A weekend in Liverpool

I was delighted when my little brother got into Liverpool University as it was an excellent excuse to visit the city and get to know it better (I was pleased for his sake too!). I had already decided I liked Liverpool after a trip last summer, and had several things on my list that I wanted to visit this time. Keen to be accommodating, I asked him where he would like to see or where he would like to go to eat… and then wished I hadn’t bothered. Whilst I did get caught up in the “uni bubble”, I was still keen to explore and get to know the city I was living in, whereas Andrew is quite happy in his bubble. It felt more like I was the one showing him around… but we did have an excellent time!

Our first stop was the World Museum, which I did go to on my previous visit but was more than happy to go again. Studying Ancient History, Andrew was bitterly disappointed that the Ancient World gallery is currently closed (due to re-open in February 2017). However there is currently an Animal Mummies Revealed exhibition on which I thought was very interesting. Like in my last Liverpool post, I would recommend a visit to the World Museum, and I can also strongly recommend the brownies from the cafe too!

Next stop was Liverpool One and Albert Dock for a wander round. Not quite as striking as in the bright sunshine, but still well worth a visit. Apparently Albert Dock is the most visited free visitor attraction in the North West – so I’m not the only one to think so.

Having visited the Metropolitan Cathedral last time I came, after a quick stop off at the bombed-out church, we headed to the Anglican Cathedral which was also very striking. The Anglican Cathedral is the largest in the UK and the fifth largest in the world. You really can’t appreciate its size properly until you have been inside and been made aware of just how much space there is.

For dinner that evening we went to The Pump House on Albert Dock. It was slightly alarming arriving and finding a notice on the door saying the kitchen was closed (we had booked and hadn’t been told we needed to cancel), but apparently the gas engineer was in the process of working his magic so we would still get fed. The food was standard pub food, I wouldn’t say it was particularly special. However it did have a lovely atmosphere. We had requested to be somewhere a little quieter and so had been seated in a little alcove which was nicely decorated and away from the main bar area.

The following day we headed to the Museum of Liverpool. (Quick aside – If you have a train to catch and are planning to head to a museum, they have lockers, or at least the two I visited did. It was going to cost £8 to look after my case for 4 hours at Liverpool Lime Street. However I got to look around the museum without my case dragging behind me for free!). Not knowing much about Liverpool itself, I found the museum really interesting to learn more about Liverpool’s history, culture and identity. We also discovered what superlambananas are (and no I didn’t just make that word up).

We had just enough time before my train home for a Sunday roast, so headed back to Albert Dock to The Smugglers Cove. The restaurant was busy, but we managed to find a table and were served fairly quickly. I was particularly pleased to get a seat as it was somewhere I had spotted the previous summer but it had been too crowded to go in. The Smugglers Cove was decorated as you may imagine a smuggler’s hide-out to be, filled with lots of curiosities and many of which were nautical. I was particularly taken by the light fitting.

We both opted for the roast beef although without the cauliflower cheese. Neither of us missed it as portion sizes were ample. However, we did still manage to find some room for pudding…

 

I left Liverpool having had another fantastic weekend. I have now ticked off most of the things I wanted to do so will be looking for recommendations for my next visit…