Afternoon all hope your all well.
So yesterday was my final mini-adventure with Pearl around the city of Liverpool in the west of England.
Liverpool sits on the River Mersey and at one point was one of the world's busiest ports.
An earlier picture showing Liverpool's proximity to the Irish Sea. The land across the river is the Wirral, a peninsula that sits between England and Wales.
If any of you are of English or Irish descent then there'd be good odds of Liverpool being the port from which your forebears left the old world on the way to the new from around this spot here.
Liverpool's wealth was such that it once regarded as the 'second city of the British Empire'. At the beginning of the 20th century Liverpool was handling 40% of global trade through it's docks, which date from 1715 and are regarded as the world's first enclosed commercial dock. Originally 7.5 miles long much of the dock system has been gradually filled in to provide building land. The docks were also massively damaged in air raids during WWII.
The only part of the docks still in their original form is 'Albert Dock'. Once one of busiest docks on the planet, now a centre for the inevitable shops, bars and art galleries.
The city's wealth resulted in the inevitable grand buildings. These are 'The Three Graces' at Pier Head.
The Royal Liver Building, The Cunard Building and the Port of Liverpool Building all date from the first two decades of the 20th Century, and Pier Head actually enjoys a listing as a World Heritage Site.
Atop the Royal Liver Building you'll spy two sculptures of the mythical Liver Bird, a symbol of Liverpool.
A legend has it that if ever the Liver Birds fly away Liverpool will cease to be
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liver_bird
Surprisingly for such a wealthy city there were originally no cathedrals and it took until the 20th century for the city to acquire two.
The first is the Anglican Cathedral Church of Christ in Liverpool, designed by Giles Gilbert Scott (designer of the famous British red telephone box) it was built on St' James Mount (about the highest point in Liverpool) between 1904 and 1978.
The second is Catholic Metropolitan Cathedral of Liverpool built between 1962 and 1967.
The cathedral is circular in design and is probably the most colourful cathedral in the country. It's a pity it was a winter-like rainy day cos when it's sunny this is pretty spectacular inside.
More to come...
Though what's rapid about the M60 I do not know...
Though if the mines did somehow all collapse at once a quarter of Lancashire, Greater Manchester and Cheshire would disappear.
