What two famous ships were built and sailed out of Liverpool? The Queen Mary and the Titanic. This was just one of many cool facts that I learned while touring the Museum of Liverpool and the National Maritime Museum.
These two museums could almost be one and the same when it comes to content. The Museum of Liverpool concentrated on the history of the city, but that is so rooted in sailing and shipping that they could almost have been combined. An interesting non-ocean related exhibit involved the old Liverpool railway, and the history of its inception all the way to its demolition in the 1970’s. If there is one thing that is clear: People from Liverpool are proud to be from Liverpool. They had a restored train car that you could climb in and take pictures, and the smiles were much bigger on the adults than the children. A man in his 70’s walked through it slowly, eyeing the car and running his hand across the back of a seat. It was clear this car, and the time in his life it represented, meant a great deal to him.
At the Maritime Museum, they have a really neat exhibit on the Titanic. One of the fascinating features were the original newspapers (now encased in glass pages) that you can page through as if living in the moment. They also had a very nice scale model of the Titanic. I’m sure you can get more history online than anything I can supply on the subject, but one thing I will say is that the original plans included more life boats, but was rejected as unnecessary. Oops. The exhibit had small theaters playing the news reels of the time, as people probably saw them in the movie houses. Even today, so many people were piled into these theaters…the tragedy and fascination still lingers.
Both museums are located on the historic Albert Docks, which deserves its own mention. A combination of a boardwalk (with small rides and games) and a fisherman’s wharf, the docs have been rebuilt and are a prime day trip destination. In fact, the river flows into and under the docs in various ways that you often find yourself blocked by the river and have to back track (you can’t get there from here). Besides the museums, the carnivals, shops and restaurants, the Albert Dock houses one other attraction: Ferries across the Mersey river.
So yes, because most of my friends demanded that I paid tribute to the Jerry and the Pacemaker’s song, I did in fact take the ferry across the Mersey. It’s about an hour’s journey round trip, and it was the highlight of my day. Even though the weather was grey and cold it was still a fun trip. The view of Liverpool from the water was a great perspective. Once on the other side, I got off the boat and spent an hour or so walking along the riverbank, looking at the city from a distance.
I really like Liverpool. If there is an American City I can compare it to, it would be Portland, Oregon. The weather (constantly misty), the way the streets are laid out, and just the general vibe of the place. It’s smaller, and doesn’t have hippies, but otherwise I could imagine Portland pretty easily as I listen to music in a pub, or go for a walk down by the river. As a tourist, I think that I have seen and experienced everything the city has to offer. But if someone asked me for a list of cities I would like to live in, Liverpool would be close to the top.
Jeff,
Aug 15th, 2018
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