides were entertaining, friendly, funny and obviously MASSIVE fans of the club. They way they talked about the history, players and managers both past and present made you believe they are every bit as passionate and obsessive as the craziest of us fans.

That alone made the visit worth it. Everything else though is something you have to see to believe. Everywhere you go inside Anfield is a clear indication of what a *massive* club this is. Even the most hardened of outsiders would agree.

We started in the Guest Lounge with a look at past managers and players and some "education" on the history of the club, mostly since Shanks and the 60s. Most of what he said wasn't news to me by any stretch but I must admit I wasn't quite up to speed on Rafa's generosity or his obsession with the history of Liverpool. Not only did he donate GBP196,000 of his own money after he finished (96k to the Hillsborough familes and 100k to other local charities) he also had a new Boot Room built to the exact same size as the original one in an attempt to bring back that famous institution.

From there we went up to sit in the Director's Box and look at the pitch and stands. The guide spoke about the unique relationship between the people on the terraces and the players and staff. Our team benches are not covered like most other clubs, specifically so that if the fans are getting wet then so do the players and management because "they are no better than the rest of us".

Back inside, we visited the media room where press conferences are held. The kids got to sit where the interviews are conducted and we got another talk on history, the current media room being the old Boot Room. I'm not sure what everyone else was thinking but I was well away on my own, imagining the discussions that must have happened, right where I was sitting and including people like Shanks, Paisely, King Kenny and more.

Next up was the bit I was really waiting for – players dressing room and tunnel. We had to visit the away dressing room as the home one was being prepared for tomorrow's game. No matter, I still had my photo taken with Carra's shirt, guaranteed to have been worn by the great man recently during a match. Out in the tunnel now and I got to do IT. Never mind in my own hallway at home. I actually, 100% genuinely, for real, TOUCHED THE "THIS IS ANFIELD" SIGN. Woohoo! Me! The guide gave a really entertaining speech at this point about how John Terry got goosebumps standing there listening to the crowd singing YNWA before the 2005 Champs League semi when we beat them 1-0 thanks to Luis Garcia and THAT goal.

Head spinning now, we walked along pitch side and up into the Kop for a talk about the history of the Kop and why it is so named. Sitting there it is hard to imagine what it must have been like with 28,000 people packed in when it was still all standing. That concluded the tour proper and we moved on to look at the museum.

No picture, no photo can compare to standing in the trophy room. I seen it often enough online and in books but it pales by comparison. There is SO MUCH silverware in there that you simply cannot see it all at once. Never mind a "trophy case", we need a whole bloody cabinet just for the European Cups (4 replicas and 1 real one) alone! Something I didn't know BTW, since we got to keep ours for winning 5, UEFA have canned the practice so future winners, no matter how many they amass will never have the honour of keeping a "real" cup. One of the guides commented that a bunch Scum fans did the tour the week before. After all, where else will THEY ever see 5 European Cups??? Stick that up yer arse Fergie you miserable...

Other highlights of the museum were numerous collections of players medals (including all of Carra's ones), shirts worn by players in various finals (too many to mention!), the commemorative plaque from the first match between us and Juventus since Heysel and SO much more.

Last up before we left was a trip to the shop. To say I went a bit crazy would be somewhat of an understatement. I'm pretty certain I have enough shirts of various flavours to go a whole week wearing a clean one every day. Lets just say the receipt is about 18 inches long and leave it at that ;-).

The bus trip home was uneventful but did give me one last look at Anfield and the more typically Scouse parts of Liverpool. Today was our last day here and tomorrow we leave for York bright and early. I won't miss roadworks, boarded up houses and the rest but I WILL miss the Liverpool I have in my heart – family and football.

YNWA,

Millsy

PS. From here on the blog posts will be intermittent with no wi-fi most of the time...

Movies and Motoring Misery

Day Twenty-five – Liverpool

Today we had intended to do a little shopping and then visit Albert Docks and perhaps the Maritime Museum. In the end we kind of gave up on the back half of the plan, partly due to apathy, partly due to weather once again.

We left home about 10:00am and drove into town to a shopping precinct called St Johns or something like that. The roads in Liverpool are something to be seen (or is that avoided?). It's damn hard to go in a straight line, despite what maps say, largely due to roadworks and traffic diversions. Our reason for driving was that we'd be able to come home when we liked and the bus fares would be more than the parking costs.

By the time we reached the shops we'd already had enough. Thankfully parking was simple by comparison. Inside the shops we wandered about a while buying odds and sods we needed. I was looking for a book shop having run out of book this morning. I had no luck whatsoever.

We gave up on St Johns and walked down into Liverpool One, a "snazzy" new(ish) shopping mall which at least did yield a large bookshop with the second book in the series I've been reading. By now we were hungry and a little fed up. Jenni has a sore ankle and walking was starting to get old as well.

Lunch was simple enough to resolve thanks to pizza. Two minutes after we sat down Jenni read my mind and suggested we give up on sightseeing for once and go see a movie. I didn't need any convincing and we went to see Inception with Leonardo Di Whatshisface.

Jenni quite liked it after it got going and the kids are not as critical as me. To say I was underwhelmed is an understatement. The best way I can describe it is a cross between a Matt Damon thriller and a Keanu Reeves sci-fi but with a script both would have turned down in a flash. The plot is machiavellian and jumps about, the acting is pretty wooden at times and the special effects, although half decent at times, certainly don't make up for the rest. I actually nodded off twice for a few minutes and it made not the slightest difference. I'm giving it 2.5/5 and it only gets that because I could sit down out of the rain.

Getting home was no easier. Another couple of mental road diversions ("road closed for 30 weeks"!?!?) meant a pretty sensible and straight trip was a pain in the rear once again. By the time we got home we were happy as to be able to shut the door and have a cuppa.

Dinner at least was pleasant and sitting in front of the tellie is improving my mood. We're going to Anfield tomorrow for the stadium tour. I'm tempted to ask for a discount after the shambles of a performance in the Carling Cup last night. Maybe we've hired a Scouse traffic engineer as our "master tactician"...

PS. As you can imagine there are no photos today!

Cheers,

Millsy

Spikey Speke and Sleeping In

Day Twenty-four – Liverpool

After such a big day yesterday we were all pretty knackered this morning. The kids were up first at around 8:30am, me next at 9:30am and Jenni (finally) at 10:30am. None of us moved very fast even then and spent the morning blogging, reading and schlepping around our new abode.

The new house is magic. Room for 9(!) adults and three floors. Both kids have their own bedrooms with double beds and have spent the night spread out like starfish. I suspect going back to single beds in the same room on Saturday will be a bit of a rude shock ;-)

After lunch we made ourselves presentable and headed off to Speke Hall. The weather was actually pleasant and the sun was out which was a very nice surprise. The drive took about 20 minutes and we managed to find fuel (without a massive queue at last) along the way.

Speke Hall is another of the "been there, done that before" visits for me but apart from the outside I remember very little. The house is a wonderfully preserved Tudor manor with all the usual half-timbered trimmings, currently painted black and white as the Victorians often did. It was initially built by a devout Catholic family around the time Henry VIII was going about persecuting people of that faith and contains a number of nooks, hidden rooms and sopy holes intended to help the occupants avoid capture. The house is built around a courtyard which contains a pair of enormous yew trees, known as Adam and Eve which stood on the site before the house was built. Over several generations the house was added to until the courtyard was completely enclosed.

You can't take photos inside which is unfortunate because there is some amazing furniture for starters. Any pics of the interior in this entry are from the Speke Hall website and copyright belongs to them. The Great Hall contains a massive fireplace, over which is a very tidy set of Tudor plate armour and a pair of 6 foot swiehanders, a dozen or so polearms of various flavours and and a few swords. There is also a life-sized picture of a previous Elizabethan occupant who was 9'6" tall.

As a kid I was told one of the bedrooms was haunted, a previous occupant supposedly having thrown her baby into the moat and then killed herself but this is apparently complete guff.

The grounds contain some of the "nastiest" hedges in Britain, 6 feet tall and composed entirely of holly. They are very attractive but caused comments like "death by hedge" to be made.

After touring the house we walked round the gardens for a while and took some more snaps of the exterior from various angles. The kids had a quick romp in the adventure playground, now devoid of school kids, while Jenni and I bought more Kendal Mint Cake, cunningly disguised from smaller folks by the National Trust wrapping. Mwahahahahaha...

On the way back home the weather closed in again and it was raining lightly by the time we got back. Guess what? As I type this around 6:30pm it's effing bucketing down with rain. Again!

Tomorrow we're heading down to the Albert Docks and might have a look at the Maritime Museum for starters. One more day til the stadium tour at Anfield. Woohoo!

Cheers,

Millsy

Piers, Penny Arcades and Piles of People

Day Twenty-three – Liverpool

What a day! I doubt we could have fitted more in if we tried. We visited Southport, changed accommodation, said some family goodbyes and met up with a pile more family as well.

Today was our last day staying in Formby with Wyn, Gareth and Rebecca. It has been absolutely wonderful, not just because they looked after us so well but because it was great to be with people who were not complete strangers again!

Unfortunately as the day before, both Gareth and Rebecca had work and school committments, plus Wyn needed to do some work around the house. As a consequence, with the weather looking half decent, we decided to go down to Southport to see the pier, amusement arcades and seaside. Initally there was some discussion on whether Blackpool would be better being much bigger but it was a lot further away and didn't have much we wanted to see that wasn't already in Southport.

After a quick trip in the car we were parked up on the seafront in Southport close to the pier. Even though it was 10:00am in the morning just about everything was still closed. To kill some time we walked back down the landward side of the pier into the coastal facing side of Southport. If nothing else it enabled us to buy a detailed street map of Liverpool which we'd need later in the day.

Back at the pier and things were starting to open up. We tried out the inevitable hall of mirrors and then wandered into a penny arcade. I'd not mentioned these to the family as I was interested in their reaction. They were hooked. I got almost as much entertainment out of watching them with the 2p arcade games and the tickets as I did playing myself. Nobody won anything (does anybody ever?) but it wasn't the point.

Outside again and the weather had improved to the level that we had an iceream. 99s haven't been 99p in living memory but are still so typically English seaside that you can't go there without having one. The lady in the shop called me "luv" so many times the icecreams were almost melting by the time we were done. Suitably refreshed we decided on a game of mini-golf, a pursuit that is inevitably extremely competitive when Jenni and I play. I was appalling on the first couple of holes but finished up with a healthy 10 shot lead by the end thanks to a couple of cracking holes in one, both celebrated in Leighton Hewitt fashion. To complete the seaside eating experience we had fish and chips for lunch. While we were eating Wyn called so say she was on her way to meet us for the afternoon.

The sun was still shining so we walked down the pier to the end. The tide was well out by now and all sorts of stuff was going on down on the sand. Blackpool Tower was just barely visible in the haze to the North. As we walked back we met Wyn coming down the pier towards us which was lucky as she had left our number at home. By the time we'd walked all way back and killed a few more minutes in the penny arcades again Garerth had also appeared. While he ate a quick bite James and Anna took a ride on a really lovely carousel and I snapped a few pics.

Not satisfied with the quality of opposition at my first attempt at golf we had another go. Gareth proved much sterner opposition, the pair of us going head-to-head until the last 3 holes, whereupon I choked and ended up losing by 2.

Things were getting on and we had plenty to do so we rushed back to Formby. Unfortunately it was time to say goodbye to the family and it was a sad few moments. We've been very fortunate to stay with them and it has been a wonderful few days. If you are reading this guys we love you dearly, thank you from the bottom of our hearts for taking us in and will miss you more than you know. ;-)

For the rest of the week we're back to looking after ourselves so we headed off to our new home in Wavertree down in Liverpool proper. One last drive past the (in)famous Gerrard Gym and we were on our way. The traffic and closed roads proved a nightmare and by the time we arrived it was close to 6:30pm. We were due with family at 7:00pm in Garston so apart from a quick shower the only thing we managed was throwing all the luggage inside what appears to be a fabulous house!

Navigation to Garston was a bit hairy but in the end we were only 2 minutes away when we finally needed to call for help. My cousin Julie had done an amazing job in short time and with little notice. She had managed to collect in one place my Uncle Edwin, Autie Eadie, herself and partner John, cousin John, cousin Carol and partner Ron plus their kids (another) James and Sarah. And Casper the dog. Woof! Woof! We had an AMAZING evening with everyone, especially our James, talking non-stop, looking through photos and catching up. They had put on a great spread as well and the kettle is probably never going to be the same again. I've almost forgiven Julie for trying to kill me leaving a teabag in one of my cuppas – maybe she just wanted me to shut up ;-) I haven't seen my cousins for 30 years but it felt like last week. The jokes, wind-ups and laughter were great and I wish we saw one another so much more.

Nearly two and a half hours disappeared in about 5 minutes it seemed. It was sad not to spend longer with people but with just about everyone apart from us having daily committments it was time to go. We'd have been away faster but Uncle Edwin managed to stretch a farewell into about 30 minutes of beinf chased round the front yard by Julie until he finally relented and went home. Dad, if you're reading this James asked him for a message and he said "Tell him he's still a scally". There seems to be a theme going here! I can't imagine what you did to your brothers to deserve such a reputation. <snort>

On the way home we stopped at a 24 hour Tesco and bought some supplies for the next few days. Were all absolutely shagged and I have no idea really if we bought what we need. It was after midnight when I got to bed and the fact I'm writing this the next morning is testament to how rushed things were. Honestly though, I can't think of a better reason to be behind. ;-)

Cheers,

Millsy

Lady Lever, Liverpool and Late to Bed

Day Twenty-two – Liverpool

Is that the sun? Possibly. It's been a while and we might be forgiven for starting to wonder. Appropriate timing, considering our plans for the day...

Today was our second full day in Formby with family today but unfortunately Gareth and Rebecca have work and school respectively. Wyn and I gave Rebecca a lift so school as she doesn't much like the bus and any small kindness on a Monday makes you feel a lot better.

With the others off doing what they needed to do, Wyn, Jenni the kids and I piled into the car and drove down to Port Sunlight in the Wirral (on the other side of the Mersey), made famous (and built!) by William Lever for his Sunlight soap factory workers in1888. Lever was quite the philanthropist and his ideas on worker's rights and how they should be treated were enlightened to say the least.

The main point of going to Port Sunlight was to visit the Lady Lever Art Gallery, which was opened in 1922 by Lever to house his personal art collection and run as a charitable trust. The gallery was run "as a cultural and educational resource for his workers and the public at large" because Lever believed "the study of art refined and improved the life of the individual". Quite the man was Lord Leverhulme it seems. In 1978 it reverted to public ownership and now forms one of the Galleries of Liverpool which also includes the Walker.

The gallery contains an amazing collection of art and antiques, including paintings by Gainsborough, Turner, Burne-Jones and Rossetti, plus quite a decent showing of classical antiquities. Jenni got to see her "pre-laughalites" or "miserable ladies" as I call them, so named because the Pre-Raphaelites always painted their women looking pensive or unhappy. I enjoyed those too but I think Jenni nearly passed out a good few times in excitement.

I hadn't realised but the gallery contains a LOT of Napoleonic material, including a good half dozen or so busts of the great man, paintings, furniture and more, all in some way associated with Napoleon. I got to see the The Black Brunswicker as well which was great. Photos in books certainly don't do it justice.

Other highlights were an exhibition of Albrecht Durer's engravings and lithographs, an incredible bust of Ferdinando de' Medici c1700 , "Snowdrift" by Edward Onslow Ford, two really cool alabaster Egyptian canopic jars and the entire Greek and Roman antiquities collection. Lady Lever is currently battling it out with the Wallace Collection for the coveted Coolest Arty Thing of the Trip and looks certain to finish in the top three. Before we headed "home" we popped into the Port Sunlight Museum for a few minutes and Jenni bought some postcards of the now quite famous Sunlight soap ads.

Back home and we spent the remainder of the day eating dinner with the family and playing games in the evening. Wyn and I were up until after midnight talking our heads off about everything under the sun and I neglected by blogging responsibilities. My bad!

Cheers,

Millsy

Walker, Wagamama and Wasabi

Day Twenty-One – Liverpool

Today was a bit of a slow burner but once it got going it was great fun. Everyone was up latish as we'd been up talking til midnight. We lounged about the kitchen talking and slowly getting through breakfast and a bit of washing.

The weather was pretty poor once again so there was no urgency really to go out. By the time we had ourselves organised it was lunchtime and we had a quick meal before heading off to the station and eventually the Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool city centre.

We decided to leave the cars at home and get the train in. Apart from the frustation of parking and the traffic it meant we could have a drink with dinner. We got a bit wet walking to the station but dried out soon enough on the train.

When we arrived in town we found the St George's Hall was open to the public for "browsing". This is apparently a reasonably rare thing. I had heard of the place (i.e. I knew the building was there!) but didn't know anything about the inside of it's history. We ducked inside for a quick look at the main hall. It's amazing. Unfortunately for us the mosaic floor was covered as the hall was being set up for a performace. Even so, the remainder of the hall including the stained glass, statuary, pipe organ and ceiling are brilliant.

From there we walked to the Walker. Jenni was particularly excited as the Walker contains a pretty decent collection of miserable ladies (pre-laughalites as I call them), including a Burne-Jones or two, a Rosetti and plenty of other goodies. I was happy because I got to see "And When Did You Last See Your Father", a cracking picture where a young lad from a Royalist family in the Englich Civil War is being interrogated by the evil Roundheads. I also had my photo taken with Henry VIII which was kind of cool.

After the Walker we ducked into the World Museum (formerly the Museum of Liverpool) and had a look in the aquarium for a few minutes but they were closing and we were really only killing time until we were ready for dinner.

For dinner we all went to Wagamama, a cool Japanese restaurant chain (which is now in Sydney too). The food was excellent and a bit different. The deserts were extra good.

Eventually we got the train home and Gareth gave me the 2 minute tour of Formby, pointing out where Steven Gerrard lives just round the corner. We got done today by the Scum 3-2 but Stevie scored a brace and it's hard to be that disappointed when you score 2 at OT, even if Ferg is a miserable gloaty bastard.

Cheers,

Millsy

Roads, Rain and Rellies

Day Twenty – Wales to Liverpool

The weather raised a wry smile this morning when we got up. We were leaving Wales and the weather looked better than it had since we arrived. Not much we could do about it though so we got ourselves packed up, ate what food we had left and hit the road almost bang on 10:00am. We hoped to reach the family in Formby, just outside Liverpool by mid afternoon.

Before we left Jenni took some photos of the cottage for posterity...

Our first stop was only a few minutes away in Beddgelert to see Gelert's Grave. The story of Gelert the Faithful Hound is supposedly made up, largely to aid tourism but it doesn't make it any less entertaining. If you read the inscription in the photo of the plaque you'll get the idea of what they say happened. The "grave" itself is quite pleasant and the walk along the river to reach it equally worth the effort. There is also a neat modern statue of a wolfhound in an old crofter's cottage nearby.

Our next stop was Swallow Falls just outside Betws-y-coed. The kids had enough of walking about and Jenni and I went down to see the falls on our own. At least here we got something form the recent rain as the falls were flowing fast and furious. You can hear them from the road despite the traffic. The weather had started to close in (as usual!) but even so it was bright enough too see the falls clearly and take plenty of photos. It was only a 15 minute stop but well worth the effort.

From there we drove up to the coast at Llandudno and then right (after another small detour) towards Liverpool. Motorways are not my favourite thing in the world but after doing 50mph at best for a week, usually round blind corners with oncoming mad locals and crazy-ass parking I was very happy indeed. 70mph dual carriageway in a straight line does have its advantages after all! Lunch was in a roadside diner, called somewhat enigmatically the "Diner Fifty 5" and pretty reasonable fare. I got a decent cuppa which made up for the milk being off back at the cottage. Is there anything more uncivilised that your first cuppa at 11:30am on holidays???

The drive from the Welsh border to Formby, just North of Liverpool was pretty uneventful and the weather didn't get too bad so the traffic moved quite well. Given it was a Saturday I was quite happy with that. We parked up at Wyn, Gareth and Rebecca's place at about 2:30pm. The rest of the day was spent catching up and enjoying a decent home cooked meal.

So where are we now?

Not sure what we're doing tomorrow with the family. The weather migth have some say as usual I guess.

Cheers,

Millsy

Mountains, Mist and More Mint Cake

Day Nineteen – Nantmor Wales

Today was our last full day in Wales. Even if we wished for better weather it was our last chance to get the train up Snowdon to the Summit. We'll miss Wales as a place but certainly not from a meteorological viewpoint.

We got up early for a change as the train left Llanberis at 9:00am. Unfortunately the early trains were all deisels so no more steam railways for us. At least it was a rack and pinion system and interesting from that viewpoint. The carriage was pretty basic with hard seat and room for about 30 people. The windows were nice and big though and we were right up the front.

It takes about an hour to reach the top station at the summit. For the first 40 minutes or so we could see quite a lot and enjoyed the commentary about the sights and places we could see. By the 700 metre mark the weather started to close in and visibility dropped right off. We couldn't see anything past about 20 metres and often less than that. It was a real pity but at least this time I was getting right to the top, unlike as a child where the wind prevented it.

At the top we went straight inside into the new(ish) and pretty flash visitor centre and cafe. We bought a cuppa as we had all got pretty cold on the way up. Nobody was very keen to go outside, us inlcuded. Eventually a few of us succumbed to temporary madness and made a dash for the summit. The cold was mental, the wind going right through you and the damp from the clouds adding on top. The kids stayed behind and Jenni and I lasted about 5 minutes, just long enough to snap some photos. You can see how cold it is just by looking at us. At least I made it – 1085m up even if you felt like it was a nothing because there was no view.

View from the top ;-)

The trip back down was quieter as the weather was really closing in and there was very little to see until we neared the bottom. James was dozing with his mum and Anna and I just stared out the window. We reached Llanberis again about 11:15am.

As we got off the train I managed to get some decent pics of the loco and carriage we had gone up in, plus other services getting ready to run. There was a couple of steam locos working up pressure as well. While we were in the gift shop (buying more Mint Cake, the rest having *mysteriously* vanished) one of the steam locos blew something and started spewing a LOT more smoke that was normal, much of it a nasty yellow colour. I doubt that loco went up the mountain.

We made a few stops on the way home to buy lunch and take some photos of the Aberglaslyn Pass from the highest point. We also took some pics of where Snowdon apparently is, but they just look like photos of hills with clouds on them ;-)

Back home and we spent the rest of the day relaxing out of the weather and getting ready to head to Liverpool. We'll be staying with Wyn, Gareth and Rebecca, who also stayed with my folks when they visited Australia recently. It will be nice to see them, talk to someone new and maybe enjoy a few more civilized comforts again. I must be going soft...

Cheers,

Millsy