Monday 23rd April

On our way up to Liverpool we stopped off to see my cousin Amanda and her other half Mark, and their lovely daughter Niomi.  It’s amazing that time passes so quickly and we never seem to be able to meet up as often as we would like.  It was great to catch up with all the news and to hear that Niomi has followed in her mothers footsteps with her love of horses.

The next day Mark had to go to work and Niomi had to go to school, but luckily Amanda was free to give us a tour of the local area. We went to the Anderton boat lift near the village of Anderton, this provides a 50ft vertical link between two navigable waterways: the River Weaver and the Trent and Mersey Canal.

It is great to see something like this built in 1875 still working today and still in constant use. It was out of action for a period of time from 1983 until it was reopened after a restoration in 2002

Had the weather been a little kinder to us I think it would have been good fun to have had a trip on the lift, which has been called one of the 7 wonders of the waterways!

We then headed in to the centre of Liverpool to find our hotel. The drive was interesting and we passed many suburbs that we had heard mentioned on the radio many times before.  Speke, Sefton park, Toxteth, Everton, Bootle etc, all these names seem so familiar to us that it’s hard to believe its our first visit to this city.

After a short walk around the town we found this place called the Cavern Club and decided to go in as it “rung a bell” with Jane, but she couldn’t think why!

She also thought she recognised this statue outside, but couldn’t put a name to him!

Even the names on the wall didn’t give her any clues as there where too many bands to choose from!…………..We will have to investigate this further tomorrow!