Walking cautiously up the steps onto the plane, I was slightly discouraged by the fact that you had to pay extra for the privilege of seats. What had me more concerned though, was the fee charged for the luxury of wings. Well, EasyJet sure lives up to its name. It was time to say Auf Wiedersehen to the land of long words, Christkindlmarkts and Bratwurst.

On the flight, Dad, El and I sat next to each other whilst Mum had a window seat of her own next to a pair of Bulgarians. The one in front of me could only be described as the largest man in Europe. As Bulgarian Hagrid sat down, it was clear that he needed a bigger seat but on EasyJet he would have to be content with his mate’s chest as an arm rest.

In Liverpool we stayed with Mum’s friend Lucy and her family. Their house was massive. With 4 stories, 4 bathrooms and 44 bedrooms, we were all 4 it!

Our humble accommodation. FANTASTIC!!!

On the first day Dad, Michael ( Lucy’s husband ) and I went for a run down at the docks. The docks were these old ship building yards on the Mersey river and they had also built a bunch of canals that are used for heaps of things from ship storage to RedBull Wake-boarding Competitions.

The Docks

The Mersey River

Stained glass windows of the Cathedral

We also went through the cathedral, which is the largest Anglican Cathedral in the world. The stained glass windows were so tall and the pink neon sign was something you wouldn’t see in a Catholic Church. Meanwhile the girls went shopping. That afternoon El, Dad, Michael and I went to see the last installment of The Hobbit.

Welcome to Hogwarts….aka the Cathedral

The next day we woke up at the crack of dawn. Which (thankfully), in England, is eight o’clock. Today was Beatles day. We had a coffee in the ‘Fab4’ Café underneath the ‘Fab4’ museum. In the afternoon we jumped aboard the Magical Mystery Tour bus.

It was a tour all about the Beatles ( The ‘Fab4’) and where they grew up, lived and wrote songs. We discovered many interesting things about the ‘somepeoplethinkthey’reprettygood4’. We drove down Penny Lane which was a bit too in my ears and eyes for me. The funny thing about our tour guide/bus driver/’IpersonnallypreferU2orabitofColdplay4′ Fan was that he always said “To be honest with yeh”. We’d be driving along and we’d come to an historic place and  he would say, “Now to be to be honest with yeh, this was the place where John Lennon got most of his inspiration from to be honest with yeh“. We had a few laughs but to be honest with you the tour was great and I learned a lot of things about the Beatles and that’s the main thing.

One for you Grandad

The underground venue of the Beatles in Liverpool

That night we visited some other friends from Sydney who had moved back to England. We had dinner and a very good dessert at their place. We were also delighted when they told us they were coming back to Australia next year! After dinner we drove out and had a walk in the village ( their house was about 45 minutes away ). It was quite lovely and pretty cold.

The vibe of Liverpool was something entirely different to Sydney. The Place had an historic feeling and the wonderful old buildings each had its’ own interesting story, unlike Botany Bay which can be summed up in a sentence; Captain Cook arrived, frowned and left. As a family we re-visited the Cathedral which we got to look at in more detail.

Merseyside buildings (shot by me)

Quarry garden (Hey Zac, like my jacket?)

Another shot by me 🙂

When walking through the streets you could see friendly people sitting in pubs laughing and eating, and anybody was happy to help. “Unlike Manchester” we were told.

We were sad to leave Liverpool and the generous hospitality of Lucy and Michael, with their beautiful new baby girl Annabel, who we loved meeting for the first time.

El & Annabel

Liverpool FC – B Squad