Liverpool is HUGE!

My original itinerary for this part of the UK had me making stops at Conwy Castle then on to Blackpool, Liverpool and moving on into the Lake District in one day. The train/bus connections might work out for a more savvy traveler than me, but that's just too much stuff in one day for lil' ol' me so I did the Castle (the largest and/or best preserved castle in Europe or the UK,) skipped Blackpool (think Coney Island or Boardwalk in Atlantic City) made Liverpool an overnighter and then came here to the Lake District.



The Conwy Castle is very cool. Like Beau Maris, they've kept out the kitch to let it be a castle. This one is waay bigger and the town wall that was built at the same time as the castle (13something) is also still standing mostly in tact. A bit was remove a century or so ago to allow for more modern traffic (horse and buggy) to flow more freely. I didn't do anything more of Conwy other than the castle tour and then hiked the town wall because I had a couple of trains to catch.



I only knew one thing about Liverpool before I stopped there (and that's NOT why I stopped there). I had no idea the size of the city and sadly, it seems the entire place is a construction zone. Actually, it's a good thing for Liverpool. They received a huge infusion of capital funds so all kinds of upgrades and new stuff is going up. I'm not a fan of big cities anyway and was immediately turned off by this city because as soon as I stepped up out of the train station, I was looking at a construction detour. Seriously! Right at the top of the steps on the Lime Street Station there are construction barricades. I got around them and found the bus station to try to get to the hostel. Nobody knew where it was but the info guy at the bus stop did his best and even put me on what he believed was the right bus for free. It got me close and after wandering around yet another construction zone, I came across and alternative bookstore and stepped in to ask directions. One customer thought he knew and even gave me a little map. That got me closer. I asked a couple of gals on the street corner (No, it wasn't that kind of street corner) and their directions got me closer (actually those directions got me there but I didn't know it). I asked yet another stranger and she pointed at the building next to the one we were standing beside!



Even though the hostel was located in one of those construction zones, it was also right next to a lot of the construction that was all ready completed. Mostly upscale retail centers but it's part of the whole waterfront revitalization they have going on. I still had some daylight left so after I checked in at the hostel, I wandered around done there. That waterfront makes the Baltimore Inner Harbor look shabby by camparison and it's not even done yet!


My plan was just to basically get to Liverpool, hit the sack, get up the next morning and headback to the train station but after checking out the waterfront the night before I decided to take a quick tour of the city before I left. Back down to the waterfront (Albert Dock), I hopped on one of the city sightseeing doubledecker buses (I think every city in England has these now). Some of these tours are recorded narration but some, like the one I was one have live tourguides. So the city wasn't quite as big as I first thought but during it's heyday it was the 2nd largest city in England. As much as I don't like cities and didn't like this one on first blush, it's worth another look at some point. The tour points out the older buildings and their signficance, the constuction/building sites and their significance and other places because of their Beatles significance. I was on a city center tour. It took about an hour. There is a two hour tour that is just about the band! After the tour, I hopped off the bus, dashed back to the hostel and packed up then went back to Albert Dock to catch the next tour (the ticket is good for 24 hrs) and took the same tour again but hopped off midway because the tour bus passed right by the train station.