Adventures in Liverpool

This is the first of two posts today – my posts are obviously a little like buses, they take a while but often come all at once. Whoops, bad beginning blogger.

This post is about my little visit to Liverpool this week, basically for the Noel Gallagher concert at the Echo Arena on Thursday night, but once we booked our concert tickets months ago myself, my mum and my aunty decided to make a proper little touristy trip out of it and see a few things whilst in the ‘pool.

Firstly, the amazing weather whilst we were there was such a blessing, literally t-shirt weather and it was lovely to be able to stroll along the water front beside the Albert docks and enjoy a few rays. We stayed in a Holiday Inn Express in Albert Docks, purely for convenience as the Echo Arena is literally facing it, so travelling to the concert was a tiny 2 minute stroll from door to door, so yay for laziness convenience!

Mum looking for willy sculptures at the Tate, View from the hotel room, Yummy dinner!

We arrived on the Thursday and had a quick stroll around the docks and wandered into the Tate Modern, which had a few weird and wonderful things in the sculpture gallery for us to have a nosy at, including pieces by Andy Warhol and Salvador Dali. Weirdly, a lot of the pieces had sexual connotations to them – apparently including part of a tree trunk covered in black rubber, I spent a while scratching my head trying to figure that one out. Whilst I’m immature in certain situations, I’d forgotten just how giggly my mum gets around things like this, can’t take her anywhere!

Salvador Dali's Lobster Telephone, Hans Bellmer's 'The Doll'

For dinner we went to a lovely bar/restaurant in the docks which ran a deal specifically for concert goers which was nice of them, and I quickly devoured a starter of garlic mushrooms with goats cheese and lemon, followed by a chicken and chorizo pasta topped with grilled halloumi, yummyyyyy.

Then of course came Noel himself, who was on top form and sounds every bit as impressive live as he does on his records, would definitely recommend seeing him in concert if you get the chance! There were some crazy characters in the crowd that night, including a guy who’d clearly indulged on the alcohol beforehand and insisted on taunting the poor steward by dancing in the aisles despite being told off several times –made amusing viewing I can tell you. 

View of Albert Docks from the Duckmarine, and the view from the big wheel

The hotel itself was lovely, although unfortunately because of where our mine and mum’s room was it was pretty noisy with people hanging around outside bars and loud music. After a hearty (all you can eat) brekkie we ventured out for a look around and travelled around Liverpool in style – on a yellow duckmarine! 

First it whizzed us around the city centre where a rather animated scouser tour guide pointed out notable spots, including the Liver building, the cathedral and even where the Sherlock Holmes (Robbie Downey Jr version!) set for ‘Baker Street’ was. Then it buzzed us back round to the Albert Docks and took us for a quick sail around there where we hopped back off and went for a spin on the big wheel outside the arena for views of the city, then popped into the new Museum of Liverpool, which genuinely has something to suit everyone’s interested, whether it be Liverpool’s most famous TV/music exports to Liverpool  through the ages and how much it’s changed over the years. After grabbing a quick bite to eat at a little French crepe café, it was time to drive home, and to be honest I was exhausted! But I definitely did love me some Liverpool.