The main event of the week, by a wide margin, was a brief trip to Liverpool Wednesday-Thursday. As a life-long Liverpool FC supporter and Beatles fan, it is a pilgrimage for me. This time my cousin Dan from Oakland was also visiting the UK together with a friend, and the three of us were meeting in Liverpool to attend the Liverpool-Newcastle match Wednesday night.
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In the early part of the week, we had some rain, a relative rarity here. But I was still able to enjoy an occasional morning walk with Mochi, while taking in the heavy skies:
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The beach parking:
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I tried to get Mochi to walk on the beach wall like this dog, but without success:
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Conversation:
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I cycled to Jijona despite the threatening clouds:
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On Monday and Tuesday the weather was back to normal, and I went for my early morning walks with Mochi:
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A nice afternoon sky over our neighbour’s house:
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On Wednesday morning I flew to Liverpool. At the same time, my cousin Dan and his friend Wellington were coming up from London. So when I landed, I made my way to Liverpool Lime Street station to meet them. While waiting, I took in the surroundings:
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Liverpool has many majestic buildings from the Empire era, like St. George’s Hall here:
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And the Royal Liver Building, with the Liver Bird on the spire, a symbol of the city and of Liverpool Football Club. Many of these impressive buildings have a dark history; in the 18th and early 19th century much of Liverpool’s wealth was derived from the trans-Atlantic slave trade (which ended in 1807):
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I met up with my cousin and his friend, and we found a place for lunch:
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After lunch, we went to check in at our respective hotels. We were going to meet at the stadium in the evening. My hotel was nothing special to put it mildly, but there was a nice free house pub nearby, called The Munro:
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Having enjoyed a pint at the free house, I made my way to the Liver Building, where I was going to enjoy some pre-match hospitality, part of the ticket package we had bought (it also included bus transfer to the stadium). On the way, I stopped to have a look at the Lusitania propeller on Pier Head, a memorial to the passenger ship torpedoed by a German submarine in 1915 with a loss of almost 1200 lives:
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The pre-match hospitality event was held at the Liver Building. We got some food and drinks, and a talk by former Liverpool player John Wark:
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Then the buses transported us to Liverpool’s stadium, Anfield Road, and I entered the holy place through the Shankly Gates, named after Bill Shankly, the legendary manager who built the first great Liverpool teams in the 1960s:
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Inside the stadium, we took our seats and watched the Newcastle and Liverpool players warming up. As the players were leaving the pitch, a huge banner was being passed across the main stand, celebrating Liverpool’s 19 English championships and 6 European Cups:
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Just before kick-off, the pitch was watered to make it faster, which suits Liverpool’s playing style:
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My cousin watching the match, looking very analytical:
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Liverpool have scored their second goal:
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Match over, Liverpool won 2-0:
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On Thursday morning I walked down to the waterfront. There is much impressive modern architecture, such as the building of the Royal Institute of British Architects, RIBA, on the Albert Dock:
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The morning was cold but sunny:
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I met up with Dan and Wellington for breakfast. Wellington took my camera and took some photos that I quite liked. This one of my cousin:
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And a rare photo of me:
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Hands, talking:
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Afterwards, my cousin and his friend took the train back to London. My flight back to Alicante was in late afternoon, so I had a few more hours to explore the city. This is the Victoria Monument on Derby Square, with seagulls that show no respect:
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The Eagle pub on Paradise Street:
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The Eagle has an interesting history:
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I then walked back to the waterfront to take a cruise on the River Mersey. Before that, I wanted to visit RIBA again, to see some of the art exhibitions there. As everywhere in Liverpool, the presence of The Beatles is felt here too:
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The Tate Liverpool art museum is located a few hundred meters from RIBA. It is being renovated right now, so a small part of its collection is on display at RIBA, for example this work by UK artist Delaine Le Bas:
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A permanent presence at RIBA is the One Eye Gallery, a very interesting place dedicated to art with an LGBT dimension. There was an exhibition about the queer clubbing scene in Liverpool in the 1990s:
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The hour-long cruise on the Mersey was a cold and windy affair, but very interesting nonetheless. One also gets a real good feel for how wide the Mersey is where it empties into Liverpool Bay:
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While the harbour is not nearly as busy as it once was, it is still there:
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The new stadium of Everton FC, the other Premier League club in Liverpool, at Bramley-Moore Dock, will become the new home of Everton from next season. The stadium looks impressive; Everton supporters surely hope that the quality of the football played by their club will improve as well:
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Wirral, the town across the river from Liverpool:
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The Liverpool Arena, used for sporting events and concerts, hosted the Eurovision Song Contest in 2023:
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Old and new, the Liverpool Museum and the Port of Liverpool building:
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After the cruise, I needed to warm up, so I went to the Fab Four Café for a cappuccino:
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The Beatles monument is a popular spot for selfies and tourist snaps:
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I walked to Mathew Street, in the centre, the birthplace of The Beatles:
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The legacy of The Beatles is being milked commercially, everywhere:
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This bust and plaque about Carl Jung aroused my curiosity. It turns out that Jung never even visited Liverpool. But in 1927 he had an extremely vivid dream about the city, and afterwards he coined the “pool of life” expression:
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A bit further down the street is a large mural commemorating Jung’s “pool of life” dream:
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Somewhat less savoury entertainment is also available on Mathew Street:
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Thursday I was back in the office, no photos, a busy day. But on Friday I visited our exhibition space which we use to show work by local artists. Right now, we have paintings by Janice, a retired colleague (as is the case with most of our retirees, she has remained in Alicante):
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One of the items that was stolen in Lisbon airpot at the end of January was my favourite pocket camera, the Ricoh GRIII. I have now replaced it, and when it arrived at the office, I had to test it in the best way I know, using one of my female colleagues as the “victim”. In this case Patricia, the finance manager (and much else) of my department:
