Jo'ville Upon Mersey

As I said last time around I was going to be off  and so begins this bit of a write up about where I went for the day which as you can tell from the first picture was  very sunny.
We got on a mystery tour bus from our Town that drive us along the motorway turning off to get to this very famous City in England's North West.
Anybody guess what building and where this is?

Okay there's a bit of a clue if you look very closely at the top of the white building, you'll find a unique kind of a bird that was also part of the name of a Tv series from the late 60's and very early 1970's about two single women  sharing a flat in this City.

Okay, I think you should of got it now, even if you're from North America cos we love this place as it rocked the World with four very famous men and a host of others.
That white building is the Royal Liver Building viewed from across the docks in the City of Liverpool and upon arrival, I set out around the Albert Dock area where with all that bunting something exciting was taking place as there were huge crowds even early in in the morning.
No, it wasn't a legion of fans of the Pan-cultural, multilingual Catgirl you know and love wanting autographs but people who had come to the Mersey River Festival last weekend which is why there's a boat in the picture above.

There are many attractions operating around the dock area so they have these  information cubes showing the direction to each and easy to read location maps and you could spend a few days here. As you can tell you also cannot escape the Beatles as the Beatles Story centre is on site although although I missed that place off as I was short on time and so felt the £16 charged wasn't the best use of my money.

As part of the River Festival all kings of boats were featured such as Narrow Boats (aka "Barges") in their bright colours and one of these came from here in Cheshire in a town I know well. There was a Yellow Submarine styled narrow boat you could hire for around £25 per night.

The event also included tall Ships, that's to say ships with humongously big sails and rigging  that in olden times boys would climb in the Navy and other Merchant fleets that would of tired me out if I'd of been around back then.
We called in the Tate North, an arts centre built on the docks, to look at some exhibits and had tea and cakes.

You cannot beat a fairground and here's one with those horses you ride going up and down in lovely bright colours.

Just before lunch we were greeted to the sight of this man being lifted up in the water spraying more of the same while interacting with us all. I was hyper excited by this, jumping up and down waving at him.

There are a good number of eateries around the dock but one side seemed to be a bit expensive so we went to La Crepe Bit on the Colonnades for Fish and Chips which did more sandwiches and fancy stuff but had a day special board including this for £7 per head which is more the kind of price you pay back home in the Midlands for it.
The place was super efficient with orders being taken and food freshly cooked even though it was midday and very busy. Although the portion was a bit smaller than some might like, the chips were first class being firm but not greasy in the middle and the plaice most tasty with plenty of fish rather than batter with fresh peas. I'd sooner that than some of the so-so Fish and Chip places elsewhere. The service was faultless.

After lunch we went to the City Museum, which like most municipal ones in the UK is free looking at an display about the Liverpool Overhead Railway that took people as fair as Birkenhead on the Cheshire side of the the Mersey before it was taken out of use in the late 1950's with a third class carriage you could sit in.

We also looked at a most interesting exhibit on the life and times of April Ashley, a model and restaurant hostess born in Liverpool who was among the first transsexual's to undertake sex reassignment surgery and sadly was outed in 1961 by the Sunday people newspaper for having been born as assigned as a male. She was awarded an MBE in the 2012 Queen's Birthday honours for services for transgender equality. Quite a number of people who looked like students spent a lot of time around it and it is good to see notable local people's lives being told especially when, like her you made history.

We decided to get afternoon tea in the museum where the most gorgeous large portion of light fluffy lemon drizzle cake was served and again the service was faultless. All the proceeds from the Cafe go toward the running costs of the place which is well worth a visit.

We went over the road to L1, the relatively new shopping area to look around that has such essential places as a Build a Bear centre - toy shops are a must for me - and a HMV store where I got my copy of Frozen (the awesome Disney movie) and some great outdoor craft places. HMV also had a decent selection of lp records too.

One common theme was just what the heck, how polite everybody both staff and public were throughout that day as well as the near absence of any kind of litter in the streets (I saw a lot of people putting litter in the bins) and the clean public  restrooms.