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Awake early again and ready for breakfast by 6am. Sadly they don't open until 7! Off to Liverpool after yet another large cooked English breakfast.

We walked to Oxford Rd train station and paid 19.00 to catch an "express" train (with only two stops) to Liverpool. Finally got to see some English countryside up-close-and-personal along the way. This included huge billowing chimney stacks (six or eight of them) all spouting out lots of smoke. Not very far away was a community of houses - it didn't look all that healthy to me.



At least the fronts of Liverpool houses look different from those in Manchester, but they're all still the same "two-up / two-down" design.

Lime St Station was just like any other and St Georges Hall across the road was being restored so there was nothing for us to see except for some large John Lennon posters.



We walked past the Museum, the Walker Art Gallery and the Library on our way to Victoria Street to get to the Pier Head for the Mersy Ferry cruise. Yes, they do play -that- song during the cruise.



Everybody talks about the buildings known as the "Three Graces" at the Pier Head. From left to right (from the river) they are the Royal Liver Building (built for an insurance company), the Cunnard Building (italian design for a shipping company) and the Port of Liverpool building (a losing entrant for the Anglican Cathedral design competition).



We cruised up and down the Mersy making a couple of stops on the other side of the river.

Back on dry land we walked over to the Albert Docks to catch the Liverpool Yellow Duck Marine tour. We were the only two passangers on the big yellow amphibious bus and our two guides, John and Paul (well, nearly), enjoyed themselves way too much - water pistols included.



The tour drove past both Cathedrals along Hope Street - the Roman Catholic Cathedral designed by a Prodestant and the Anglican Cathedral (fifth largest in the world, largest in the UK) designed by a Roman Catholic.

We continued on past the Chinese Arch which was given to Liverpool by the Republic of China as Liverpool has the largest chinese community outside China.

Back at the docks we splashed down into Salt House Dock and went through Albert, Wapping, Queens and Coburg docks (as a vessel, not a vehicle).

Back on dry land, the Albert Dock buildings were impressive, but the contents were a tad dissapointing. The shops were all the same and there were only a few expensive cafe's. No deli's for a sandwidth and nothing different to look at.

In the afternoon, we climbed aboard the Magical Mystery Tour bus with our guide Neil and bus driver Les. Along with the Beatle hot-spots, we got to see much of the suburbs of Liverpool.



The homes which John and Paul grew up in are now owned by the National Trust and are decked out as they were in 1955. A family actually lives in the house where George was born. I'm not sure how they cope with all the tourists that come to visit and gawk at the house and take happy snaps of their front door.



Yes, we visited Penny Lane among other famous places :)



The tour ended in the Cavern Quarter where the Cavern Club is aptly named as it is underground and a maze of archways. The Cavern Pub across the road has an amazing collection of autographed memorabilia from the various bands and musicians who have played at the club.



We made our way down Whitechappel Street to Lime St Station and caught the train home. We got off at Picadilly Station in Manchester which is rather large!

We made our way to the connecting Metrolink and caught the tram back to the hotel.