From Leeside to Merseyside - Discovering Liverpool
It is amazing how quickly cities can turn themselves around, if they just have the will to do so. New York has done so, Bristol has done so, Dublin was trying to do it when the economy collapsed, and Cork would like to try but can't really be bothered to do so. A really prime example of how such a turnaround can look, however, is Liverpool. Traditionally a gateway to the industrial centres of northern England, and an industrial powerhouse in its own right, the city suffered immensely when the shipyards and heavy industry finally collapsed in the late 1970s. Some of the older german readers of this blog may remember a devastating report by ZDF, one of Germany's two state-run TV stations, that showed scenes from Liverpool reminiscent of the first "Mad Max" movie. You'll be hard pressed to find anything of that nature in Liverpool today. The city has changed almost beyond recognition, the old docks are alive again, the inner city has been rejuvenated, and to top