Liverpool, August 24, 2017

Liverpool, August 24, 2017

While I slept the sleep of the near dead, the ship was averaging 20+ knots to reach Liverpool by dawn's early light. We were set to leave the ship by 8 am, so when I threw open the curtains a bit before 7 there was Liverpool! We were tied to a floating dock(the tide fall is extreme, up to 30 feet, so the dock bobs up and down) with the city right in front of us and, to no one's surprise, music by the Fab Four drifting down from the cruise terminal.

This floating dock means that the angle of the gangway between ship and pier and between pier and land goes from flat at high tide to damned steep at low. We disembarked at low. The ship's gangway was manageable (they moved it from deck to deck to keep it as flat as possible) but the long, covered one from pier to land looked like a steep, uphill climb. The trick was to get momentum going and then pull yourself along by grabbing the (very substantial) bar on the side wall. My Apple Health app gave us credit for three flights of steps!

While others traced the steps of the Beatles Jim and I went to Wales!!! We were delayed leaving (waiting for the late ones per usual) and then drove two hours from the city and then across the border which, depending on who you ask, is either a sign on the highway or the river a bit farther along into Wales. It's just gorgeous; all rolling hills of the greenest grass divided by hedges into pastures of either cows or sheep. A whole lot of sheep in Wales! We powered through valleys and over hills to reach Llangollen (Add Welsh to Gaelic and Icelandic as languages impossible to learn or pronounce) and a steam locomotive that powers a little train on tracks laid in 1861 along the banks of the River Dee. Because of our late departure we were hustled from bus to train and then off we went on a pretty short ride and then off we got and back into the bus. We never did see the steam locomotive pulling the cars. The bus took us a short drive to a bustling little town jam packed with tourists. I finally asked somebody why all the people were in this particular little spot and he looked at me like I was nuts. Evidently the town was Llangollen  just across the River Dee from the railroad which is quite the tourist magnet. You needed 20p to use the toilets and the keeper of the johns would accept nothing BUT 20 p. I found a Barclay's Bank (closed. Only open 2-1/2 days a week) with an ATM which gave me paper money. Then in and out of the little shops until I bought a pattern for a needlepoint Welsh dragon and got coins in change. When I dropped a couple of coins on the floor the shop owner winked at me and said, "Better grab those coins. That's three trips to the toilet right there." By then it was time to get on the bus and go to lunch. Fortunately our lunch place was just five minutes up the road and even more fortunately we were the first to arrive and thus the first to hit the bathrooms a mere five hours after we'd left the ship. I swear my molars were floating!

After lunch we went to Chirk Castle. Way back when, Edward I of England built a series of castles in Wales. Chirk was built in 1310 as a border fortress. In 1595 Thomas Myddleton bought it to create a family home. It's quite the place. On top of a hill, built around a large central courtyard with acres of gardens surrounding it. I was surprised that the castle was furnished. It was continuously occupied for 700 years (no fewer than five of the owners lost their heads for treason) and so the interiors are decorated with paintings, decorative arts and furniture spanning those centuries. It's all rather lavish and very eclectic. It also has a dungeon! And a Tower! And battlements all around the top. A man dressed as a medieval knight gathered up all the little kids and drafted them into his army complete with drum pounding, screaming contests and marching around the courtyard. The little lords and ladies were having a ball while all the adults looked on rather wishing they could join in. The army was finally dismissed and headed to the ice cream shop on the ground floor.



We wandered through the gardens separated by immense topiaries of yews. Huge swathes of lawns bordered by perennials in full bloom and roses and specimen trees. The vines climbing up the stone walls of the castle were beginning to go crimson. Outside of the castle a John Deere was cutting hay to put up for the winter. Lots of sheep to feed.

Usually when we return to the ship our card is scanned to record our arrival then our stuff goes through a machine and we walk through a metal detector. Sometimes you have to show your cruise card and a "government issued ID" (driver's license or passport) to a local authority on the pier but in Amsterdam they had full-on, battle-dressed officers to check IDs, plus X-ray for stuff and metal detectors for us. In Dublin and Liverpool? Nothing special and no real police presence in the cities. Lots of police on the Isle of Man but that was for something else.