Liverpool Adventure

On the first weekend of September I travelled up to Liverpool for the first time ever. Without sounding like a complete southern hermit, this was the furthest north I’ve ever been, so I was more than ready to see what the Liverpudlians had in store for me.

Before I set off, I tried to get an idea of what my mum and I could do once we were there; neither of us are Beetles fans (don’t shoot!) so we weren’t going to be doing any of the array of activities which revolved around them…so what else did that leave?

In 2008 Liverpool was named the European Capital of Culture and once you arrive, you can see why. The architecture is stunning and you could be mistaken that you’re walking around a beautiful foreign city. Liverpool is a smallish city but it's packed full of museums, galleries, restaurants and shops; it was hard to find a dull minute during our mini break away. 

We arrived on Thursday afternoon, at around 2:30pm but by the time we had settled into our room and rested after our journey, we didn’t get out and about until around 4pm. By this time, we were quite hungry and unsure of our surroundings, so we did what any normal woman would do and we went shopping.

The shopping quarter is a large, open air area with a wonderful variety of shops and restaurants that even boasts its own mini golf course.

London has an amazing plethora of shops, don't get me wrong, but Liverpool had everything all in one place. They had a few of my favorite shops such as Forever 21, MAC, Illamasqua, Boots, River Island, Urban Outfitters, Topshop and Primark, all within the same shopping center (note to Westfield’s Shepherds Bush….can you get all of these shops too please?!)

I may have also bought a few bits:

£2 Paul Frank PJ top from Primark

£10 Moomins Pj Set from Primark

The Friday was the day of culture and after picking up a few tourist pamphlets from our hotel I had found an array of different historical sites I wanted to visit.

One of the top activities I had on my Liverpool to do list was to visit The Tate gallery. So after catching a bit of brunch at the lovely Café Rouge, we headed back down to the Docks to visit the Tate.

Cheeky Café Rouge brunch.

After we had finished with the delights the Tate had to offer, I was in a bit of a dilemma. I now had so many places I wanted to visit I didn't have enough time to see them all. I tried to find the Slavery Museum which was supposedly located near the Tate Gallery, but after doing a loop of the Docks and searching for it everywhere, I gave up looking.

I also wanted to visit the Liverpool Museum (which I knew the location of) but I really, really wanted to visit Liverpool Cathedral. The only problem was that the Cathedral was located much further away than all the other tourist hotspots.

So obviouslyyyyy, I had to go and visit the one that was the most difficult and furthest to get to! So off we popped to the Liverpool Cathedral.

I didn't really have any idea where it was, I could just see it in the distance and decided to walk in that general direction…I admit...this wasn’t one of my finest ideas. There are tourist buses that drive up there and little did I know that we were about to walk up a small mountain, so don’t do what I did and walk…just take the bus. Honestly, you will thank me later.

The Liverpool Cathedral is located at the top of a very steep hill and can be seen for miles. Once we arrived at the top of the baby mountain, I was astounded at how large the Cathedral actually was (it’s supposedly the largest building in Europe made entirely of bricks - check me out! Being a tour guide!).

If you ever get to visit Liverpool, I suggest you visit here. The outside was something to behold but the inside was equally as breathtaking. The huge stain glass windows, the high ceilings, the organ that has over 10,000 pipes all towered above me and it was awe inspiring!

Another reason to go was that once inside, you're pretty much allowed to go anywhere!

There were several smaller chapels inside the Cathedral, which were equally as stunning. There was so much intricate detail everywhere, it seemed unimaginable that an enormous building like this could be built by humans! (I think it's a cover up, it was blatantly made by dinosaurs).

I didn’t realize how long we would spend walking around this Cathedral and by the time we left…all the other museums we wanted to visit were shut.

For someone who was worried that there wouldn’t be enough to do, I ended up with a list of places I wanted to go and not enough time to visit them all.

Throughout our entire stay the weather was amazing and I felt as if I was on holiday. I must admit, I had some preconceived ideas of what Liverpool would be like but I’m happy to say I was completely wrong; I’ve never encountered a nicer and friendlier bunch of people in my life. Anytime we were lost, locals would approach us and ask if we needed help, in every restaurant we visited, our waiters were quick & attentive and brimming full of information on where we should visit and everyone seemed very chatty and happy. I was so sad to leave after such a short stay but I’m planning to go back again in the spring time to check out all the places I missed this time around. I had such a fantastic few days in Liverpool and I would thoroughly recommend that everyone should go and visit.

Have you ever been to Liverpool? What did you think? If not, would you ever consider visiting? Let me know in the comments below!