Ferry ‘cross the Mersey

Liverpool skyline from the Mersey

Today we’ve been across the River Mersey to Seacombe, and Woodside – both on the Wirral peninsular. By contrast to the city on the other side it was rather quiet !

At Woodside, there was an opportunity to look inside a German WW2 U-Boat, U-534, which had been recovered from the sea-bed off Denmark fifty years after it had sunk during the war. It had filled with silt which had the remarkable effect of preserving nearly everything inside, including any documents.  All personnel had got out before it sank, although apparently one or two did perish afterwards. Most of the machinery had gone a bit rusty, but still there….

Part of the engine room

 

Looking back through the engine room

 

The damage from the depth charge which sunk it in 1945

 

Motor room

 

Just some of the artifacts recovered from inside the U-boat

 

Plan of U-534

Yesterday we took an open top bus tour around the city …

St George’s Hall -originally the asizes court, and representing the commercial success of the port during the 18th century

 

Anglican Cathedral – 330 ft high

 

View up one of the cathedral columns inside

 

Catholic cathedral

In the Anglican cathedral was a photo exhibition, and this one caught my eye amongst all the rest – titled Whitby Gull :

 

We looked round the Liverpool Walker Gallery, and came across a famous William Yeames painting titled ‘and when did you last see your father ?’. I’d seen photos of it before, however nice to see the real thing.

It depicts the son of a Royalist being questioned by Parliamentarians during the English Civil War.

Here’s a couple of other views in the city.

Another view of Albert Dock

Sculpture dedicated to John Lennon, celebrating his desire to see peace in the world

 

Eastham oil terminal on the opposite side of the Mersey. Not really very interesting, however during my first trip in the Merchant Navy, on a ship called ‘Texaco Gloucester’, this was the first place I went – forty years ago now !

 

 

 

 

Tourists in Liverpool

Well, we’ve spent a couple of days now, but there’s so much to see and do !

We thought for the time being we’d share some photos ……..

This is our mooring in Salthouse Dock, with Albert Dock across the water

 

Old and new riverside buildings. You can just see the Liver Building in the middle

 

View from the boat last night (toward Albert Dock)

 

‘Ferry cross the Mersey’

 

The ‘Fab four’

 

Terrace of city houses – reminiscent of Bath..

 

‘Lovers’ padlocks on the railings by the river. Our estimate of the total is around 10,000 of them !

 

‘Glaciere’ – built in 1899, moored in Albert Dock in front of the Liverpool Tate Gallery

Mersey tug ‘Brocklebank’, built by Camel Laird in Birkenhead in 1964. It was a working tug until 1989, and is now crewed on behalf of the Maritime Museum by volunteers, none of which could agree on how to moor up when they came alongside. Click on the image to see the video.