{"id":12243,"date":"2017-08-24T17:21:32","date_gmt":"2017-08-24T21:21:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/?p=12243"},"modified":"2017-11-27T18:56:17","modified_gmt":"2017-11-27T23:56:17","slug":"liverpool-uk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/?p=12243","title":{"rendered":"Liverpool, UK"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Thursday &#8211; August 24, 2017<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" style=\"display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;\" title=\"DSC_3462.jpg\" src=\"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/DSC_3462.jpg\" alt=\"DSC 3462\" width=\"400\" height=\"270\" border=\"0\" \/><\/p>\n<p>The ship left the Port of Dublin late last night and crossed the Irish Sea. \u00a0We arrived in Liverpool, United Kingdom early this morning. \u00a0The Rotterdam slowly motored up the Mersey River and docked at the Cruise Port in the city. \u00a0I was surprised to look out over our balcony and see office buildings and car parks and people walking to work on the quay.<\/p>\n<p>But it was low tide! \u00a0There must be 12 to 15 foot tides on the river. \u00a0The pier was way way down below and half the wall \u00a0of the quay was covered with seaweed. \u00a0I could see mud just beyond the bow of the ship. \u00a0I wondered how much water the Rotterdam draws.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" style=\"display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;\" title=\"DSC_3494.jpg\" src=\"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/DSC_3494.jpg\" alt=\"DSC 3494\" width=\"400\" height=\"303\" border=\"0\" \/><\/p>\n<p>We had signed up for an excursion outside Liverpool, so after a light breakfast we went to the theater to join the tour group. \u00a0A short time later we were on our way to the Roman town of Chester, about an hour north of Liverpool. \u00a0It was nice to see the English countryside: farms, factories, and other industrial parks. \u00a0Our guide was Tom Jones who was born in Chester and is very proud of his hometown.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" style=\"display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;\" title=\"DSC_3519.jpg\" src=\"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/DSC_3519.jpg\" alt=\"DSC 3519\" width=\"400\" height=\"308\" border=\"0\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Chester was settled by the Romans about two thousand years ago and continues to develop over the centuries. \u00a0There are ruins of an ancient amphitheater and the original stone wall around the city still exists.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" style=\"display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;\" title=\"DSC_3535.jpg\" src=\"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/DSC_3535.jpg\" alt=\"DSC 3535\" width=\"400\" height=\"274\" border=\"0\" \/><\/p>\n<p>The city survived through the ages and ravages of wars of the history of Great Britain. \u00a0 There were many different styles of historical architecture in Chester.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" style=\"display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;\" title=\"DSC_3539.jpg\" src=\"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/DSC_3539.jpg\" alt=\"DSC 3539\" width=\"400\" height=\"262\" border=\"0\" \/><\/p>\n<p>After we drove around and Tom described the most important sights, we were on our own to explore. \u00a0Jeff and I walked to the Roman wall and climbed up the stairs. \u00a0It is entirely intact and takes about 45 minutes to walk the entire circle. \u00a0We thought it was a better vantage point to take photos of the town.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" style=\"display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;\" title=\"DSC_3583.jpg\" src=\"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/DSC_3583.jpg\" alt=\"DSC 3583\" width=\"400\" height=\"274\" border=\"0\" \/><\/p>\n<p>There were many Tudor style buildings. \u00a0Tom explained that the oldest part of the houses were below grade and over time, the buildings were added on top of the ancient foundations.\u00a0<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" style=\"display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;\" title=\"DSC_3598.jpg\" src=\"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/DSC_3598.jpg\" alt=\"DSC 3598\" width=\"400\" height=\"288\" border=\"0\" \/><\/p>\n<p>We walked around for an hour and a half and took many photos.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" style=\"display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;\" title=\"DSC_3610.jpg\" src=\"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/DSC_3610.jpg\" alt=\"DSC 3610\" width=\"400\" height=\"275\" border=\"0\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Chester is located about five miles from the Welch border and Tom pointed out the hills of Wales in the distance. \u00a0Tom was a good tour guide and even sang the chorus of a Welch song to us before we left the bus.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" style=\"display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;\" title=\"DSC_3634.jpg\" src=\"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/DSC_3634.jpg\" alt=\"DSC 3634\" width=\"400\" height=\"283\" border=\"0\" \/><\/p>\n<p>We arrived back in Liverpool about 1:30 and Jeff and I were hungry so we walked into town for some pub grub. \u00a0Up the street from the wharf, we found the Railway. \u00a0The place oozed character, along with a pretty young barmaid with an incomprehensible accent. \u00a0We had fish &amp; chips with mushy peas and beef pie with mash (potatoes). \u00a0Yummy!<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" style=\"display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;\" title=\"DSC_3653.jpg\" src=\"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/DSC_3653.jpg\" alt=\"DSC 3653\" width=\"400\" height=\"362\" border=\"0\" \/><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" style=\"display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;\" title=\"IMG_2035.jpg\" src=\"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/IMG_2035.jpg\" alt=\"IMG 2035\" width=\"400\" height=\"291\" border=\"0\" \/><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" style=\"display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;\" title=\"DSC_3656.jpg\" src=\"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/DSC_3656.jpg\" alt=\"DSC 3656\" width=\"400\" height=\"280\" border=\"0\" \/><\/p>\n<p>After lunch, we walked around the newly developed waterfront. There was a summer carnival just beyond the ferry dock which added a festive atmosphere to the piers. \u00a0Some of the buildings are large stately and impressive. \u00a0There are also many new modern buildings. \u00a0Beyond \u201cThe Three Graces\u201d historic buildings, is Albert Dock which is a renovated square with shops, bars, and restaurants.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" style=\"display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;\" title=\"DSC_3669.jpg\" src=\"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/DSC_3669.jpg\" alt=\"DSC 3669\" width=\"400\" height=\"267\" border=\"0\" \/><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" style=\"display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;\" title=\"IMG_2045.jpg\" src=\"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/IMG_2045.jpg\" alt=\"IMG 2045\" width=\"400\" height=\"274\" border=\"0\" \/><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" style=\"display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;\" title=\"DSC_3679.jpg\" src=\"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/DSC_3679.jpg\" alt=\"DSC 3679\" width=\"400\" height=\"267\" border=\"0\" \/><\/p>\n<p>We were getting tired so we returned to the ship.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Thursday &#8211; August 24, 2017 The ship left the Port of Dublin late last night and crossed the Irish Sea. \u00a0We arrived in Liverpool, United Kingdom early this morning. \u00a0The Rotterdam slowly motored up the Mersey River and docked at the Cruise Port in the city. \u00a0I was surprised to look out over our balcony [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31,43],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12243","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cruising","category-united-kingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12243","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12243"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12243\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13376,"href":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12243\/revisions\/13376"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12243"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12243"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12243"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}